Staff Report

Members of the Sunset Hills Residential Recovery Task Force were scheduled to present their recommendation to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission this week.

The Planning and Zoning Commission was set to meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, at City Hall, 3939 S. Lindbergh Blvd. — after the Call went to press.

After meeting six times since late June, task force members voted unanimously Aug. 10 to recommend the Planning and Zoning Commission vote to amend the city’s comprehensive master plan to allow for both single-family residences and attached housing on Court Drive and West Watson Road west of South Lindbergh Boulevard — similar to the nearby Courtyards of Sunset Hills, which has both single-family homes and attached villas.

The comprehensive master plan currently permits single-family residential in the area that was devastated by the New Year’s Eve tornado that swept through the city. A public hearing would have to be conducted before the Planning and Zoning Commission could consider voting to amend the comprehensive master plan.

Mayor Bill Nolan established the task force after the Planning and Zoning Commission voted June 1 to reject an amendment to change the comprehensive master plan to provide for commercial and attached-unit residential uses of the area.

The proposed amendment would have encompassed all property on Court Drive not already designated for commercial use, the first six properties along the north side of West Watson Road west of South Lindbergh Blvd. and 3851 and 3863 S. Lindbergh Blvd.

More than 20 people addressed the commission during the June 1 public hearing with the vast majority of speakers opposed to changing the plan.

The roughly 10-acre site currently is zoned R-2 single-family residential with a 20,000-square-foot minimum lot size. The task force’s recommendation includes two maps — one designating the area affected by the tornado and a second designating the recovery area that encompasses the panel’s recommendation.

The recovery area excludes two commercial properties on South Lindbergh Boulevard — 3819 S. Lindbergh Blvd., the site of Telle Tire & Auto Services, and 3825 S. Lindbergh Blvd., the site of the former SSM Imaging Center, which since has been demolished. Also excluded from the recovery area are two properties currently zoned residential but designated as commercial in the comprehensive master plan — 12415 Court Drive and 12410 Chrisann Lane. Included in the recovery area at property owner John Beaury’s request is 12418 Chrisann Lane.

In their recommendation, task force members stated that no consideration will be given for expansion of commercial development into the recovery area.