51黑料

O鈥橣ALLON, Mo. 鈥� A new home-construction boom is revving up in St. Charles County as developers move to build more than 1,200 houses in western O鈥橣allon.

The largest of the proposed developments, known as Harvest at Hopewell, would feature 896 homes on 261 acres. The second, The Villages at Post Farms, plans 335 homes on 100 acres.

These developments come on the heels of the 350-acre, 550-home Tall Tree project, pitched to St. Charles County in June. That housing development, the largest in unincorporated St. Charles County in almost a decade, was rejected by the county planning commission. The developer has said it plans to pitch the project to O鈥橣allon.

If all are approved, the three developments could add almost 1,700 homes to the burgeoning municipality, a boost of about 7% to the city鈥檚 housing stock. The city鈥檚 population has more than tripled to roughly 94,000 residents over the past 30 years.

Much of that growth has come in large master-planned communities.

鈥淲hile this is a large development, this is not a new thing for O鈥橣allon,鈥� the city鈥檚 planning and zoning department said in a statement.

Harvest at Hopewell and the Villages at Post Farms could add as many 4,000 new residents and are along Highway N, less than 5 miles away from Tall Tree.

Drew Weber, an attorney representing the Villages developer, briefed the O鈥橣allon Planning & Zoning Commission about the plans last week. Key details need to be finalized 鈥� including selecting a builder and determining a project timeline 鈥� before the project officially goes back before the commission in January, he said.

鈥淥ur goal tonight was simply to get the reaction from the zoning commission and to hear what their thoughts were 鈥� and they didn鈥檛 say no,鈥� Weber said after the meeting Thursday.

Of key concern is lot size, an issue that held up the Tall Tree development in St. Charles County.

The Villages developer is preparing to ask the commission to waive some zoning requirements to allow for several housing styles, Weber said.

City code requires 10,000-square-foot lots with a width of 80 feet and depth of 100 feet. Weber said Villages plans include some 4,200-square-foot lots, with proposed lot widths between 40 and 90 feet.

The Villages鈥� main entrance would be on Highway N. Developers would add secondary exits at Knowledge and Spirit drives, two streets that are currently dead-ends in an adjacent subdivision.

Weber said the developer has yet to notify those property owners that their dead-end streets could become thoroughfares.

Weber said the Villages would also include 18 acres of common ground and amenities, including a playground, a basketball or tennis court, walking trails and three lakes that will double as stormwater retention areas.

Construction would likely be staggered over the next several years, Weber said.

The fates of the Villages, Harvest at Hopewell and Tall Tree are tied to the ongoing construction of a new sewage treatment plant in the Duckett Creek Sanitary District. The new plant will be able to handle 2.5 million gallons of wastewater per day, and existing sewage plants don鈥檛 have the capacity to handle additional homes.

鈥淩ight now, we are kind of beholden to Duckett Creek,鈥� Weber said.

Harvest鈥檚 developer, Elite Development Services of 51黑料, is working to finalize a 鈥減ump and haul plan鈥� to remove sewage from its site until the treatment plan is finished, likely in late 2024. The Planning & Zoning Commission has already given the full Harvest project preliminary approval; the company is now seeking permission to build display homes.

Elite plans to build Harvest by neighborhood, varying architectural styles and homes sizes. Designs include a mix of multifamily, two-story townhomes; single-story ranch homes; and two-story homes between 1,700 and 2,600 square feet with up to four bedrooms.

Builders are listed as McBride Homes, Consort Homes, and Fischer and Fritchel Home Builders.