Plans to build a 159-home subdivision on 75.4 acres on Prairie Hollow Road northeast of Seckman Road and the Mastodon State Historic Site in Imperial have been given preliminary approval.
The County Council voted 5-1 Sept. 27 to approve a rezoning request and a development plan for the subdivision, which will be called the Timbers.
A final vote will likely be taken on Oct. 11.
The Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-3 Sept. 9 to recommend approval of the plans.
The P and Z board makes recommendations on land-use issues in unincorporated parts of the county to the County Council, which makes the final decision.
McBride Berra Land Co. LLC in Chesterfield is asking the county to rezone the property, which is made up of two lots, from small-lot residential to planned single-family residential.
The land is heavily wooded and hilly.
McBride Berra’s plans include 56 homes on lots averaging 5,811 square feet, with the other 103 lots averaging 7,407 square feet.
Because of the challenging topography, about 43.6 acres will be left as common ground.
County planner Josh Jump said the rezoning is necessary because Jefferson County requires all home developments of 100 lots or more to be planned developments, which require builders to submit information about the proposed subdivision.
“This allows them to have some smaller lots (than under the current zoning), and a more uniform plan throughout,” Jump said.
About 15 people attended the meeting, with five people speaking against the proposal.
“Most of the people who spoke weren’t full-blown against it,” Jump said. “Mostly, they wanted more clarity. Traffic is always a concern, of course, and the sizes of the lots.”
A traffic study commissioned by the developer concluded that the proposed development would add about 120 additional trips during peak hours on weekday mornings and about 160 new trips during peak afternoon times.
The study recommended clearing vegetation along the roads in the area to improve sight distances and possibly having a three-way stop at the intersection of Prairie Hollow and Spring Forest Drive, which is north of the development. Currently, traffic on Spring Forest Drive goes through the intersection while motorists on Prairie Hollow stop.
The plans call for two entrances on Prairie Hollow Road.
Jump said the lot sizes throughout the development vary, with the smaller lots situated near the front along Prairie Hollow Road, where the land is somewhat flatter and is close to dense developments, like Saddlebrook Estates. Larger lots are planned to the back of the site, bordering the less dense Imperial Terrace subdivision.
Jump said McBride Berra officials believe plans for cottage-style homes on the smaller lots are popular in this market.
“They’ve told us that young professionals are drawn to these types of homes, where they can own their own home instead of rent but not have a lot of yard to maintain,” he said.
Council member Renee Reuter (District 2, Imperial), cast the sole dissenting vote on Sept. 27.
“I think the lots are really close together, so I’m very concerned about that,” she said. “During the (P and Z) hearing, there were a lot of concerns about traffic on Seckman Road. If you’ve been on Seckman Road lately, you know traffic is pretty bad right now.”
Construction currently is underway to build a roundabout at Seckman and Old Lemay Ferry roads west of the Seckman schools campus.