ST. CHARLES COUNTY — The fate of a second effort at building a controversial home development on rural land here will be decided Monday night by the St. Charles County Council.
Council members’ opinions on the project, near the August Busch Memorial Conservation Area in unincorporated St. Charles County, are mixed. Some have argued the proposed 120-home subdivision could help prevent further annexation by nearby O’Fallon, and they’ve argued it’s in line with the county’s long-term development plans for that area.
But others have said it would jeopardize the rural living experience that’s increasingly hard to find in growing St. Charles County.
“It is important that we stick together and protect the rural characteristics of our area,” said St. Charles County Councilman Joe Brazil, a vocal opponent of the project. “They say it is a great spot for a subdivision — and it is a great spot because we created it the way it is. … Our roads are full, our schools are full. It is time we say enough is enough.”
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The project, now dubbed Highlands at Busch Wildlife, is a second attempt to get the area rezoned for development. The first, a much larger project called Tall Tree, was rejected last year by the St. Charles County Council. The developer hinted at the time it may ask O’Fallon to annex the land so the project could be built anyway.
The new 137-acre proposal is on just a portion of the land that would have been developed through Tall Tree. It calls for fewer homes and varied lot sizes that the developer, Lombardo Homes, argues will allow the area to maintain its rural feel.
Drew Weber, a lawyer for Lombardo, called the new project a “compromise proposal” that was brokered through meetings between the developer, county officials and nearby residents.
“We think we’ve made a good-faith effort to meet those concerns,” Weber said at a council meeting earlier this month.
In the revised proposal, homes are slated to be between 2,800 and 3,000 square feet. Weber said he expects lots would sell for more than $500,000 apiece.
Developers would retain nearly 70% of the existing tree canopy on the property, and roads through the subdivision would be built along natural ridgeways to “try and preserve as much of the natural topography as currently exists.”
Specific streetlights have been picked out that Weber said will minimize the impact on stargazers at the nearby astronomy viewing area in Broemmelsiek Park. And homes built near the Busch Wildlife Refuge will have an extra buffer of land to divide the development from wildlife.
Weber also pushed back on Councilman Brazil’s claim that the local school district, Francis Howell, would be overcrowded by the development, noting that enrollment in the district has remained steady even as development in the area boomed over the past decade.
But residents who spoke at the council meeting largely said they were still skeptical of the project, even with the changes. Some railed against the development’s impact on wildlife, the density of the project and traffic congestion on nearby Highway DD.
“We have presented the same issues time and time again,” said Eric Fields, who lives just north of the proposed development. “The roads are still not wide enough. The schools are still too crowded. There have been no proposals, no plans to address any of this.”
Monday’s council meeting will begin at 7 p.m. For the project to advance, five of the seven council members would need to approve the developers’ rezoning request.
