Gateway Airport Communities Coalition

The Gateway Airport Communities project is focused on engaging the voices and visions of municipalities and stakeholders, in proximity with St. Louis’ Lambert International Airport and along the I-70 corridor in St. Louis County, in planning for transportation connectivity that will improve access, linkages and connectivity to essential infrastructure, jobs and opportunity. The partnering cities will join a coalition of Gateway Airport Communities, that have experienced significant disinvestment and decline because of past airport and highway developments, including five local municipalities (pop range from 100 – 25,000).  We are broadening the coalition to include local businesses and community groups.  The project is defined by key, non-highway transportation corridors radiating from the Airport that have the potential to contribute to transformative economic and community betterment.  The goal is to remove barriers that impede community wellbeing, and enhance mobility, access and economic development.  At a time when the regional airport and highway agencies are preparing transformative plans, these communities seek to participate in ways that can reopen access to these economic connectors, and improve multimodal and community corridors so that residents and businesses benefit from the transformative change envisioned.  By convening this Gateway Community Coalition, this project intends to forge new connections within communities and to thereby enhance community unity, building a better future by bridging divides that separate us. The health, well-being and future prosperity of each community is inseparable from the welfare of neighboring communities and the Gateway St. Louis Region – the foundation of our history, culture and economy.