The old House Springs Lions Club hall may get a new life after all.
The Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously June 23 to approve a number of variances that will allow a new owner to open an event and banquet venue on the site.
The hall, which sits on a 2.65-acre lot at 6482 Hwy. MM, was built in 1927 and housed other civic organizations before the Lions purchased it in the 1970s.
Club members decided to sell it in 2020 because maintenance costs became too high in the face of dwindling membership and rental income during the COVID pandemic.
Rodney Leadbetter had arranged to buy the property to move his Slo Odie’s restaurant and bar there, and a request to rezone the lot to non-planned community commercial to allow the move was approved in late 2020.
However, the sale fell through and the building has sat vacant for the past couple of years.
Last year, Craig Schatz of Fenton bought the property and announced plans to open The Annex, an event venue for small gatherings like bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, baby showers and large family gatherings.
To proceed with those plans, Schatz asked the county to grant a number of variances to current county codes, including the placement of driveways, the layout of the parking lot and the landscaping.
Daniel Wind of Wind Engineering Co. of Kirkwood, who represented Schatz at the June 23 P and Z meeting, said his client plans to repurpose an older, existing building, so it should not have to meet current county standards.
“The building and the site layout – the parking, the entrances and the landscaping – have proved functional for many years,” he said.
The county planning staff had noted that the pavement in the parking lot was deteriorating.
“The asphalt does not meet code, but it has been serviceable,” Wind said.
He said Schatz plans to hire a company to mill the asphalt down by 2 inches and replace it with new material.
“That will make it look right,” Wind said, noting that the subsurface is in good shape and that his client should not have to remove and replace all the pavement, as the planning staff had suggested as a remedy.
Concerning a county standard that requires landscape islands in parking lots that have more than 50 spaces, Wind contended that although The Annex will have 55 parking spaces, Schatz should not have to sacrifice some spaces to meet the code.
“The way the parking lot has always been is that the building splits it in half,” Wind said. “You never see 55 cars. There are 30 spaces on one side, 25 on the other. It’s essentially two parking lots, each under 50 cars.”
Wind said because current fire codes will restrict occupancy in the building to 99 people, the event venue will be a less intense use than when the Lions Club operated it.
“The proposed use of the facility will have fewer vehicles entering and exiting (than when the Lions used it),” he said.
No one spoke for or against the variances.
Planning commissioners sided with Schatz, approving his request for variances without conditions.
Schatz, who did not attend the hearing, also owns a wedding venue, Pine Hollow Farms, at 3993 Hwy. W in the Jefferson County portion of Eureka.
