Residents may share their opinions and offer new ideas for the Visualize Jefferson County Master Plan at two upcoming open houses.
The first open house will be held from 5-8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5, and the second will be from 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, March 6. Both will be held in the Assembly Room at the Jefferson County Administration Building, 729 Maple St., in Hillsboro.
The master plan serves as the county government’s official guide for land use, economic development and natural areas for the next 10 to 20 years, said County Services and Code Enforcement director Mitch Bair.
“This is the critical public input point,” he said. “This is your one big shot to make sure your voice is heard. The master plan is our outline; it’s the direction we want to go in with the (unified development order).”
The master plan was posted on the county’s dedicated website, visualizejeffersoncountymasterplan-hlplanning.hub.arcgis.com on Feb. 18, and people may submit feedback or make comments there, too.
“Community engagement has been and continues to be an essential element in the planning process,” County Executive Dennis Gannon said in a written statement. “I am very excited about the opportunity the public has to provide input because it is a critical component to the plan’s success.”
The comments recorded during the open houses and on the website will be submitted to an advisory panel of 11 county government officials, and it will meet at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, March 6, in the Assembly Room to make final amendments to the plan before it’s presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Bair said the County Council will vote on the master plan after the commission makes a recommendation. Depending on council discussion, Bair anticipates the plan to be approved or denied by April or May.
About the plan
The old three-member Jefferson County Commission adopted the first master plan in 2003. When the county switched to a seven-member council under the charter form of government adopted in 2011, the plan was amended in 2013 and again in 2018.
The 116-page plan explains the county’s existing conditions, including demographics and county features, outlines the county’s goals for growth, and recommends policies for developers based on growth patterns.
The plan also identifies the primary and secondary growth areas in the county, usually around cities, that would best benefit from increased residential and commercial development.
Bair said the master plan no longer fits with the county’s current rate of growth and development.
“Unfortunately, we have a lot of outdated standards that really do not allow us to provide people who are going to be living here for 50 years with a great place to live,” Bair said.
The county began working on the new master plan in late 2022.
“It’s a great plan and it does a really good job of facilitating responsible, quality development where it should happen,” he said. “It preserves a lot of those (natural) resources and pushes developers to stay away from some of those steep slopes and wooded areas.”
Commercial, residential growth
The new plan will update the county’s primary growth areas, identifying shifting commercial and residential trends.
For example, Bair said, larger, national developers “have put out feelers” to see if building along I-55, which traverses through Arnold and Festus, is feasible.
“Buc-ee’s came out and said they want a (gas station) south of St. Louis along the I-55 corridor,” he said. “The logical place for that would be in Jefferson County. We have areas around intersections, especially around Hwy. 61 and I-55, that have acreage a Buc-ee’s would need. We need to take advantage of that so development doesn’t (skip Jefferson County and locate in) Perryville or Cape Girardeau instead.
“With any opportunity you have to be ready and provide a good environment.”
In response to multiple large businesses taking interest or already in the process of building in the county, like the James Hardie manufacturing plant in Crystal City, officials have identified the need for a regional airport, Bair said.
“We don’t need an airport like the Spirit of St. Louis in Chesterfield, but we need something where, if we’re going to have these higher-level corporations here, we develop a runway,” he said.
The county also wants to ensure that it takes advantage of “some of the best assets we have,” Bair said, with one being a significant amount of Mississippi River frontage.
Last fall the Jefferson County Port Authority finalized its purchase of the Herculaneum river port property from the Riverview Commerce Park (RCP) for $20 million. The port is located on former Doe Run Co. property along the Mississippi River in Herculaneum and is used for the loading and unloading of shipping vessels.
The Herculaneum port is the first publicly owned terminal facility in Jefferson County, according to the Port Authority, and its proximity to both rail lines and I-55 makes it an appealing destination for those looking to speed up the supply chain.
A little farther north, the county is working with the Port Authority to develop Kimmswick Park near the dock where riverboat cruises land, complete with a pavilion, playground and picnic tables.
Bair said the master plan will also reflect growing interests in developing along the Hwy. 30 corridor, from the Jefferson County portion of Fenton through Dittmer, adding that more builders are looking to construct high-end apartments in the western portion of the county.
“You have to have residential development to support commercial development,” he said. “(The luxury apartments) are not what we’re customarily seeing in an old-school apartment in terms of who lives there. You’ve got young professionals and, quite frankly, older people who are retired and don’t want to take care of a large house.”
With the heightened interest in more rural areas of the county, Bair said officials are analyzing ways to ensure residents have access to necessary amenities.
“We’re seeing a lot more interest in those further areas, which traditionally have been more pass-through residential traffic,” he said. “The challenge for the county is, how do we extend the infrastructure, sewer and water?”
Increasing safety
The master plan includes a large subsection called Walk Bike Jefferson County that outlines potential walking and biking improvement projects to make the county a safer and more enjoyable place to live.
One such project is a proposed pedestrian connection from the intersection of the West Outer Road and Imperial Main Street to the Mastodon State Park in Imperial, effectively giving residents an alternative to driving to the park.
Other proposed plans would expand walking and biking access to the Mississippi River Trail along Hwy. 61-67 from Arnold to Festus; develop an east-to-west corridor across the county; and put a north-to-south corridor on the west side of the county, most likely along Gravois Road from High Ridge to House Springs.
Bair said the new master plan will better incentivize developers to include sidewalks in their design plans and to purposely leave certain areas undeveloped to preserve the county’s natural resources.
“The goal is to create really cool places and really cool developments,” he said. “That’s the opportunity we have with all the development pressure we’ve got.”