The fourth attempt to build a subdivision at Hwy. A and Sandy Valley Road east of Hillsboro looks like it will meet the same fate as its predecessors – denial.
The Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-1 Nov. 17 to recommend denial of a proposal from Bridle Creek Properties LLC of Ste. Genevieve to rezone 155.3 acres from large-lot residential to planned single-family residential to allow a development of 303 homes and 45 duplexes.
The P and Z board advises the Jefferson County Council on land-use issues in unincorporated areas. The County Council, which has the sole authority over rezoning, likely will consider a resolution to deny the rezoning request at a meeting this month.
About 60 residents from the area again showed up at the Nov. 17 meeting to protest plans to develop the area, a point that some of them made at the public hearing.
“I have a single question,” said Norman Pooker, who lives across Hwy. A from the site. “When does no mean no? Why do residents have to spend time to oppose this every two years? This one is even denser than the last.”
Two years ago, the County Council denied a request from Bridle Creek Properties for a rezoning that would have allowed 273 homes and 22 duplexes. The same developer had submitted an application for a rezoning in the area in 2019, but withdrew it before a hearing could be scheduled because planning staff had concerns about the proposed density.
In 2007, different developers submitted a plan for 191 homes and 32 duplexes on the northern part of the property – a lot that takes in almost 100 acres – but the county denied that application.
The developers appealed the ruling, but the Jefferson County Circuit Court ruled the denial was proper.
The current plan for the development, to be called Heartland (rather than Bridle Creek), calls for homes on larger lots to be built on the northern part of the property along Zion Lutheran Church Road, with the duplexes to be situated near Hwy. A.
Gene Fribis of Heneghan and Associates in Arnold, who represented Bridle Creek and its owner, Todd Bauman, said the layout of Heartland is distinctive.
“It’s quite different, and it far exceeds the standards of subdivisions being built in Jefferson County,” he said.
The main street, which would extend from Sandy Church Road north to Zion Lutheran Church Road, would be a selling point, Fribis said.
“This is what’s going to sell this to homebuyers,” he said. “There will be one-way traffic on either side of the road. No parking will be allowed, and no homes will face the road, and no driveways will exit or enter on to the road. I don’t think there’s anything like this in the county.”
Fribis said the subdivision, once fully built, would generate $2.5 million a year in taxes.
Because public water and sewer lines would be extended to Heartland, other residents would be given the chance to hook on as well, he said.
“This is the right project at the right place at the right time,” he said.
Nearby residents don’t agree, saying they didn’t want to see portions of their property taken by eminent domain to extend water and sewer lines or be compelled to hook onto those systems.
“The (county) ruled that this property is properly zoned, and it was upheld by the Circuit Court,” said Michael Siebert of Hillsboro.
Jim Terry of Cedar Hill also opposes the development.
“This appears to be the same project as it was two years ago (when he was a county councilman who voted to deny it) but it’s now denser. My opposition was that way too many people were in the development and would want to avoid the intersection of Hwy. A and Sandy Creek,” he said.
Shawn White of CBB, which conducted a traffic study of the area, said the current traffic flow at the Hwy. A-Sandy Creek intersection is near the point where the state would consider a traffic signal, and the additional traffic generated by Heartland would make it necessary.
She said the developer, rather than the state, would foot the bill for one.
White said with an improved intersection at Hwy. A, it would be unlikely Heartland residents would use narrow county roads like Zion Lutheran Church and Jarvis roads to make their way to Hwy. 21 rather than take Hwy. A to I-55.
Rhonda Adams said she worried about school buses making stops at the entrance of the subdivision, across from the neighboring Lockeport Landing development.
“Children will be in more danger,” she said. “In Lockeport, buses stop at two intersections (on an outer road of Hwy. A) and people cut across the outer road when it’s busy.”
Fribis said school buses would enter Heartland and make stops at each of the side streets off the main boulevard.
He said the development residents said they would prefer under the current zoning isn’t likely.
“Two-acre lots with septic tanks and fields won’t happen,” he said. “That’s talk from 25 years ago.”
Fribis said sewer lines likely would be built along Jarvis Road to a treatment plant.
“This will be a benefit to others,” he said.
Planning commissioners Danny Tuggle, Tim Dugan, Mike Huskey, Larry Adkins and Chris Hastings voted to recommend denial of the proposal; Greg Bowers cast the sole dissenting vote.
“I thought it had potential,” Bowers said.
Bauman had little to say after the vote. “One step at a time,” he said, before stepping out of the meeting room.