Neighbors win some development fights

By STEVE FRIEDMAN of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, June 22, 2003

The names read like prominent development tombstones: Philips farm, 1994; Windy Point, 2001; Columbia Commons, 2001; Park de Ville, 2003.

Neighbors - worried about environmental pollution, increased traffic or deflated property values - have helped scuttle several commercial and residential projects in and around Columbia. The derailed list includes some of Columbia’s prominent developers and the world’s largest retailer:

? Wal-Mart stepped back from plans last month to build a 24-hour Supercenter at Fairview Road and Broadway after heated opposition from the Park de Ville Neighborhood Association.

? The rejected Windy Point housing proposal from developer Cris Burnam faced a number of complaints between 1999 to 2001 from north Columbia residents who said it would lower property values and attract crime.

? Bob LeMone and partner Tom Glosier in June 1994 lost out in their attempt to rezone Philips farm after neighbors opposed plans to make it a mixed-use development.

It’s hard to find any development that will please every adjacent landowner. But some of the more recent neighborhood battles with developers brings Craig Van Matre to liken it to the Mideast crisis.

"Some neighborhood people have so much hate in their heart that they’re not willing to compromise" on developments, said Van Matre, who was Burnam’s attorney on the Windy Point proposal and represents Columbia’s billionaire developer Stan Kroenke. Van Matre also represents the Philips trust that wants to sell the farm to local developer Elvin Sapp.

Spiking a development proposal can be bittersweet.

While preserving precious peace and quiet, neighbors can lose out on lucrative perks that often accompany development deals such as extensive road improvements and lush recreational areas, Van Matre said.

Neighbors can object to development proposals for many reasons.

In Windy Point’s case, Van Matre said, neighbors complained because the plan would have allowed more than 100 mobile homes in its mixed-residential development. He said, however, that rejecting the development would also limit the amount of affordable housing options in Columbia.

No matter how much grassroots power a neighborhood might have, developments are still going to happen, Larry Hine figures.

Hine and other members of the Valleyview Gardens Neighborhood Association in the fall of 2001 were vocal about the residential and commercial Columbia Commons development, which was proposed on land behind Toastmaster’s property on North Stadium Boulevard. The proposed development withered when its anchor, Famous-Barr, decided to go to the former Biscayne Mall site.

Hine said that developer The Herring Group met with the association very early in the planning process, and the association expressed its concerns during a fairly cordial meeting.

"But sometimes I feel like these meetings are like a little pat on the head to us so they can go ahead on with their plans," Hine said. "We’ve been approached by other developers, but they just went ahead and did what they wanted to anyway."

Hine said that much of the neighborhood would like to see the mostly wooded area behind Toastmaster stay the way it is, "but development is bound to happen. One way I approach these things is to not always be negative and see what can fit into this area."

Neighborhood efforts aren’t always successful. Broadway Marketplace, the home of Sam’s Club, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart Supercenter, faced opposition in the early 1990s because it lacked buffers between residential and commercial areas.

North of the Philips farm is Bearfield Meadows, a 35-acre, 128-home development.

The Columbia City Council approved its development plan in September 2000 despite opposition over the amount of runoff that would be added to the Little Bonne Femme watershed.

While Broadway Marketplace’s development led to several years of storm-water and erosion problems that the developer had to pay for, Bearfield Meadows has been lauded for having effective runoff control.

Barbara Hoppe, president of the Hinkson Valley Neighborhood Association that has Broadway Marketplace in its area, believes it’s ultimately good for developments to check with neighborhood associations before moving forward.

"Sometimes things are done out of ignorance rather than bad intentions," she said. "I don’t think the concept that each property isn’t an island unto itself is often embraced by everyone. We all have a responsibility to keep Columbia a good place to live."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach Steve Friedman at (573) 815-1713 or sfriedman@tribmail.com.