Jefferson City zoning commission OKs residential development

Council approval needed for residential, commercial lots at W. Edgewood and Stadium West

The Jefferson City Planning and Zoning Commission has given approval to a plan for a major residential development.

At their meeting Thursday night, the commission gave approval for what will be known as Ridgecrest Subdivision.

Twehous Excavating, which owns the property, is looking to turn the 68 acre area at the southwest corner of the intersection of West Edgewood Drive and West Stadium Boulevard into 88 residential lots and nine commercial lots.

This is the same area where the development known as Schepkers Farm was planned to go in, but the developers went into bankruptcy and Twehous, which had done the grading work on the property, acquired it through bankruptcy proceedings in 2007.

City staff recommended approval of the rezoning and plat work for Ridgecrest noting they were similar to the previously approved Schepkers plans, which were done in March 2005 and February 2006.

The residential portion of Ridgecrest would be developed in a duplex/multi-family manner similar to the adjacent Portabello Place/Noting Hill development.

Phase one of the development is proposed on the southwest corner of the property, which could be accessed via Portabello Place Drive and would consist of 15 residential lots.

Paul Sampson with Central Missouri Professional Services, which is a consultant for Twehous, said most of the lots will be two-unit residences, with a few three-units. They would also have brick and stone on the front and could be either rentals or condos.

"These are not going to be apartments," he told the commission. "This would take care of an eyesore to the community and address the need for this type of housing."

Although no one spoke in opposition to the plan, there were neighbors who expressed some concerns.

"The last time they said there would be minimal blasting and I ended up with a cracks in may driveway and other damage," said Gary Dey. "With no seismometer I wasn't able to prove the blasting caused the damage. I'm not against new construction, but I just don't want to see the same thing happen again."

Ed Twehous, blasting division manger for Twehous Excavating, said they did expect to do some blasting on what would be the north end of the property for commercial development, but most of the blasting work was done during the last development process.

"A lot of the lots on the top of the hill were over blasted," he said. "As we do pre-blast surveys we let residents know about the blasting and where seismometers are placed and if they have questions or concerns we can meet with them."

The preliminary plat for Ridgecrest calls for four named streets. Portabello Place Drive would extend from the existing intersection at Noting Hill Drive and would connect to Stadium Boulevard. Cathedral Rock Drive would intersect with Portabello Place Drive and would serve as access to two new culs-de-sac, Senteniel Rock Drive and Arch Rock Drive, and would dead end at property owned by the Jefferson City School District on the south side of the subdivision.

When complete, the subdivision would have two traffic access points, at Stadium Boulevard and at Portabello Place Drive, with an eventual third access point to the neighboring school district property that would provide access to Missouri 179 at the new St. Mary's interchange. City staff said the proposed road network provides for street connectivity to neighboring property as envisioned in the Missouri 179 and Mission Drive connecting road master plan that was developed during the planning phase of the Mission Drive Interchange.

Neighbors were concerned with the increase in traffic Ridgecrest would bring and said Portabello and Noting Hill couldn't handle additional traffic.

City staff said while exact traffic calculations are difficult to figure given the size of the subdivision and unknown future use of each individual lot, their calculations anticipate an increase of approximately 50 peak hour vehicle trips due to the rezoning of the property.

They compared the adjacent Stadium Boulevard, which has a peak hour traffic count of about 1,362 vehicles based on a traffic count conducted in November 2013. The expected increase in traffic for this development is less than the 100 peak hour vehicle trips or 15 percent increase on existing traffic that would trigger a traffic impact analysis.

The Ridgecrest proposal now goes to the city council for final approval. A public hearing and vote is scheduled for the Nov. 17 council meeting.