51黑料

CREVE COEUR 鈥� Residents here are urging city leaders to delay a plan to redevelop the former Bayer campus into a downtown concept until more guidelines are added that they say will keep the project from disturbing existing homes.

Fireside Financial and its development partner, Jack Matthews Development, want to build a mixed-use redevelopment with apartments, townhomes, retail, hotels, office buildings and other commercial space at the former Bayer property, at 10300 Olive Boulevard. The City Council is expected to vote Monday on rezoning the land for the project, called Olia Village.

The 96-acre project stands to be transformational for Creve Coeur, a suburb of roughly 18,600 residents, said Mayor Robert Hoffman. Fireside is expected to request tax incentives for construction, which would take at least five years to complete.

鈥淭his is maybe the largest investment in the city we鈥檝e ever had,鈥� Hoffman said.

But more than 200 residents have signed a petition urging the council to delay Monday鈥檚 vote, citing concerns about the site鈥檚 transition from an office park to a downtown concept, including noise and light disturbances, traffic congestion, storm water runoff and multi-story buildings on elevated ground too close to existing houses.

鈥淲here we live, we will clearly see it, hear it and feel it,鈥� said Steve Melnick, who has lived behind the campus for 20 years. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e looking for is to mitigate that.鈥�

Many residents say they support a mixed-use redevelopment of the land but their input has been largely ignored by the city and the developer.

鈥淲e want a great development there,鈥� Melnick said. 鈥淏ut we want it done thoughtfully and with our involvement.鈥�

Fireside Financial declined comment Friday.

The push from residents echoes a debate over a similar project in Chesterfield, where hundreds of residents complained that a planned mixed-use redevelopment of the former Chesterfield Mall included too much housing and lacked guidelines to ensure a mixed-use concept. Following a series of delays, the City Council approved the plan in September after negotiating changes including less housing and limits on building height.

Olia Village would border neighborhoods along North Spoede Road, including houses that back up to the former Bayer campus. The planned zoning would allow developers to build within 50 feet of residents鈥� property lines.

David Singer, who has lived behind the campus since 2017, said that鈥檚 closer than Bayer built them.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e talking about putting a construction site 50 feet from our house,鈥� Singer said. 鈥淭hey have done zero research on how this will affect home values.鈥�

Singer and other residents want the city to extend the buffer and ensure the developers will plant enough trees to block off the development.

Existing plans limit building height in the development to eight stories.

But the land slopes down from Olive Boulevard to the neighborhoods on Spoede Road, and developers plan to grade the land and build a retaining wall near the property line 鈥� so the side of the buildings facing backyards will appear much taller than eight stories, Singer said.

Hoffman said the city has made changes in response to residents concerns, including expanding the 50-foot buffer from a 35-foot buffer the developer originally proposed. The Planning and Zoning commission voted unanimously Oct. 2 to make that change and recommend approval of the plan, after three meetings to hear public debate.

Fireside first publicized a general concept for the land after buying it in late 2022. Creve Coeur issued a public notice in August for the first Planning and Zoning meeting and mailed a notice to area residents, who then attended meetings that totaled around 10 hours, Hoffman said.

鈥淲e鈥檝e spent many hours on this and never denied any person the opportunity to speak,鈥� said Hoffman, who has a tie-breaking vote for the eight-member city council.

The tallest building in the project, an eight-story parking garage, will be 200 feet away from the property line with existing homes, Hoffman said. The closest buildings to residents will be office buildings that are limited to three stories tall.

Melnick argued the city鈥檚 changes don鈥檛 go far enough to make a difference for the campus neighbors. A few weeks wasn鈥檛 enough time for residents to review the plans, and it wasn鈥檛 until recent days that City Council members visited their homes to see the view from their yards, Melnick said.

鈥淲e were included so late in the process,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his project is unprecedented, and perhaps there should have been an unprecedented process to communicate with residents about the potential impacts.鈥�

Plans for the Olia Village project call for four 鈥渟ub-districts鈥�: a main street of retail and apartments, a mixed-use area, an office district and a residential district of 65 single-family homes.

Bayer鈥檚 sprawling campus crossed both sides of Lindbergh Boulevard and long served as Monsanto鈥檚 headquarters before Bayer bought the company in 2018.

The German agriculture conglomerate no longer needed the entire campus as employees shifted to a hybrid schedule during the pandemic. The eastern part of the campus remains Bayer鈥檚 North American headquarters.

Edwardsville-based Fireside bought the portion of the site that鈥檚 west of Lindbergh Boulevard last year for $55 million, according to 51黑料 County records.