District 6 Councilman Mike Archer, R-Oakville, introduced three bills at the St. Louis County Council’s first meeting of the year, held on Jan. 6.
All three bills were simply introduced on Jan. 6; no other action was taken. At the council’s Jan. 13 meeting, however, the three items were read during the perfection of bills portion of the evening. Archer moved to perfect each of them — Bill 2, Bill 5 and Bill 6, respectively — meaning they appeared under final passage of bills at the council meeting held on Jan. 20. All three bills passed 7-0.
Bill 2 is a request from Eva Imo to amend the site restrictions from a 2004 ordinance to allow the ability to rent space in the basement of an existing office building, 13023 Tesson Ferry Road, as well as increase the allowable square footage of the site from 10,000 sq. ft. to 11,330 sq. ft. The requested increase in the maximum square footage permitted reflects the total square footage of the building if the basement is utilized for tenant spaces.
This was unanimously recommended for approval by the Planning Commission at its Dec. 8 meeting before appearing before the County Council on Jan. 6.
For background, the original ordinance from 2004 stemmed from a request for a change in zoning from an R-2 residential district to a C-8 planned commercial district in order to establish a drive-through pizza restaurant, Imo’s Pizza, and an office building next door. The multi-tenant commercial building and freestanding Imo’s Pizza restaurant were subsequently developed following the approval of the ordinance in April of that year. No previous ordinance amendments have been requested for this development since it was built.
The issue with the original ordinance is that it states that the basement space may not be rented, hence the recent request for the change; Imo says this was a communication misunderstanding.
“…Our architect, Tim Short, handled all of the communication and permitting 22 years ago. Tim Short told us we could rent the space on all three levels, therefore we built out offices in the basement,” Imo said. “When we found people who wanted to lease offices in the basement, they were given occupancy permits on three different occasions … With all of this confusion, we are only trying to correct the ordinance and reflect what is actually happening in the building.”
Imo included multiple occupancy permits for businesses that rented space in the basement; this request would bring those existing tenants into zoning compliance and allow continued occupancy.
Next up was Bill 5, a request for a zoning change for a 0.14-acre tract of land located southwest of the intersection of Horn Avenue and Military Road, approximately 1,100 feet northwest of South Broadway. The site is currently zoned residential, and was previously occupied by a service station, but it has been vacant for many years. The petitioner is requesting that the site be rezoned to a C-1 Neighborhood Business District so a restaurant can be developed there; a conditional use permit (C.U.P.) was also requested, as restaurants are not permitted in any residential zoning districts, even C-1 Neighborhood Business Districts, without a C.U.P.
At a public hearing on Nov. 10, the petitioner indicated that the proposed restaurant would conduct both inside and outside dine-in services, carry-out services and delivery services from their facility, utilizing the existing 1,181 sq. ft. building. One individual spoke in favor of the development at the public hearing, noting that the petitioner had received letters of support from the site’s neighbors. There were no speakers who were in opposition to, or had concerns about, the request.
The last bill introduced by Archer, Bill 6, will terminate an expired Planned Environment Unit (P.E.U.) for a site containing 4.12-acre site located in a residential district west of Becker Road at the terminus of Christopher Drive. The hope is that the site may someday be developed after decades of sitting vacant, though to do this, the expired P.E.U must be repealed.
