Residents in the area of Old Cotton Road northwest of Foristell were indignant when they came to speak to the Warren County planning and zoning board in March about a proposal to build a neighborhood of duplex homes near their properties.

The planning and zoning board on March 16 heard a proposal from KRR Holdings to establish an 18-acre area, accessed by Old Cotton Road, where duplexes or similar adjoined housing could be constructed. Warren County ordinance requires that style of multifamily housing to receive special permission from the planning and zoning board and then the Warren County Commission.

Old Cotton Road is a narrow, half-mile-long gravel road that splits off from the paved Cotton Road about a mile north of Interstate 70.

Kurt Daniels with Cochran Engineering, speaking on behalf of the development company, told planning board members that KRR Holdings plans to build 96 living units in the development area. He said that the proposed street, housing, and utility layout for the neighborhood all meet county requirements. 

However, Old Cotton Road is too narrow and poor condition to handle that volume of residential traffic, Daniels said. He stated that the developer is aware that they might have to work with the government to upgrade Old Cotton Road, and potentially also make improvements to the pavement of nearby Cotton Road.

“We know we’re going to have to do something with Old Cotton Road. There’s no doubt,” Daniels said.

Despite that acknowledgment, eight nearby residents who also came to address the planning board repeatedly cited the poor conditions of Cotton Road and Old Cotton Road as serious concerns for bringing in a neighborhood.

“Cotton Road is already unsafe. It was never designed for the traffic that’s going to be put on it by this new development,” said Linda Stoehner, echoing comments from several other neighbors.

But more than concerns about traffic and road safety, the surrounding property owners said they just don’t want to live around duplexes, and suspect they won’t like the people who come to live there.

“Right now, there’s a wooded line that we get to view every day as the sun sets. If they put this in, they’re going to take that wooded line out and we’re going to be looking down a row of homes,” commented Keith Collier, who lives just to the east. He added that rental properties “tend to bring riff raff” and said he is concerned about drug users moving in.

“I lived in rental properties myself in St. Louis County. ... I had $10,000-worth of tools stolen out of my truck, in my driveway, in front of my duplex,” Collier said. “I moved out to the country to enjoy it.”

Another neighbor, Brandt Ridder, said that his family had also moved out to the rural area of Foristell in order to live in their dream home on 6 acres, and that the duplex development would destroy that dream.

“I’m firmly against duplexes and rentals,” Ridder declared, reiterating safety concerns. “It’s rentals. I think we all know what rentals are. They make it sound like they’re trying to make it great for families and have homes for families. But that’s not what this is; it’s all about the money.

“It’s going to be awful for everybody that’s lived there a long time,” Ridder continued. “This (land) is a slice of our own heaven, and this is going to kill it.”

Half a dozen other neighbors shared largely similar concerns, also adding fears of noise disturbances, trespassing, and “slum houses” to their complaints.

Members of the planning board, for their part, focused their questions on how the developer would address the need for road improvements and also meet all the accommodations for duplex residents that Warren County would require. However, in response to the concerns expressed by neighbors, the planning board postponed any vote on the proposed development until the board’s April 20 meeting.

Once the planning board votes on the neighborhood development proposal, that vote would become a recommendation for the Warren County Commission, which would make a final decision on the proposal at a later date.