Plans for a proposed development in South County were held at the May 28 St. Louis County Council meeting. 

Sixth District Councilman Ernie Trakas, R-Oakville, held the bill for a proposed 121-lot subdivision off Spokane and Mullally drives, after several upset residents spoke against the project at last week’s council meeting. 

The developer, “The Grove at Grant’s Trail, LLC,” is requesting a zoning change from M-1/FPM manufacturing/flood plain manufacturing to R-4/FPR-4 residential/floodplain residential, with planned environment unit procedure, for the development of a the subdivision at 10245 Spokane Drive. The 35.2 acre site is bounded by Green Park city limits to the west and Interstate 55 to the east, and is surrounded primarily by residential zoning.

The home builder for the subdivision will be St. Louis builder McBride Homes, with the subdivision divided into 89 lots featuring the McBride “Bayside series” and 32 featuring the “Heritage series.” The proposal promises extensive common grounds covering 13.04 acres, which would be overseen by the homeowners’ association. Additionally, the development plans to provide access to Grant’s Trail.

Both home series are designed to offer two-car garages and will feature building heights ranging from one to two stories.

The plan was first presented to the county Planning Commission in March, where several residents of neighboring subdivisions voiced their concerns with the project, citing increased traffic in their neighborhood, destruction of green space and subdivision access.

According to the proposal documents, the subdivision would be accessed from Jeffleigh Lane on the north side, and Mullally Drive and Spokane Drive on the east side. All three roads access Reavis Barracks Road.

Some residents at the previous planning meeting questioned the use of Green Park Drive as a separate, southern access point to the development, instead of or in addition to using Jeffleigh, Mullally and Spokane. Residents once again brought similar concerns before the council at last week’s meeting.

Mullally Drive resident Jason Johnson claimed the commission’s report about the development and potential southern access point was “deeply flawed.”

“This is where it’s flawed, deeply flawed. It says ‘Such a proposal would require a new bridge spanning Gravois Creek … that’s totally false … Just looking at Google Maps, the county has jurisdiction over Green Park Road immediately south of the proposed development. In fact, the county has already built a parking lot for the bike trail there,” Johnson said, referring to the gravel parking lot near the intersection of Green Park and Union roads, used to access Grant’s Trail. “Gravois Creek is to the south and west of where Green Park can come off of and access the proposed development.”

Johnson added that residents’ concerns were falling on deaf ears.

“We find out the Planning Commission’s analysis of the southern entrance is deeply flawed,” he said. “So get ready when the crashes and the injuries and the deaths pile on Reavis Barracks off of Spokane, Mullally and Jeffleigh, here’s what you can hang your hat on, this flawed analysis.”

The planning department report about the proposal did state concerns about a southern access point that would connect to Green Park Industrial Drive, which would require a bridge over Gravois Creek and development in the flood plain. An access point to Green Park Road would not require a bridge over Gravois Creek, however both access points, either off the industrial road or Green Park, would require crossing Grant’s Trail, a multipurpose recreation trail.

“The residents of Reavis Parks, Reavis Gardens and the surrounding areas continued to have grave concerns over the utilization of our residential streets,” said speaker Katie Addison. “Our concerns are not anecdotal, it’s just statistics, … and I don’t want to become another traffic-related statistic when the county has the means to remediate and accept accountability for our safety.”

Addison told the council that over 460 signatures had been collected from neighborhood residents who are against the use of residential streets for the development.

“Where do we go from here? The burden feels like it rests on our shoulders, the residents,” Addison said.

A couple of days following the council meeting, residents of the Reavis Park subdivision held a neighborhood meeting regarding the subdivision on May 30. The meeting was attended by Mike Archer, who is challenging Trakas in the Republican primary for the 6th District seat Aug. 6.

At the gathering, some residents pointed out where the county had placed signs for the development’s public hearing. Some residents had previously voiced concerns that neighboring residents were not notified adequately about the project, in part due to where the sign was placed at the end of Spokane Drive.

“(They) put the sign where nobody was going to see it … We are really not … we don’t get involved in a lot of things … but this is crazy. And it’s the bike trail, that’s the bottom line. They don’t want to cross the bike trail,” said Mary Johnson, wife of Jason Johnson. “We’re not trying to be mean. We just don’t want our whole lives upended by 121 houses.”