Planning and Zoning Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good evening welcome to the July 15th 2026 planning is only commission meeting at this time I would request that everyone please turn off.

or mute all cell phones and other electronic devices. Also at this time, I would ask each one to stand with me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Applications for conditional use permit request and rezoning request we heard during tonight's meeting and commission will vote on these applications to make a recommendation to the County Council. The applications will then be scheduled to be introduced before the County Council at the Monday August 10th 2026 County Council meeting public comment for conditional use permit request be taken during tonight's meeting at the Council meeting on Monday August 10th 2026 public comment on conditional use permit applications will not will not be taken at any meeting of the County Council held thereafter. The application for preliminary plants are during tonight's meeting will be voted on by the planning zoning Commission during the meeting. The vote on preliminary plants is final only a recommendation for denial of a preliminary plan would be heard before the County Council at their Monday August 10th 2026 meeting. The following documents are introduced as a matter of record for this evening's public hearing a regular meeting of the cat planning is only commission. Those are documents are unified development ordinance of Saint Charles County including zoning maps year 2030 master plan for Saint Charles County which includes the year 2030 future land use plan map. And the rules of order procedure for the planning is only commission as adopted by resolution 21 dash one. I see we have a quorum is there a motion to open a meeting. So move to a second second all in favor sign. Okay, we are in business. Briefly tell you how we operate. This meeting I will read into the record the application. And then we will ask the staff for the report members of the commission may or may not have questions for the staff. They will ask the applicant to come forward and present the application. and answer any questions at the commission members of commission may have at that time. They will open a public hearing anyone wishing to speak regarding the application may come and speak. Then we may or may not ask them to come back and address any concerns that were brought about in the public hearing. Well then we will consider the application and we will vote. If you're going to speak, we ask that you fill out one of these cards. Ms. Hayes has the cards over there. Okay. Just make sure we get your name correct in our record. Okay. The first item on our agenda is Conditional Use Permit 26-05. It's located at 4532 Central School Road. Property owners are 501 Partnership, Kenneth C. Hawkins, Margaret J. Hawkins, Ronald S. Bowers, and Ruthann Bowers. The applicant is Daniel Klusner. Did I get that right? Zoning district is C2, General Commercial District. Conditional use request is automobile sales of used vehicles. CUP area is 1.25 acres. Location is 4532 Central School Road on the South side of Central School Road. 280 feet West of Saint Peter's how road near the city of Saint Peter's this is located in Council district 7.

I got a PowerPoint for you all right quick enough. All right so this request is for used automobile sales lot subject properties on Central School Road about 250 feet West of the intersection with the Saint Peter's how road the zoning district to see to. The Western boundary of the parcels included in this request do border a single family residents. You can see on that screen that red dot that's where that residences. North of the subject parcel is a middle school and elementary school with Francis how school district and East and South of the subject parcels are commercial developments. The hours of operation per the applicant's narrative are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Two employees will be present at the site. 35 cars will be on the lot at one time. Most sales would be generated online, which could limit the foot traffic or vehicular traffic to the site. The there is an existing commercial building on the parcel that will be used as the sales office. And there's also an accessory structure on the front parcel that would be converted to a detailing shop for the cars that are being sold. So the access to these parcels that top picture is the access to the commercial building that's where a parking lot would go for customers and potentially the handicapped parking space. The bottom picture is the entrance that the used cars. That's how you would access the lot that's in the back of the property where the used cars will be. Here is a picture of the concept plan. So you'll see on this western boundary there would be a type 2 landscape buffer. And then here's that shared access easement that runs down here to access that used car lot. I'm now going to go through the CUP criteria. The first one is public health, safety, and general welfare. The use will involved will involve automobile sales and detailing services which could create a noise impact. On on the neighboring parcel where the residences, but that should not be a detriment to public health safety or general welfare. Use and enjoyment of of adjacent properties. The proposed use would have a type 2 buffer on the western side which would mitigate the mitigate some of the sight of the visual of the site that might be unpleasant to the resident on the west. Aesthetic and scenic values, like I was saying, there is a Type 2 landscape buffer which should screen the western property. Staff has no data to suggest that a substantial negative impact would be made on property values. There was an existing commercial building there that was used as a business before. So it's continuing to be used as commercial. So there shouldn't be any negative impact to the surrounding or surrounding development or orderly development of that site. Staff mailed 20 letters to landowners within a 500-foot radius, we received zero opposition letters and zero support letters, and those were the agencies that were notified of this conditional use request. The Commission can either approve the conditional use permit, approve it with the condition suggested in the staff report, or deny the conditional use permit. Based on the CUP criteria review, staff recommends approval of the CUP. Should you recommend approval, we would also suggest using the conditions in our staff report.

Chair, excuse me. My screen's not coming up right.

Oh.

Thank you. No problem. Okay.

Any questions for staff? Hearing none, I ask the applicant to come forward. I forgot to say, I have to swear you in this morning. Do you solemnly swear our affirmations will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and these proceedings are the pains and penalties of perjury?

I do. Please state your name and address for the record. Daniel Kleesner, 6402 Phillips Road, St. Charles, Missouri, 63301. Okay. Go ahead, sir. I really don't have a lot to add. The staff's report, I think, was very accurate and sufficient. I appreciate your support. If anybody has any questions, I'd be glad to answer any questions. But I think the staff report was accurate and good for what we want to do.

Questions for the applicant? Hearing none, thank you, sir. Thank you. We'll now open the public hearing for CUP 26-05. Anyone wishing to speak regarding this application? Anyone? Hearing no one we will close the public hearing for C. U. P. 26 dash o 5. Any questions you want to have any I do have a question about the landscape buffer are you proposing a certain type of landscape buffer type to type to yes. But we put that in the recommend in the recommendations.

Is it in is it art is it in the recommendation, I think in the conditions.

To say in all landscape buffers.

I guess you guys could add that just for for to make it sure it is enforced. Even in our landscaping section though. During the site plan process, it will require a type 2 landscape buffer regardless because it is next to a residential use OK, but if you want to add it just to be sure that.

The way you will get caught right later. Hearing none. The chair will entertain a motion to approve C U P 26 dash 0 5 to include the recommendation set forth in the staff report. Is there a motion.

So moved.

Second. Oh, Mr. Barr made the motion. Ms. O'Meara made the second. Mr. Knee-Miller, how do you vote?

Yes.

Mr. Nolan? Yes. Ms. Kirchner? Yes. Miss O'Meara, yes. Mr. Baker, yes. I didn't know what you two were doing down there. Mr. Quinn, yes. Ms. Barr, yes. Mr. Goodwin, yes. And I vote yes. It's approved. Okay next item on our agenda is a conditional use permit 26 dash 0, 6, located at 4230. Highway 94 North property owner or have Hefner. The applicant is Theodore Hefner. zoning district to see to general commercial district with density flood way overlay district zoning the conditional use permit is a landscape contracting service. The C P area is 3.0 acres location is 4 to 30 North highway 94 on the South side of highway 94 North 2560 feet. East of we wrote near the city of Saint Charles this is located in Council district 6 staff.

So this work request is for a link landscape contracting service on highway 94 on the South side. It has as see to general commercial zoning district. So the parcel has a unique shape it's about 1200 feet long and 85 feet deep the The CUP request area is only on the very end of the parcel where there's an existing home located. So it's pretty unique, like I said. It's mostly surrounded by agriculture uses, row crop production, and woodlands. The nearest resident is about 600 feet away. The subject parcel is located in the density floodway, which I'll get into next. So the density of floodway only allows 18% of the parcel to be developed. Once development exceeds 18%, then a no-rise certificate would be required. Basically showing an engineer would have to stamp a study showing that developing more than 18% of this parcel would not cause adverse effects on neighboring properties when it floods. There's also restrictions on what can be stored on the parcel since it's in the floodplain. such as you know vehicles trailers stuff like that. So we are requiring the applicant during the site plan process to submit a flood evacuation plan to show that in the event of a flood like an eminent flood he would be able to get all the equipment and vehicles removed from the parcel. The hours of operation 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday. A gravel lot will be installed on the parcel to store the trucks, trailers and equipment. There is an existing accessory structure on the parcel that could also store these items. Eight employees will report to the site to unload and load or load and unload the vehicles and equipment on a daily basis. It will serve as like the start and end point of the operation. No bulk materials are going to be stored on the parcel nor are there going to be any RETAIL OR CUSTOMERS GOING TO THE SITE. THE PARCEL IS ACCESSED BY A CIRCLE DRIVE OFF OF MODOT ROAD HIGHWAY 94. SO DURING THE SITE PLAN PROCESS THAT MAY NEED TO BE UPGRADED TO MODOT'S COMMERCIAL STANDARDS. HERE IS A CONCEPT PLAN OF THE PROPERTY. SO YOU HAVE AN EXISTING HOUSE WITH AN EXISTING ACCESSORY STRUCTURE. And then you got those gravel lots that will be installed. It also shows on the concept plan that it is going to be a front landscape buffer. The CUP criteria, public health, safety, and general welfare. So since this use does involve storage of trucks and equipment and floodplain there could pose there could be a risk to public health and safety, but with the applicant submitting the flood is evacuation plan we believe those risk will be mitigated. The parcel is mostly surrounded by agricultural. Grow crop production of woodlands so we do not believe that neighboring properties will have their use and enjoyment diminished. The next one aesthetic and scenic values. Like I said previously, this one is screened by woods and then it will be screened on the front when you're passing on Highway 94. So there shouldn't be any negative impacts for aesthetic values. Property values, staff has no data to suggest there's going to be a negative impact. And then the orderly development of surrounding properties. Due to the unique size of the parcel and its location, This should not impede the normal and orderly development of improvements in the surrounding areas. Staff mailed out letters to landowners within 2,000 feet of the parcel. We received zero opposition and zero support letters, and those are the agencies we notified. MoDOT did not respond, or at least not yet. The commission can either prove approved with conditions or deny the conditional use permit or recommend I should say. Based on the C P criteria planning and the planning and zoning division recommends approval. Should the commission elect to recommend approval we would suggest the conditions listed the staff report.

The questions for staff. I'm going to ask them to come forward. You solemnly swear or affirm that you'll tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in these proceedings or in the pains and penalties of perjury?

I do.

Please state your name and address for the record.

It's Ted Hafner, 4230 North Highway 94, St. Charles, Missouri.

Go ahead, sir.

Professor Ellis, it's nice to see you again. He was a teacher of mine out at Linenwood, so I had the pleasure of learning business law from him.

How's your...

I'm sorry?

Did that work with your dad?

Yeah. Well not that one would yeah.

I'm sorry and Kate yeah, yeah, but I was coming back to me.

I've seen it's been a while yeah early 2000. I think the what jacket presented up there covers everything that you know we want to do down there. Ultimately, I guess the only thing I'm going to add is if it is not approved we're going to sell the property because it it doesn't do anything that we want to do with it.

Any questions for the applicant? Hearing none, thank you.

Thank you.

We'll open the public hearing for CUP 26-06. Anyone wishing to speak? Anyone? Hearing none, we'll close the public hearing for CUP 26-06. Any questions for the applicant? Hearing none, any questions for staff? Chair will entertain a motion to approve CUP 26-06 to include the recommendations submitted in the staff report. Is there a motion? Okay, Mr. Miller made a motion. Is there a second?

I'll second.

Mr. Baker, how do you vote? Yes. Ms. O'Meara? Yes. Ms. Kirchner? Yes. If you need more. Yes. Mister Quinn. Yes. Mister Nolan yes. Mister Goodwin yes. This bar. Yes. I will get. Okay, it's approved. That's going back. It was to what what name are you using for this business. Still to you too. Okay, I'll tell this story about Ted. He comes to me, he's getting ready to graduate, and he said, I need to make some type of resume. I need to get a job. And I said, well, what do you need a resume for? You already own a business. You've got, about that time, probably 50 people working for him. I said, you already have a job. He goes, Well, I guess I do. He started mowing grass. What when you were really two or 12 years old.

Yeah, but my dad was a he was a Boeing McDonnell Douglas guy. Yeah. And he said, You do not own your own business. And now, you know, 30 something years later, I totally understand. Okay, there you go.

I see the next thing on our agenda is a rezoning request are the 26 dash 0, 4. This is located at 7.81. Do you can pronounce that I said dinky dinky dinky dinky road property owners are the headline a revoke will residents trust of the applicant is more than one. Our current zoning to a cultural the proposed owning is our single family residential district the rezoning area, 6.71 acres. The location is 7.81 dinky road from the South side of don't you wrote a 1800 feet West of highway W near the city of once feels is located in Council district one staff.

Okay so just to go over it real quick as you mentioned this is a rezoning request to go from agricultural to our single-family residential which is our rural residential district. The parcel itself is 19 acres in size, but this request is only for the 6.71 acres on the northern part of the parcel. The remaining 12 acres would still be a agricultural district This preliminary plot is submitted concurrently with the next request which is a preliminary plot to split those or split that 6.71 acre area into 2 lots. In terms of the zoning history, the property has been zoned agricultural like most of the properties in the surrounding area since the inception of zoning in 1959. In 1977, there was a variance approved which basically allowed for a 3 acre parcel to be split into a 2 acre parcel and a 1 acre parcel. Up there on the wall, the parcel that isn't colored in is one of the parcels where the variance applied to so a house could be built at the time. That variance. However does not have any effect on the current zoning or the proposed preliminary plot. So basically when we're resigning from a agricultural to our our will residential. The big thing is minimum lot size to go from 5 acres to 3 acres and the agricultural uses are strict limited to just basically personal gardens. But for this case the practical fact is just having 6 acres so that they can split the lot for 2 family members. When you zoom out the parcels that they're proposing in the zoning. It's all agricultural, but most of lots are actually between 3 3 to 6 acres. But if you go out a little bit further goes all the way up to 16 acres. So we don't believe that this zoning change would change the characteristic of the area. And the 2030 master plan, the future land use map actually designates the subject parcel as low density residential. So by rezoning the RR, they're actually doing rural residential, which would be one acre or one home per acre as opposed to one to four dwellings per acre. Staff notified a letters to all nearby residents within the notification radius. We don't receive any letters or comments from either the community or the agencies that we notified. And given everything that I just talked about staff recommends that the planning and zoning Commission recommend approval of this reasoning request.

The questions for staff. I'm going to ask happens come forward. You solemnly swear or affirm that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in these proceedings or the pains and penalties of perjury.

I do.

Please state your name and address for the record.

Mark Eadlin, 12 Bay Oaks Court, Lake St. Louis, Missouri. Okay. Go ahead, sir. Jared covered it real good with the staff notes. I guess one of the things I've lived out on the property ever since I was about seven years old, grew up, it was kind of a dream of my mom's of having All the kids live on the property that's kind of what she bought it and was kind of going for none of us kids kind of went with that but it is kind of flourished into the grandkids are interested in that so this is my youngest son that he would like to build on grandpa's land and be able to help him and do that so as far as working with the acreage that we have there. That's what I was trying to work in to get that re zoned into those 3 plus acre lots to I can have him and his brothers soon to want to build next to the next few years. The questions for you. Very good. Thank you, Sir. Thank you.

Well now open the public hearing for RZ 26 dash or 4 you want wishing to speak. Anyone. Seeing no one will close the public hearing for R Z 26 dash 0, 4, and you want to have any questions for the applicant on staff. Chair will entertain a motion to approve R Z 26 dash 0, 4, which is a rezoning request located at 7, 81, how do you pronounce it. Thank you thank you thank you thank you wrote is there a motion. So move. Second. Second, Mr. Knee-Miller made the second. Mr. Quinn, now do you vote? Yes. Ms. Barr? Yes. Mr. Baker? Yes. Ms. O'Meara? Yes. Mr. Goodwin? Yes. Mr. Nolan?

Yes.

Ms. Kirchner? Yes. Mr. Knee-Miller? Yes. Almost forgot you. And I vote yes. Okay, that passes. And now we get back up to here. Ah, agenda. So the next thing on our agenda is... We're a flat request a PR a 26 dash or 4 at a 7, 8, 1, dinky road. The property owner is a Edelman rebook irrevocable residents trust. The evidence Mark Edlin. Current zoning to have a cultural district proposed only is our single-family residential district. The surveyor is Cardinal surveyor in surveying and mapping. This is request approval of Ellen acres preliminary plat to lots located at 7.81 thank you wrote on the South side of thank you wrote 1,800 feet. He's a highway W near the city. Woodsville located Council district one staff.

Yeah, so as I said this is concurrent with RZ 2604 a lot of the request overview that we've discussed this is already discussed it. Here's a on the right side of your screen there is the 2 lots of the vision that they're proposing lot one would be 3.09 acres lot to be 3.62 acres for total of 6.71 acres. Both lots would be served by public water supply district number 2 for water and then individual wastewater systems for sewer. The one copy out to this preliminary plot is that the subdivision regulations require that all newly created lots take access off an internal subdivision Street. So in cases where that's not really feasible or practical the applicant could provide a waiver that the planning and zoning Commission can approve to allow them to take access say off a shared driveway or some equal alternative. So here we just the depth of the lot to lots and requiring the applicant to put in a cold this act so those 2 lots. It wouldn't be a better solution in terms of whether versus like a shared driveway. Staff supports granting the commission granting the waiver on these grounds. And with any entrance onto a public road these driveways would have to meet the criteria set forth by the county highway department. And the proposed plot I think if we go back it goes all the way around that 6 acres are proposing to dedicate a strip of land along dinky road. terms of notifications we notified nearby landowners. We didn't receive anything back for opposition support or any comments from the agencies. County staff recommends that the commission approved the primary plot contingent upon the commission approving that requested waiver I mentioned then also the County Council approving the related resigning application.

The questions for staff. As the applicants come back, I have to do this. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in these proceedings and the pains and penalties of perjury?

I do.

Please state your name and address for the record.

Mark Eadlin, 12 Bay Oaks Court, Lake St. Louis, Missouri. Okay. Any questions for the applicant?

Hearing none, thank you, sir. Now we'll open the public hearing for PRE 26-04. Is anyone wishing to speak regarding this application? Hearing no one will close period 26 to show for bring us back to the commission. Counselor do we have to we include the waiver recall request in one motion with doesn't have to be too. Any questions. Okay, the chair will entertain a motion to approve PR e 26 dash 4 subject to staff recommendation which includes a waiver per section for 10.4 80 point D of the county code this is addressing the single driveway issue. The questions about the proposed motion. Okay, the children came that motion is there a motion. It's a marriage or a second. Mister Nolan, how you vote, yes, Mister Quinn, yes, Mister Barr, yeah, Mister Miller, yes, Mister Baker, yes. Miss O'Meara, yes, Mister Kirchner, yes, Mister Goodwin, yes, and I vote yes. we can do this quick um we have no table nor continued items so next on the item on the agenda is the approval of the june 17th 2026 uh planning zoning commission meetings are there any additions deletions or corrections to those minutes hearing none is there a motion to approve the june 17 2026 meeting minutes so moved for a second second All in favor sign aye. Aye. Minutes are approved. Mr. Meyer update. If there is one.

I will make a few quick notes for everyone. First we are still taking comments on the master plan draft the May 5th, 2026 master plan draft from the public. It's been introduced at the master plan steering committee. And we've given some time for the best ministering committees members to digest it and at the same time we're also asking the public public if they have any ideas thoughts or comments on that draft. We're taking those comments on that draft until we're asking that they be in by July 20th next Monday. The hope is to we put together all the comments received by the master plan steering committee plus the public provide them back to the Master Plan Steering Committee and say, where would you like to go from here? Do you want minor changes, major changes? Do you want to throw it out and start all over again? How do you want to proceed? Hopefully not throw it out and start all over again. That would be a lot of work. But anyway, that's where we're at with it currently. So one idea that I'd like to ask the Master Plan Steering Committee is, so how would we like the how would we like the um feedback from the planning and zoning commission to be involved and can we planning zoning planning and zoning commission gather public comments because you all are really good at that i mean that's your bread and butter that's what you do and then feed that those public comments back to the master plan steering committee so they can take that all into consideration But I'd hate to move forward with that before the Master Plan Steering Committee gives us the green light. I don't want to, you know, that's basically where we're at. I do think that in the next couple of months we should hopefully be able to move something forward to Planning and Zoning Commission, but we'll see. Meanwhile, our staff has been doing a little analysis of the proposed master plan curse versus the current master plan and just as a as a point of reference as a framework for frame reference the urban service area that's the area where we're thinking that sanitary sewer service is going to be provided. Within that within the planning horizon. That the urban service area is proposed to shrink 16% from what it is currently and the reason is we've collaborated closely with the providers of the sanitary sewers, like the City of Wentzville, O'Fallon, Ducat Creek Sanitary District, and others. And we're trying to be realistic on where we think that sewers are actually going to go. So there are areas along the margins, like the northwest part of the county, the north central part of the county, along the western border, We don't feel like that it's realistically, those areas are going to, within the planning horizon, be developed. Doesn't mean that they never will, but that's just an example. So there's some areas that are now shown as suburban in our current master plan. We think it's more realistically, it's gonna be rural residential or even rural for foreseeable future. Just to give you an example. Again, we're, We have better tools than we ever have. We have better information. We've really collaborated closely. It's taken a lot of time, frankly, to get where we are today, in part because there's so many different agencies. We're working across the entire county. We're the only agency that's trying to show the continuous land use pattern that we're expecting for the entire county. cohesively, comprehensively. Everyone else is just looking at their own city and they're just showing what's in their own town. But is anyone actually looking at that all together and thinking about it holistically? Again, because St. Charles County is providing the funds for the roads, for the major arterial roadways, and obviously we want to have an integrated network that serves the areas that are going to be developed. So again, we want to look at the transportation network in an integrated way with future land use, and that's what we're hoping to do. Granted, we can't control what happens in the cities. That's up to them. But at least we can reflect what their thinking is and add it all up and sum it all up and see where all of this goes. One way to provide comments is to send written comments to our email address, planning.sccmo.org. That's one way to do it. You can access the current master plan draft online if you go to the county's website at sccmo.org and just in the search bar, look for master plan and it'll pop right up the link to that draft, the May 15th, 2026 master plan draft. On a couple of other topics, recently the County Council has passed an apartment moratorium for unincorporated St. Charles County. The thought that was expressed at the County Council meetings were underway with the master plan trying to give us direction policy on where we want to go in the future with housing. We know that housing is a big, big deal for people. And the thought expressed there was let's wait until we have the master plan done because next we're going to be going into the unified development ordinance. Those are the development rules. And we would like for the unified development ordinance to be updated in a way that reflects and implements the master plan recommendations. So that's where we're at with an apartment moratorium that was enacted by the County Council for the unincorporated areas of the county. There was another moratorium that was passed recently on just Monday night, I guess. Is that right? On the large data centers. That's actually countywide. And when I say large data centers, how that's defined is 100,000 square feet or larger. The reason that's important is because there's actually this whole range of size of data centers. Everyone's, when they're talking about data centers right now, they're talking about these really large hyperscale data centers that are millions of square feet and et cetera. But we have, I think, eight data centers already in St. Charles County that are smallish in comparison. For instance, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, they have a data center that's about 100,000 square feet in Weldon Spring. It's about 100 feet from the nearest residence. And we have MasterCard as their global transaction center. On their own campus, they have a data center. So we tried, the wording of the moratorium was specific to try to do a moratorium for what they term the larger data centers. And what it calls for is for a six month pause in the in the submittal and approvals of data centers, the large data centers countywide. In the interim, there's three different departments that are charged with coming up with recommendations and holding a public hearing and then reporting back to the County Council to see how the County Council wants to proceed. But just for reference, there are no zoning codes specifically in the county's Unified Development Ordinance that specifically address data centers. So the City of Wentzville, they have a short data center ordinance where it's a conditional use permit. It has to have certain, they must do X, Y, and Z. That's the only one that I'm aware of. I guess the City of St. Charles did a what I'll call it, a ban for a certain time period and it may or may not be permanent. I'm not sure what the wording is with theirs, but. So that's the data center.

I thought it was a 12-month.

The city was, I believe. The city is 12 months? I believe so. Okay.

I thought it was O'Fallon.

Some people are calling it a permanent ban, but I don't really know. It could be. I just thought it was the city.

I thought the city did that. I don't know if O'Fallon was O'Fallon.

Let's see, what else was I going to mention?

When will the Planning and Zoning Board get the Master Plan for us to review?

Well, that's what I wanted to get some feedback from the Master Plan Steering Committee. What I'd like to know is is this ready to go forward to the planning zoning Commission. I mean if the steering committee members think that no this is way off basis needs a lot more work than I want to send a prematurely. But if you think that all we can move forward with some some changes, then.

Can we get a summary of the comments? I guess the steering committee's gonna get those.

Yes, the steering committee's gonna. So far we haven't received that many comments at our planning.sccmo.org. Did I say that right? Planning at sccmo.org, yeah. Email address, but we're hoping to get more. We're advertising it, we're doing some social media. and hoping to get more comments i mean you see facebook posts about it right now people are saying x y and z but are they actually sending in the comments to the county or is it or are people just sharing it with their facebook friends or instagram or whatever all of us got a mention on somebody's facebook page by name

What's that? The members up here, all of the commission, that called us out that we were involved with it and all this stuff. Oh, I see. The wife sent that over to me. I could care less. She made sure she sent it to me.

Yeah. Let's see. One last thing. So we have our local voluntary buyout program. It's funded by Community Development Block Grant Funds. And where we're at with that is we are, we've closed on about a half dozen properties and these are homes where the homeowners, where the homeowners have agreed that they would like to sell the property because it's flood damage property, it's flood prone property, and they just would rather sell it to the county. The county has plans to demolish the homes and ensure that it's never built upon, it's always got to be government-owned, and it's going to be basically flip-plane property from here on out. So right now we've closed on about a half dozen. We have about two dozen that are in the process for being bought. We have another 24, 25 homes. We have an additional, say, 27 homes that are like the second round of buyouts. So altogether, I think we're working on the buyouts for 50 homes, roughly. We are going to hold a public hearing. And you might be interested in this, Mr. Baker. There's an area on Avon Place where over the years the county has bought out three homes so far using other grant funds. The subdivision was done in the 1960s when they just weren't paying attention to flood zones.

Is that St. Peter's?

It's Avon is off of, do you all remember what the?

Young Station.

Yeah, that sounds right. And it's in the heritage area.

Yeah, Avon is. I was wondering about those ones on St. Peter's Town Road.

Okay, St. Peter's Town Road, that's a different project that we're working on, but yeah, we're working on that as well. Avon Place, so we're going to be holding a public hearing to ask the public about their interest in expanding our local voluntary buyout program, buyout zone to include Avon Place, just because... it's really it's amazing and it's heartbreaking talking to some of the homeowners there where you know there's one person who said that his house floods about twice a year in two rooms of the house and he's owned it for 20 years or something and he's like I can't sell this house I mean he's gonna he's gonna buy it you know so if If the flood zone is expanded, then we may have additional people qualify if they're interested in selling their homes. And what you're talking about, St. Peter's Howell Road, there's a set of about four to five homes that are in the floodway. So there's a couple things going on with that. We did notifications recently for a notice of interest to see if anyone wanted to participate in a buyout, if we could find money. And we received back 2 or 1.

On St. Peter's Hill Road?

Yeah, on St. Peter's Hill Road.

I think it was just 1. Okay.

Yeah. And the one property owner who had been calling you, I know, and asking for buyout, moved. Yeah, moved. So we figured that part out.

I suspect that new owners are going to hear from them too once it rains.

Well, we're contacting the new owners to advise them of what the options are.

Thank you.

Yeah. So hopefully that will work out somewhere too. Those homes have been, according to the person who was contacting you, she said that like in the last six years it had flooded two or three times her home. I can't remember.

It used to be a septic lagoon.

Yeah. When it was, yeah, when it was, when it was, First platted and I forgot the year, but when they replatted it, it was a sewage lagoon literally where those homes were. They converted that sewage lagoon to development lots back in the 1970s. And again, that was before anyone was paying attention to flood zones.

I wasn't here. Yeah.

I mean while the highway department to do an engineering study on that culvert they are under some leaders are really on that.

So those those are some things we're working on with the county have to maintain this. So once you've demolished all the houses we just got the ground will that be. Any of it be converted to a park or green space or.

It could be that's a really interesting question because as as part of our our buyouts we've over the years we bought out so many homes is sort of like a patchwork quilt of properties that we own and there's since 1993 we bought out roughly 1400 homes. But some of those have been moved over to, say, City of St. Charles for parkland. So St. Charles County Incorporated, we only have to mow some of it, not all of it. But here's a good question. What's the appropriate way to maintain these properties? So, for instance, could some of it be converted to wildlife? What's the word I'm thinking for?

Yeah, habitat.

Could some of it be converted to wildlife habitat, for instance? And if you do, do you want to actively convert that back? Do you want to plant certain plants? Who's going to do that work? Do you want to make this an educational program to partner with schools at the same time as part of this whole effort? So that's a really interesting question, I think.

Okay. Any questions for staff?

Just a comment. I like the new format that you guys did with the outline.

Chair will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor sign aye. Aye.

We're adjourned. Not too bad. Not too bad.