On Aug. 3, two South County developments received a public hearing before the St. Louis County Planning Commission. Both developments would be situated on Forder Road: one being a storage facility, and the other being a neighborhood of newly developed homes.
The public hearing for the storage facility — which, if developed, would sit at 420 Forder Road — drew a wave of locals staunchly opposing the development. James Malecek, the owner of that property, is hoping to rezone the residential property into a commercial lot so he can build a storage facility.
“I have a small piece of land on Forder Road that I acquired a few years ago,” Malecek said. “I was just thinking of something to do with it, and I thought of a storage unit, basically.”
The piece of land at 420 Forder Road is 0.91 acres and currently zoned as an R-3 lot: meant for single-family residences. On either side of the property and across the street sit single-family homes. Malecek has petitioned for a C-7 zoning, which is a General Extensive Commercial District.
Malecek says the plan for the building itself is “very preliminary.” The storage facility would be a two-story, climate-controlled building with a currently unknown number of storage units. When asked about how many parking spaces the site would have, he said he is unsure but would likely fall in the 5-6 range. The facility would be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.
“It’s a small facility,” Malecek said. He said he anticipates only 3-5 people coming and going from the facility each day. “It’s not one of these monsters.”
Approximately 20 people rose during the hearing to speak in opposition to the storage facility. Several reside in the homes to either side of the land or directly across the street. The main concerns of residents were issues like a lack of privacy, reduction in property value, increased crime and therefore increased insurance premiums, additional traffic, water runoff, excessive lighting and noise and a fear that this would set a precedent for the commercial development of other vacant properties in the community.
“There are other uses for this (lot) than a massive storage facility,” Forder Road resident Ian Campbell stated. “There’s no benefit to the public. The change doesn’t make sense.”
Some attendees who spoke at the meeting suggested that Malecek should keep the lot residential and instead build houses on the land, saying there is a “robust demand for residential development” in the Oakville area. One attendee cited the upcoming public hearing for home development that would also be built on Forder Road, if approved.
“My feeling is that this is not conducive to a residential area,” Paul Doelling, a commercial real estate agent in Oakville, said. “I never represent any client that’s going to do something like this. I never do it, because it’s not in the neighborhood’s or the community’s interest.”
At the end of public comment, the Planning Commission asked attendees to give their thoughts on the storage facility by show of hands. One person voted in favor of the development, and 49 people voted in opposition. Stated at the meeting, the earliest the commission would take action on this request for rezoning would be Sept. 14, though that date is tentative.
The other public hearing at the Aug. 3 meeting had to do with land on the northeast side of Forder Road, at the terminus of Tanya Drive. The petitioner is asking for a planned environment unit in the residential zone to be used for single-family residences.
This project is a new neighborhood which is being called Estates at Forder Creek. There will be 16 lots on the land, which is 4.3 acres; the homes are expected to be ranch, one-and-a-half-story and two-story homes that are priced between high $400,000s and $700,000s. When attendees voted by show of hands, 15 were in favor of the development and five were opposed. No one rose to give a public comment.