Beck seeks Philips tract partnership
City manager interested in state input.

By JUSTIN WILLETT of the Tribune’s staff

Story ran on Monday, June 25, 2001

As the owners of the Philips property push forward with plans to develop the land, Columbia city manager Ray Beck said he will set up a meeting with the Missouri Department of Conservation to discuss a possible partnership to purchase the land.

The land, a 500-acre parcel at the corner of Highway 63 and Gans Creek Road, has been the focus of increased scrutiny since it was designated as a commercial area on the city’s Metro 2020 plan last summer.

A study by Harding ESE Inc., an environmental engineering firm out of Maryland Heights, provided recommendations on how to minimize the impact of development on the farmland. Those recommendations include:

● Avoiding development within the Gans Creek floodplain.

● Minimizing development in the Gans Creek watershed portion of the property.

● Avoiding or minimizing impact to intermittent riparian areas.

● Avoiding or minimizing impact to shallow bedrock areas.

● Establishing a buffer surrounding Philips Lake.

● Using "best management practices" such as wet detention basins, vegetated drainage swales and other erosion control features.

But Craig Van Matre, the attorney for the limited partnerships created by the Philips family trust to manage the land, said the study is most significant for what it didn’t find.

"It says that there is no environmental situation on the property that would prevent us from developing the property as planned," Van Matre said. "What’s significant is what they didn’t find; they didn’t find karst topography, they didn’t find endangered wildlife."

A plan Van Matre submitted to the city manager in April showed a mix of uses for the land, similar to what the city’s Metro 2020 plan shows. It called for about 250 acres of residential development, 150 acres of commercial development and 40 acres of office space.

Van Matre said that is still the plan, and if the city isn’t serious about acquiring the land, his clients will move forward.

Beck said he will try to set up a meeting with the conservation department to find out if there’s any interest in public ownership. "We’re probably going to see if there are any other public agencies interested in working with the city" in looking at public ownership, Beck said.

Jeff Cockerham, Missouri Department of Conservation Central Region Outreach and Education supervisor, said his department has an interest in the land, but the price has always been too prohibitive.

"It would be a nice property for acquisition," Cockerham said. "There would be a possibility if we could work with different agencies."

Van Matre said the price of the land is still undetermined.

Mary Lottes, a member of the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition, said there was a meeting in late March to discuss preservation of the Philips tract that included the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Department of Natural Resources, the Greenbelt Coalition, Boone County Smart Growth Coalition, Columbia Parks and Recreation, Jim Davis, the Sierra Club and the Boone County Parks Commission.

Lottes said the consensus was that the groups wanted to preserve the land but would have trouble coming up with the money to buy it. "They all were interested in a partnership," Lottes said. "The final straw was just coming up with this money."

Lottes said even though the Philips property itself might not have karst topography or endangered animals, the watersheds do. The Clear and Gans creeks come together to form the Bonne Femme Watershed, which drains into Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

Reach Justin Willett at (573) 815-1720 or jwillett@tribmail.com