Story ran on Thursday, April 26 2001

A development plan for the 515-acre Philips tract southeast of Columbia details a decidedly different future for the environmentally sensitive area than land preservationists envisioned.

In a plan submitted recently to city manager Ray Beck’s office, a proposed rezoning map shows a mix of uses for the property bordered by Highway 63 to the northeast and Gans Road to the south.

The plan, submitted by Craig Van Matre, an attorney for the Philips’ family trust, calls for about 250 acres of single-family and high-density residential development, 150 acres of planned commercial use and 40 acres of office space.

The rest, Van Matre said, would include green space and an already existing lake. The plan calls for three new roads within the property.

Van Matre said he presented the plan to the city "so that the city staff would have a heads up on where we were going so that they wouldn’t be caught by surprise."

Less than a year ago, a similar map of planned development for the 111-acre Stephens Lake property in eastern Columbia prompted the city and parks advocates to campaign for its public acquisition. Their crusade resulted in a new city park and a permanent tax for parks and recreation. The city will pay about $8 million for the lake and surrounding land.

Mayor Darwin Hindman, who favors preserving the Philips tract, said the development plan "obviously puts a lot of pressure on all sorts of people, but I think we have to remember that the impact of this or whatever decision is made … it’s going to be permanent, and we’re just not going to let it get ahead of our ability to make proper decisions."

Many, including Van Matre, some city officials and environmentalists, have acknowledged the city alone probably couldn’t afford to pay fair-market value for the property. Van Matre said he doesn’t know what that value would be.

"There are a number of things that would impact that value," said Van Matre, citing officials’ plans to draft a citywide storm-water ordinance and any potential for a Highway 63 overpass near the property.

Hindman said he wouldn’t vote to approve any development plan before the city council implements an ordinance regulating runoff into streams.

"I personally would have to know that whatever plan that we might approve will meet the basic standards that we would expect to have in the storm-water ordinance," he said.

He hopes to schedule a meeting of city officials and representatives of the family, the Missouri Departments of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Trust for Public Land to discuss public acquisition.

"We could sit down and talk about what these different agencies or interests might do to put something together and what possible sources of funds there might be," Hindman said.

Harding ESE of Maryland Heights, an environmental engineering firm, is evaluating what impact development would have on the site, Van Matre said.

Van Matre plans to submit a plan to the city Planning and Zoning Commission this summer after he receives "detailed reports to where I can with confidence predict that developing that property’s not going to hurt the environment."

The idea that the area could safely be developed is "ignorant and laughable," said Tom Moran of the Osage Chapter of the Sierra Club.

"Any development whatsoever on that piece of land would severely impact the streams and the wildlife of the area," Moran said.