The Jefferson County Council recently approved a rezoning request and final plans for a new housing development in the Fenton area, with reservations.
The development, called Hillcrest, will include 40 housing units with duplexes, triplexes and one quadplex on nearly 9 acres of land at 801 Romaine Creek Road near Hwy. 141.
The Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission had recommended approval of the plan, including a request for a modification to allow smaller building setbacks than the county typically calls for.
However, the County Council did not go along with the Planning and Zoning Commission’s recommendation regarding the building setbacks.
The commission advises the County Council on land-use issues in unincorporated areas, and the council has the sole authority over rezoning petitions.
Gene Barbagallo (District 2, Imperial) proposed an amendment to the plan at the July 8 meeting, saying the proposed setback modification would defy the county’s unified development order (UDO).
The modification would have allowed the developer to build the housing units with 5 feet of space between them instead of 6 feet and 20 feet from the road instead of 25 feet.
The council voted 5-0 to approve Barbagallo’s amendment, with Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge) absent from the meeting.
Barbagallo said he took no issue with the villas and townhomes, but he didn’t believe the setback relief was necessary for the development, adding that allowing too many variances for county developments is akin to “a hole in the dike.”
“You have these minimum setbacks for a reason,” he said. “If you don’t hold the line, it suddenly becomes the norm. (The developers) know our UDO and they know what their responsibilities are.”
Developer Mike Vonderheide with Terra Design Solutions in St. Louis County said at the June 13 P and Z meeting, when the commission initially approved the petition, that the setback modification was necessary due to the steep grading on the site.
“There’s a lot of slope to this site,” he said. “The 5-foot setback is a critical issue for us, and we have reviewed it extensively.”
The developers said they will maintain some of the tree masses on the property to provide privacy for residents, Vonderheide said.
“Right now the site is mostly treed,” he said. “That additional foot (for the setbacks) on each side for each front home probably is going to eliminate, if not all the trees, most of the trees, so it’s important for this development to try to keep the aesthetics of the side, kind of screen it from some of the surrounding properties for sales purposes.”
Barbagallo said the property’s steep grade didn’t explain the need for the 5-foot setbacks.
He also said the modification could potentially lead to safety issues for people living on the property, especially if air conditioners were placed on the sides of the housing units, making the space between the units even narrower.
“If anything happens in the backyard (behind the housing units), how are you supposed to get a stretcher back there, someone from the EMS to get through?” he said. “The safety issue is very important, but the other thing is, if one neighbor puts up a fence, can you tell me how the other neighbor is going to get to the backyard without climbing over the air conditioner?”
County Counselor Jalesia F.M. Kuenzel said July 8 that by approving the development with Barbagallo’s amendment, the council would be following the planning and zoning staff’s original recommendation to the P and Z commission.
“The Planning and Zoning (Commission) went against staff recommendations on this specific issue, and so what Barbagallo is doing is taking it back to what staff has recommended,” she said.
The council voted unanimously July 22 to approve the rezoning request and the Hillcrest development plans, without the setback modification.
Vonderheide said the selling prices for the townhomes and villas range from $325,000 to $350,000.
A mobile home is located east of the property and a veterinarian clinic to the west.