The fate of a pair of requests dealing with the expansion of a sand and gravel quarry in the Eureka area may be decided on March 25.
Eureka Materials, which operates a quarry on the northwest corner of Hwy. 109 and Hwy. FF in the Jefferson County portion of Eureka, wants to expand onto the 75-acre lot immediately to the west.
The Jefferson County Council on March 11 gave first-round approval of a conditional-use permit to allow mining on the site, as well as for a related request to rezone 10.5 acres of the southern part of the lot from residential to commercial.
The vote for the mining permit was 5-1, with Councilman Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge), whose area includes the property, casting the dissenting vote.
The council voted 4-2 to advance the rezoning request, with Haskins and Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) voting no.
Councilwoman Renee Reuter (District 2, Imperial) was absent.
Three affirmative votes taken in at least two separate meetings are required for approval, so final votes on either or both requests could be taken on March 25.
The council, which has the authority to decide land-use issues in unincorporated areas of the county, had previously voted against both requests.
The land is across Hwy. FF and Hwy. W from the Mirasol residential development and the Windswept Farms subdivision.
Will Kopp is seeking to buy the 75-acre lot from the Howald Family Trust.
Kopp said he leases part of his current lot along Hwy. 109 to family members who operate Kirkwood Materials, a retail operation that sells landscaping supplies.
Proposal not an expansion
The County Council had voted to deny the conditional-use permit to allow the mining at its Jan. 14 meeting and then ordered a public hearing on the matter, which was held Feb. 25.
At that hearing, Clifford Heitmann of Bax Engineering of St. Charles, who represented Kopp, told council members that the conditional-use permit should not be considered an expansion of mining operations.
He said under Kopp’s permit with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, he is not allowed to dredge sand and gravel from a “lake” – or a pit filled with water – that’s bigger than 20 acres.
Granting the conditional-use permit on the neighboring property, he said, would allow Eureka Materials to continue mining, but as sections of the current “lake” are mined out, they will be filled and the 20-acre pit would move westward.
“We are restricted by the DNR to have anything other than a 20-acre ‘lake,’” he said.
Kopp said the sand and gravel his company needs is 6 to 9 feet below the ground and digging can go as far as 70 feet below the surface.
Haskins asked Kopp how long his operations would continue if the conditional-use permit is denied.
“It’s hard to say,” Kopp said. “Maybe five to six years.”
“How long would it go if you get the additional 55 acres?” Haskins asked.
“We’d probably be good for another 20 years there,” Kopp replied.
Kopp said his operation is a good fit for the area, which is in the flood plain of the Meramec River.
“We’ve definitely been through many floods in 20 years,” he said. “We prepare for them. We secure everything we can. A lot of our equipment isn’t ever going to float. I can tell you that nothing on our property has ended up downstream.”
Don Bickowski of the Eureka area, the former District 1 councilman, spoke for the conditional-use permit and suggested that if Kopp could leave a pit rather than fill in the mining area once it is depleted that it might help flooding issues.
“I would think that would be an issue with the DNR,” said Councilman Jim Terry (District 7, Cedar Hill).
Bickowski said the businesses at the corner have been good for the county.
“I believe that Eureka Materials and Kirkwood Materials have done a good job and been a good neighbor,” he said.
To address concerns about aesthetics along Hwy. 109, an entrance to the county from Eureka, Heitmann said the businesses would be willing to put stone pillars topped with planters along that road.
Commercial rezoning gets third chance
The council denied the related commercial rezoning request on Jan. 14, but two weeks later voted to put it up for another vote on Feb. 11. It fell short again, but council members said they would decide at their next meeting on Feb. 25 to revisit the request or vote on a resolution to deny it.
County Counselor Wes Yates advised the council that it needed to make a decision on the requests.
“You’re getting precipitously close to denying people their due process,” he said. “This isn’t a tennis match.”
The council on Feb. 25 then voted to put the rezoning request up for a third time on the March 11 meeting agenda.
Haskins said he is against both requests.
“All three state highways at that intersection have been under water twice in the last 18 months,” he said. “I believe to bring it up 3 feet out of the flood plain would take 2,500 dump trucks full of fill. I don’t think anyone other than Kirkwood would want to operate there, and we don’t need to bring in that kind of fill for them to have a bigger retail operation.”
On the mining operation, he said he doesn’t believe that such a business should be located next to the densely populated Mirasol and Windswept Farms subdivisions, both across Hwy. FF.
Groeteke said he had questions about the rezoning request.
“The council is now considering changes to the county’s stormwater ordinance, is considering a new flood plain management ordinance and is looking to revise its erosion and sediment control standards. I’m very much concerned with flooding issues there.”
Reuter also said she was concerned about flooding.
“My district is downstream from this area and I don’t want to do anything that I feel would adversely affect my district by developers in other districts,” she said.
The Jefferson County Planning Commission on Dec. 13 had voted to recommend both requests.