According to the St. Louis Post Dispatach, the St. Charles County Council has granted approval to developer Greg Whittaker of NT Builders LLC to build 161 single-family homes and up to 60 multifamily units on a site near the Missouri Bluffs Golf Club, about 30 miles west of downtown St. Louis. The project has been opposed by environmental groups and local residents. “This is a very environmentally friendly subdivision,” said council member Joe Brazil, who voted to approve the project. “We believe we worked very hard with all the parties involved to make this a really good compromise.”
John Hickey, who heads the Missouri chapter of the Sierra Club, said his group would continue to fight the project. “This is the wrong place for this subdivision,” Hickey said in a written statement. “Wealthy developers with insider access should not be able to profit by converting public land into private profit.”
Approval from five of seven council members was needed for the project to pass, after the county’s planning and zoning commission voted 5-2 to recommend the council reject NT Builders’ layout and lot design, which requests a number of exceptions to county ordinances. Among other considerations, the design sought narrower roads and development on steeper slopes than usually allowed.
The vote Monday marked the second time the council reversed the recommendation of its planning and zoning commission against the plan. Last year, the council approved the concept for the subdivision in a 5-1 vote that was met with a chorus of boos from the crowd of several dozen in the council chambers. But developers needed to gain approval on a more detailed layout and lot design of the plan before they could break ground.
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