By a 4-3 vote Monday, April 11, the Jefferson County Council approved a rezoning request and preliminary plans for the Polo Grounds, a 101-home subdivision on Hwy. FF in Jefferson County.
Developers have proposed building the subdivision on a 39.1-acre lot on Hwy. FF between High Trails Drive and Jim Shell Drive-Haas Road, south of the Windswept Farms and Mirasol subdivisions.
A large crowd attended a March 10 meeting of the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission, which advises the County Council on land-use issues in unincorporated areas of the county, and voted 4-3 to recommend approval of the proposal.
At Monday’s meeting, five people said they opposed the project, while a representative from the developer, McBride Berra Land Co. LLC of Chesterfield, said she was for it.
Katherine Moore of McBride Berra Land Co. said the company had pulled an earlier request after meeting with nearby residents and redrew the plans to address their concerns, dropping 17 lots and increasing common ground and buffering.
Council members Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge), Tracey Perry (District 5, Festus), Dan Stallman (District 6, De Soto) and Vicky James (District 7, Cedar Hill) voted for the rezoning, while Renee Reuter (District 2, Imperial), Phil Hendrickson (District 3, Arnold) and Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) voted against it.
Some opponents called on Haskins, whose district includes the area in question, to abstain because several home builders, including McBride, contributed to the Friends for Jefferson County Parks, which promoted Proposition P, a sales tax for Jefferson County Parks that was decisively defeated in the April 5 election.
Haskins had campaigned on a pledge to improve parks and sponsored the legislation that placed Proposition P on the ballot.
“It’s ridiculous to suggest that I should have to abstain from this vote,” Haskins said after the meeting. “Was I on that committee (the Friends for Jefferson County Parks)? No. They (home builders) did not contribute to my campaign, which I am largely self-funding. They contributed to the committee because they believed that better parks contribute to higher home values.”