The Jefferson County Council has approved a rezoning request that clears the way for a 128-unit apartment complex to be built in Barnhart.
The County Council voted 6-1 on Feb. 28 to approve the rezoning request from Lorenzo LLC of St. Louis, which will allow the construction of five apartment buildings on 9.17 acres across Old Hwy. M from Karsch’s Village Market.
An unoccupied single-family home sits on the site, which has long been undeveloped.
Lorenzo LLC, which has built similar apartment complexes in Fenton, Turtle Creek and Sugar Creek, plans to name the Barnhart development Stoney Pine.
The plan calls for four two-story buildings of one-bedroom apartments and a fifth two-story building with two-bedroom units. An office-clubhouse building and pool also are in the plans.
The council approved the rezoning request without comment, unlike the Feb. 14 meeting, when a preliminary vote generated a great deal of debate.
After the rezoning legislation was proposed at that meeting, Councilman Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart), whose district includes the site, introduced an amendment that would have forced the developer to add 18 parking spaces to the 238 spaces included in the plan.
On Jan. 27, the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission, which advises the council on rezoning issues in unincorporated parts of the county, had granted a variance, or exception, to allow the developer to have fewer than the two parking spaces per housing unit, or 256 spots, specified in the county’s development codes for the proposed complex.
Groeteke’s amendment, which would have reversed the P and Z board’s variance, never came to a vote because no council member, including Groeteke, seconded it.
The council then voted to advance the legislation with the fewer parking spaces to the final vote on Feb. 28.
On Feb. 14, Groeteke said he would not have voted for the rezoning in any case, and his was the only dissenting vote on the final vote on Feb. 28. He has said he generally votes against controversial development proposals.
Council chair Tracey Perry (District 5, Festus) scolded Groeteke at the Feb. 14 meeting for tying up the council, as well as assistant county counselor Jason Cordes, who drafted an amendment that Groeteke had no intention of voting for.
“I was just trying to make it less painful if it did pass,” Groeteke said after the Feb. 14 meeting.