Wow Entertainment is apparently living up to its name.
The Jefferson County Council voted 5-0 on Sept. 11 to approve a rezoning request and revised development plan for the family entertainment complex at 130 Fiedler Lane at Springdale Boulevard in the Jefferson County portion of Fenton.
The applicant, Get Right Fiedler Lane LLC of Fenton, had obtained County Council approval for a smaller plan in September 2022 that included a recreation building with a restaurant and bar and a mini-golf area on 2.35 acres that formerly was a mobile home community.
Since then, the company has bought a neighboring 2.45-acre lot that formerly included a single-family home, and it asked the county to rezone the new land to planned commercial so all the property would have the same zoning. The company also asked the council to approve a revised development plan.
The new plan spreads the complex across both parcels, expands the size of the building with the bar and restaurant and gaming center from 24,000 square feet to 29,300 square feet and adds 50 parking spaces, which eliminates the need for a parking garage under the gaming center.
At an Aug. 10 public hearing before the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission, Dennis Kehm Jr., the county’s assistant county services director, said he was impressed by the revision, as it provides more space between the operation and its neighbors.
“Their original plan was good – it got approved – but we looked at this and went, ‘Wow, that’s much better, and it’s going to be much better for anybody down on this site, because they now have a true buffer there, and it also gave them more room to do what they needed to do on their own site,” Kehm said.
In addition to offering more space between neighbors and the building, the lighted mini-golf course is surrounded by dense woods, which will cut down on lights interfering with neighbors.
Kehm said the larger layout and more parking spaces eliminates the county planning staff’s concern with the original plan.
“They had an agreement (with Connect Church), which is across Fiedler Lane, that if they had events or something that had a larger crowd than your normal evening on that parking, they were allowed to have parking in this lot,” he said. “Now, they no longer have to worry about having people crossing the street. We were not big fans of that before.”
William Biermann, who represented the developer at the public hearing, said Wow Entertainment will cater to families.
The P and Z board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the rezoning and revised development plan.