The County Council recently gave the go-ahead for the development of townhomes called Rockwood Meadows, near the intersection of Hwy. 109 and Hwy. W in the Jefferson County portion of Eureka.
Some council members expressed concerns that the development may increase the chance of flooding in the area.
The council voted 4-2 on March 9 to approve the development plan for Rockwood Meadows and a request for rezoning, from a planned unit development zone district to a planned mixed residential zone district.
The development plan for Rockwood Meadows includes 16 buildings and 56 total residential units on the 6-acre property. Plans include two- and four-unit townhomes to be built on the north and south sides of the BP gas station, with two entrances to the complex.
William Levinson, president of Benton Homebuilders in St. Louis, said the “luxury townhomes” would be rented for about $2,200 a month.
Councilmembers Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge), Billy Crow (District 2, Arnold), Lori Arons (District 3, Imperial) and Bob Tullock (District 7, House Springs) voted for the townhomes. Councilmen Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) and Tim Brown (District 6, De Soto) voted against.
Groeteke said he was concerned about putting nearby residents at further risk by developing within the floodplain. The entire property lies within the 100-year floodplain, with the Meramec River to the north of the property. The area has flooded in the past, with the most recent severe flooding event in 2017.
Per the county code, developers are allowed to build in the 100-year floodplain with certain constraints. The developer would need to gain permission from federal and local authorities before building could begin in the floodplain.
“That area is prone to flooding, and we’re putting more residents, in my opinion, in harm’s way with the construction if flooding occurs,” Groeteke said. “When they raise the ground (out of the floodplain), the water will go somewhere else. We’re just moving the problem around.”
Groeteke said the council should revisit the county’s regulations on building in the floodplain. In 2019, the council approved an amendment to the building codes, which required builders to prove their projects in floodways would not affect flood levels by more than 1 inch.
The “no-rise” regulation was stricter than the federal mandate, which allows for a maximum of 1 foot of water displacement in the floodplain.
The council overturned the amendment, however, in 2022, switching back to the 1-foot federal standard.
Brown also cited flooding concerns as one of the reasons he voted no.
“Homeowners will typically get disclosures, and they do a lot more research into the area (before buying a home),” he said. “I’m not sure the same type of research and scrutiny will be put into a rental property, and they may not know that they’re potentially renting a high-end residence that has the potential to flood in that area. There are some concerns about putting residents in that situation, who will be renting.”
Brown said the property was already appropriately zoned as commercial, considering the large subdivisions built directly south of the property. He said residents in the Windswept Farms and Mirasol subdivisions would benefit from a retail service of some kind coming in so close to home.
The Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend denial of two previous development proposals on the property over the past 15 years. A proposed mixed-use multi-family residential and commercial development was denied in 2010, as was a similar proposal in 2016 that had 192 residential units but no commercial component.
A portion of the property was sectioned off into a separate parcel about five years ago to create the gas station.
“I think that we should be attracting more retail services to a parcel that was already zoned for that,” Brown said. “We should have done more on the county level to try to look at that as an opportunity to attract some sort of retail services there.”