The Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission narrowly approved redesigned plans for McBride’s Bella Terra Addition subdivision south of Arnold.
Numerous nearby residents took issue with McBride’s second design plan at the Sept. 24 meeting, especially with the secondary entrance and exit to the subdivision.
The commission voted 5-4 on the design, with commissioners Drew Ishmael, Chris Moenster, Danny Tuggle, Johnathan Sparks and Jessie Scherrer voting in favor and Jeffrey Spraul, Mike Huskey, Rodney Wideman and Michael Siebert voting against.
The County Council, which has authority over development plans in unincorporated areas of the county, will likely consider a resolution to approve McBride’s petition at a meeting in October.
The 121-home subdivision development near the intersection of Old Lemay Ferry and Vogel roads was approved by P and Z along with the County Council earlier this year; however, Rock Community Fire Protection District had concerns regarding the secondary access point for Bella Terra residents on Black Oak Drive and Dogwood Lane. The 17 percent grade on Black Oak Drive could prevent first responders from being able to reach an emergency in the subdivision in a timely manner, officials said.
Additionally, residents who live on Black Oak Drive and Dogwood Lane protested the development design, saying McBride should not have the right to access private roads for their subdivision.
McBride redrew the subdivision’s secondary access road to instead take motorists through the existing Huntington Glen subdivision on Cypress Creek Lane, which leads to Old Lemay Ferry Road.
The main entrance to Bella Terra will remain on Vogel Road.
With the redesign, one home in the subdivision was eliminated in the plan, bringing the overall number of houses in the neighborhood to 120, according to a county staff report.
McBride representative Katie Peroutka said the original Black Oak Drive connection will now end in a cul-de-sac, and two large retaining walls have been eliminated.
Included in the county staff’s report regarding McBride’s petition is a Sept. 16 letter from Rock Community Fire Chief Kevin Wingbermuehle, in which he said the redesign is a “better option” for the subdivision.
“This revised proposal is consistent with one of the original solutions presented by the fire district to representatives of McBride Homes during our initial meeting regarding fire apparatus access and emergency response considerations for this development,” he said.
Six residents in the Huntington Glen subdivision spoke at the Sept. 24 meeting against the development, specifically taking issue with the new secondary access point.
Glenn Leo, who lives on Cypress Creek Lane, said his subdivision’s streets are privately maintained, with no provisions in the homeowners’ deeds or plats for future access frontage or right of way.
“There is no legal aspect that dedicates our street to public use,” he said.
Many neighbors agreed with Leo, with some adding that they were promised no future subdivisions would be built next to them when they purchased their houses. Cypress Creek Lane ends with a stub leading to the adjacent property rather than on a cul-de-sac.
“McBride decided to come up with this extra subdivision that they didn’t have the plan for,” Christine Andrews said. “We shouldn’t have to suffer because of their poor planning.”
Other residents spoke on the poor quality of Huntington Glen’s streets, wondering how much extra they’ll have to pay in repairs once Bella Terra residents start using them.
“Our street isn’t equipped for this,” said Eric Kappel, who lives on Cypress Creek Lane. “It’s like the Wild West in our neighborhood because Jefferson County does not maintain our roads or monitor our roads. No one is in favor of this.”
County Services Director Mitch Bair said to the commission and Huntington Glen residents that, while the neighborhood’s streets are indeed privately maintained, that doesn’t mean the general public can’t access them. All subdivisions in Jefferson County are built under the same code, which requires stub streets that link to vacant properties for potential future subdivisions or other developments.
“I don’t want to be flippant here, but I also don’t understand when you build a house on a stub street to vacant property, what you think is going to happen next door?” Bair said. “We require a stub street, and we require it to be dedicated to public access, which means no one in that subdivision can stop anybody from driving through there and using those streets, even though they are privately maintained.”
Bair added that, with this new connection, Huntington Glen residents have a more convenient access point to Vogel Road, through the Bella Terra subdivision.
While Scherrer said he understands the residents’ concerns, he said it’s common for subdivisions to “piggyback” off each other, and it ultimately calms traffic leading to larger roads.
“If you don’t do that, then you wind up with a mess like what you have on Hwy. 30, where every 100 feet you have a stoplight and people getting crashed into and dying and everything else,” he said.
Spraul said he understood the logic of McBride’s redesign, but still voted “no” because of the additional strain this will place on Huntington Glen homeowners.
“What I can’t reckon with is that these residents are going to have to pay more money for road maintenance that the new folks aren’t going to assist with,” he said. “The problem is this should be a county-maintained street.”
Sparks questioned Peroutka, wondering whether McBride thought out every option for the secondary access point before landing on Cyprus Creek Lane. He said McBride has “built an island before building a bridge.”
“We’ve moved the cut-through to a different group of people. I’m not a huge fan of that,” Sparks said. “I don’t like how we arrived here, but (Bella Terra) needs two access points.”