An enterprising construction business has received approval to operate out of a property about 15 minutes south of Wright City in rural Warren County.

The Warren County Planning and Zoning Board issued its approval for Enloe & Son Construction, located at 25573 South Lohman Road, during a public hearing on March 31. Business owner Dale Enloe said he purchased the property more than a year ago and has been improving it to use as an equipment yard for himself and his small, but growing company that specializes in concrete work.

Enloe said he had already been storing equipment there, but applied for a conditional use permit from the county to allow construction of a facility for his business. He said he plans to put up a shed building that’s roughly 4,400 square feet in order to store some of his equipment indoors to keep it out of the weather.

“As our business grows, we may also move our office there (into the building),” Enloe added. He said he wanted to cement the permitting for his company before any sort of residential development comes to the area and tries to push his business away.

Members of the planning board unanimously approved a permit for the construction business on March 31, with the condition that all vehicles and equipment need to be parked to the side or rear of the building. Enloe agreed that he would keep any outdoor equipment to the rear of the facility to keep it out of sight and avoid making it a target for any mischief.

Enloe said he’s had to put a lot of work into the property, getting utilities installed and cleaning up a huge mess left by a previous property owner, just to be able to run his business there.

“When we bought it, we had two dump trucks, a back hoe, and three skid loaders for three days hauling garbage off of this property,” Enloe commented. “We’re slowly improving the property. ... I’m not a super wealthy man, and we can’t do it all at once, but we’re at the state where we can afford to put up a nice building.”

Only one nearby resident added any comments to the public hearing. She said that while she would prefer not to live next to a construction business, Enloe is a huge improvement over her previous neighbor.

“The property he has is clean and nice. I would prefer a house on it, but given the circumstances that were there (before), it’s a lot better than it was,” the neighbor commented.

Planning board members did spend some time debating whether to restrict the number of vehicles and construction equipment that could be stored on the property. However, with Enloe saying he plans to grow his business, some board members were nervous that setting a number too low would be an unwarranted burden.

“I just want to make sure that he’s not going to have 50 pieces of equipment out there,” countered board member Jeff Stassi.

The board eventually settled on the creative compromise of restricting where vehicles and equipment can park, relative to the building. It’s a restriction that is relatively self-limiting, but doesn’t try to guess at what number of equipment is the right amount.