McEagle Properties LLC has proposed to develop all of the existing Heimos Property on the east side of Eddie & Park Road located between Truman School and the Heimos property, now used as a neighborhood sports field.

As presented to the Sunset Hills Planning and Zoning Commission last October, McEagle’s plans included three four-story commercial/office buildings, multilevel parking structures to accommodate 1,500 cars and an assisted living structure. “Green areas” would be negligible.

It was apparent that placing this kind of heavy density commercial development amongst existing residential properties would cause problems. Handling the daily traffic of hundreds of additional cars on Eddie & Park, especially those narrow winding portions leading toward Sappington Road and Gravois Road, was not addressed. Also, how the heavily used neighborhood sports field property was to become part of the developer’s plan was not even mentioned; nor were questions such as how commercial tenant signage would be controlled. Immediately after the presentation, the commission voted unanimously to recommend to the Board of Aldermen that the project not be approved.

How this McEagle-Heimos proposal might be revised for resubmittal is as yet unknown, but I understand that will happen some time after the coming April 8 election. Evidently, this is in the hope that Mayor Hunzeker, along with new aldermen favorable to such a development will be elected, and the project will then be approved.

Mayor Hunzeker stated before, and after his election two years ago, that “his concern was that the residential character of Sunset Hills should be protected,” and as recently as the Sunset Hills 50th anniversary last fall, that we should be “prepared to defend our residential character and resist any attempts to change residential properties to more dense use.”

He has now become, by actively pursuing the McEagle-Heimos property proposal, a supporter of commercial/office projects that would devalue adjacent residential properties, would be of limited use to our residents and would not be self supporting.

In the April 8 election, voting for Mike Svoboda for mayor and for those aldermanic candidates like Thomas B. Hrastich who are opposed to the McEagle-Heimos and similar plans will really protect our “residential character.”

Richard C. Harris

Sunset Hills