A front-page article in the May 28 Tribune said, "Nothing’s happened yet on the 500-acre Philips tract in southeast Columbia," which is true today. On June 6, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-3 to deny a request for permanent R-3 zoning on a 75-acre parcel of the Philips property. However, the final decision will be made by the Columbia City Council when it meets Monday. R-3 zoning would allow up to 1,275 apartment units on this 75-acre parcel. The council should follow the advice of Planning and Zoning and deny the request. City Manager Ray Beck’s negotiations with MU Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services Kee Groshong concerning a high-tech research park at the Highway 63-Gans Road intersection also should be put on indefinite hold. Nothing should happen concerning this property, or any other property along the Columbia to Ashland Highway 63 corridor, until a comprehensive land use plan is in place to protect the public interests in this ecologically fragile area.

Some common-sense principles of watershed protection Correct behavior can be expected to follow agreement upon correct principles. Defining correct principles is the challenge. “Our” principles reflect what we believe to be true.  — Little Bonne Femme Watershed Partnership ● Most disagreements about watersheds are about beliefs, not facts. ● Watersheds are ecological communities, of which we people are but members. ● Watersheds function according to physical and biological laws of nature. ● Prevention is a better solution to pollution than is dilution. ● We can’t repeal the laws of nature through science and engineering. ● We all live in watersheds. Anything we do affects everything else in our watershed. ● Individual property rights cannot take precedence over community property rights. ● Responsibility is not just a matter of economics — people and principles matter. ● Healthy community growth has “natural limits.” ● As humans, we can choose to either protect or degrade watersheds.

Development of land along this corridor is not just a matter to be negotiated among representatives of the city, the county, the university and potential developers. The people of Columbia, Boone County and the state must be given an active role in the planning process. The development of this land inevitably will have an impact on the two most valuable pieces of publicly owned property in the area: Rock Bridge Memorial State Park and Three Creeks State Conservation Area.

The entire Bonne Femme Creek and Little Bonne Femme Creek watershed area, in which these two public nature areas are located, is an extremely fragile ecological region. The Highway 63 corridor simply cannot be developed to its full economic potential without destroying the ecological integrity of both public and private natural resources in this area. Thus, development along this corridor must be carefully planned to limit the intensity of development if both private and public interests are to be served.

Though approval of a zoning request for a 75-acre tract might seem inconsequential to overall development of this area, it is not. Craig Van Matre, attorney for the Philips partnerships, has said annexation and zoning of this property would be "a first step toward bringing sewer lines and other utilities to the whole tract." The sewer system for this area of the city is already operating at full capacity. Thus, annexation and zoning would obligate the city for a major public investment in new infrastructure - an investment that could be justified only by further intensive development in the area. Van Matre admits in the May 28 article that his "efforts to get the an interchange built in northwest Columbia" are part of a strategy to get "an interchange at the Philips tract." It only seems logical that his efforts to zone the 75-acre tract are part of a strategy for commercial development of the Philips tract, which would justify the Philips tract interchange.

An interchange at Highway 63 and Gans Road inevitably would lead to further commercial development to the south, eventually meeting up with Ashland’s northward expansion. As Beck said in the article, "this kind of thinking is going on well in advance of anything happening." This is an important public matter, and the public must be actively involved in the advance-thinking process.

In a previous policy resolution, the city council expressed "its strong preference for planned development," not open zoning, "in the portion of the Little Bonne Femme Creek watershed above Rock Bridge State Park," which includes the entire Philips tract. City and county planning commissions already have discussed the possibility of joint planning of the upper Little Bonne Femme area. Decisions made within the next year could nullify all of these good intentions. Decisions set precedents - even if they are wrong. Approval of high-density development for one developer sets a precedent for high-density development for the next who claims an equal right to maximize economic value. An interchange at Gans Road sets a precedent for another interchange a couple of miles further south.

Eventually the entire corridor would be filled with apartments, shopping centers, office complexes, motels and fast-food franchises - because those in positions of power lacked the courage to develop a logical land use plan and follow it. The public property rights of the people of Missouri will have been trampled in the filth and mud that will clog the once-clear, free-flowing streams of Rock Bridge and Three Creeks nature areas. Those streams are the very "life’s blood" of fragile, living ecosystems. When the life of these streams is destroyed - by flooding, erosion and pollution from storm-water runoff from high-density development along the Highway 63 corridor - these valuable public resources essentially will be destroyed, as will the ecological value of private lands in these watersheds. While the right to develop private property is important, it cannot take precedent over the right of the people to protect public property.

The citizens groups involved in protecting the two Bonne Femme Creek watersheds are not opposed to all development along the Highway 63 corridor - not even to high-density residential and commercial development in limited areas. But we are concerned that the ecological integrity of these watersheds be protected from excess development. We are concerned that the good of the community, the public good, be balanced with economic development considerations. Economic development that diminishes quality of life for existing residents and for residents of surrounding communities that don’t promote such development is not community betterment.

The Little Bonne Femme Watershed Partnership has developed a set of principles of watershed protection that we feel should guide all economic development. Several of these are reflected in the above opinions. We believe rejection of the proposed zoning of the 75-acre Philips tract is justified by these principles. We also believe these principles might prove valuable in developing and implementing a comprehensive city-county land use plan for the entire ecologically sensitive area between Columbia and Ashland.