The welcome mat has finally been laid out for a new office building to be built for the Open Door Animal Sanctuary in House Springs.
The Jefferson County Council voted 6-0 on Jan. 23 to approve a rezoning request for a .96-acre vacant lot at Hwy. MM and Duda Road.
Approval of the request seemed unlikely after the council’s Jan. 9 meeting, when it deadlocked at 3-3 on the second of three required votes.
At that earlier meeting, Councilman Bob Tullock (District 7, House Springs) asked for a limited public hearing to gather information about a possible easement through the lot to neighboring property owned by Jason Lindsey.
However, on a 3-3 vote, the council did not order that hearing after they were told that easements are civil matters between two property owners and are not part of the planning and zoning process.
On Jan. 23, Tullock proposed an amendment to the legislation that would allow the rezoning but with the requirement that Open Door inform the county concerning any easement before it built a driveway to its two-story office building off Hwy. MM.
That amendment failed by a 3-3 vote, though, with Tullock, Shannon Otto (District 3, Arnold) and Charles Groeteke (District 4, Barnhart) voting for the amendment and Brian Haskins (District 1, High Ridge), Scott Seek (District 5, Festus) and Dan Stallman (District 6, De Soto) voting against it.
That vote was followed by another try at the unamended legislation, which seemed like it would follow a similar 3-3 fate, but without further discussion, all six council members voted to approve it.
A crowd of about 20 Open Door supporters applauded.
Tracie Quackenbush, director of Open Door for 25 years, said after the meeting that she believed the show of support might have turned the tide.
“I think that we were here helped,” she said. “We have been working with (Lindsey) and we’ve had good discussions about the easement.”
Quackenbush said she had no specifics about when the welcome center would open, adding that design work needed to be finished first.
However, she said the project certainly would improve the aesthetics of the lot, which is the site of a house that had burned down.
Open Door bought the lot in 2019, she said, and has been working to clear it.
Tullock said he changed his vote because his concerns about whether an easement existed were answered after County Services Director Eric Larson told the council that a second set of plans submitted to the Planning Office by Open Door included the easement.
“I do support Open Door,” he said. “The only reason I voted no (in past votes) was because of the easement. I’m satisfied that it’s not going to be a problem.”
Otto said she deferred to Tullock.
“It’s in Bob’s district, and Bob thinks it’s best for his district,” she said.
She and Groeteke said the county codes need to be changed to include easements in deciding whether to approve planning and zoning issues.
“I hope that this brought attention to our planning staff that this is a section of the code that needs to be looked at,” Groeteke said. “But it doesn’t appear to be a problem for this case.”