Neighbors win battle over Crosscreek development
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, January 18, 2008
(http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2008/jan/20080118comm004.asp)

About two weeks ago, on Jan. 7, the Columbia Planning and Zoning Commission rejected the plea from the Stadium/63 LLC folks to add "auto dealership" to the list of acceptable uses at the Crosscreek development. "Crosscreek" is the handle chosen for an area just west of Highway 63 that was once a heavily wooded, steep hillside.

This ill-conceived auto-dealership notion now goes to the city council for consideration, and I hope the council follows the Planning and Zoning Commission lead. When the Stadium/63 LLC developers first met with the neighborhood associations, an auto dealership (complete with outside display area, service department and used car lot) was one of the things specifically excluded.

Now, even though the neighbors still want this excluded, the developers are trying to "sneak one in the back door," in the words of one of the nearby residents. It seems that no hotel or motel was interested in this site, even though that was the use the developers designated, going so far as to propose an eight-story building at the site. So the developers started negotiating with an auto dealership (Joe Machens’ Toyota, to be exact). The only problem was that this would require a change in the list of excluded uses in the plan that the Planning and Zoning Commission previously approved.

True to form, the attorney for the Stadium/63 LLC developers said this proposal was the best thing since sliced bread and would drastically reduce the number of vehicles entering and leaving the area. This is probably true because a car lot does not involve nearly as much traffic as a large motel.

But the neighborhood associations and a few nearby residents expressed many other concerns. Among these were additional pollution of Grindstone Creek. New and used car display lots have oodles of impervious surfaces, places where rainwater does not soak in but quickly runs off. The concern was that the rainwater would not only be much warmer than the waters of Grindstone Creek but also would carry off all of the things that leak out of cars: oil, gas, hydraulic fluids and antifreeze.

Another concern was the "gateway" issue. Folks coming to or leaving Columbia or the University of Missouri via Highway 63 would be subjected to a car lot as the first and last image of our city. "Is this the impression we want to relay?" asked several of the neighbors, and it was repeated, in a more positive vein, by members of the commission.

In the end, the neighbors had their way and the Stadium/63 developers, their consultants and their attorney went off to lick their wounds.

On a related note, on Jan. 8 the Missouri Department of Transportation held its required meeting with the public to discuss several alternatives for what is called the East Side Traffic Enhancement Program. Interestingly, every plan of the five presented showed the corridor of the extended Stadium Boulevard (Highway 740) going right through the middle of the Crosscreek development. Call me a cynic, but by getting the zoning changed from A-1 to Planned Commercial (CP), the fair-market value of this land went up dramatically.

Fortunately, MoDOT doesn’t have any money to do any of the alternatives presented. But when and if the money is forthcoming, the corridor will have been chosen, and all of the requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act will have been met. All that will be left to do is to throw money at the landowners in the chosen corridor and start the bulldozers.

All of this is a shame. What was once a haven for wildlife has been converted into a haven for retailers and, sooner or later, a haven for vehicles headed to and from Interstate 70.

All the neighbors are trying to do is lessen the impact and try to ensure that the area gets no uglier than it already is. Maybe the city council will follow the lead of the Planning and Zoning Commission and listen to these neighbors.