Development of Philips Property Fact Sheet
Location
of Property:
West side of US 63 Highway, south of the Boone County Historical Museum,
north of Gans Road, and west of Bearfield Road.
One-half mile from Rock Bridge Memorial State Park (Gans Wild Area)
On the property is a 40 acre lake.
Size
of Area Proposed for Zoning: 489.3 acres.
77% or ~ ¾ in Clear Creek Watershed
23% or ¼ in Gans Creek Watershed
Runoff from the Philips Property flows into Gans and Clear Creek.
Gans and Clear Creek flows together in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park
to form Little Bonne Femme Creek, which then flows to the MO River.
Philips Tract Represents ~13% of Clear Creek Watershed and 1.2% of Gans
Creek Watershed
Current
Zoning: A-1: Agricultural
Proposed Zoning:
Largest proposed development in Boone County’s history!
Property will be divided up into 9 tracts each with different levels (15% to 85%) of development or impervious surface (roads, parking lots, rooftops, etc).
36% of the property will be developed or have impervious surface.
233 acres of the property will be developed for residential (Tracts 1 & 2 & 3) with % average impervious of 20% with plans for 750 residences.256 acres of property will have commercial development with average impervious of 49%.
The area that would be zoned commercial is larger than Columbia Mall, Biscayne Mall and Crossroads Shopping Center put together, and would require nearly twice as many parking spaces (12,000).
The plan calls for grading 38 acres of the Gans Watershed to shift the flow of those acres from the Gans to the Clear Creek Watershed. This would require a massive amount of earth moving within the Gans Creek Watershed.
The plan calls for using the 40 acre lake as the main device for cleaning up stormwater pollutants. The plan will use other Best Management Practices (BMPs) to try to mitigate the effects of stormwater runoff.
The plan calls for the City of Columbia (taxpayers) to buy the 40 acre lake and the surrounding area as a city park and to maintain all stormwater BMPs on the property.
The plan calls for a diamond interchange near US Highway 63 and Gans Road. To justify the interchange, Gans Road would have to be upgraded to carry more traffic, probably a level of traffic equivalent to Broadway, Stadium, or Grindstone Parkway. Gans Road would have to be extended through to Providence Road.
Reasons to oppose current Philips Property Zoning Plan
1. Rock Bridge State Park is threatened by this development:
1. The Phillips Tract would extend within a half mile of the Gans Creek Wild Area
2. Clear and Gans Creek flow through Rock Bridge State Park and the development will drain into these streams.
3. Gans Creek is listed as an Outstanding State Resource stream, falling under state protection.
4. The development would require enlarging existing roads in the Gans Creek watershed: an interchange at Gans Creek has been proposed, which would lead to severe degradation of Gans Creek watershed.
5. The scale of the Phillips development will draw more development into the area.
6. Will be difficult to keep level a lower level of development in the watersheds of Rock Bridge State Park and Three Creeks Conservation Area if this large development is approved.
2. All scientific research to date shows the proposed level of development is likely to have a significant negative impact on the Gans and Clear Creeks In one or more ways:
1. Because of increases in polluted storm water runoff.
2. Change in stream flow, channel shape, or species diversity. This won't just affect the streams. The streams are connected in intimate ways to bottomland forest plant communities, to terrestrial species that feed on stream organisms, and to recreational uses of the streams.
3. In spite of the engineer's claims that these impacts can be reduced by best management practices (BMPs) that slow down and filter storm water, current surveys of available scientific studies shows little evidence that the amount of proposed impervious surface proposed can be managed with BMPs. There is no guarantee that the proposed best management practices will protect the watershed. Not only that, attempts to go back and fix streams degraded by stormwater flowing off high levels of impervious surface have failed to bring back streams to their original condition.4. No detailed science based site specific studies have been done on the property to determine what level of development can be done and not harm the streams and Rock Bridge State Park.
5. The conceptual storm water plan relies on educational and regulatory safeguards the city has not yet put in place. Moreover, once zoning is granted, land can be sold to other developers with whom the city may not have a relationship, and against whom the city may not be able to enforce agreements. For example, cities cannot force homeowners to use pesticides in a responsible manner. A small number of bad actors could undermine the effectiveness of the proposed storm water plan.
6. The conceptual storm water plan relies on constructed BMPs that require long term maintenance to be effective. It is not clear who would have long term responsibility. This may be a serious problem in the future if retail activity does not meet expectations or if it declines as the facility ages (Parkade). Whoever is the owner of the development at that point may choose not to spend money on maintaining BMPs.
The City hired a third party reviewer, CH2M Hill, to review Philips Property development plan. They gave the following recommendations, which have been completely disregarded in the new development plan:
• Protect the lake. Stormwater should be controlled and filtered BEFORE it gets to the lake: lake should not be used as detention basin
• Do not retrograde and shift drainage of 38 acres in Gans Creek Watershed
• Do fingerprinting and specific and limited site preparation: NO WIDESPREAD HIGHGRADING
• Develop hydrologic models to better demonstrate impact of development on sensitive watersheds.* Further studies must be done to determine how much stormwater will be generated and type and how much stormwater will be generated and type and how much space will actually needed for BMPs. Where/what type and how many BMPs will be needed not known yet.
• BMPs should be designed with little or no maintenance requirements–developer has not agreed to maintain BMPs throughout the life of the development.
• BMPs must be done after construction
The science of watershed protection shows that if we keep the development
in the watersheds below 20% and if we use state of the art BMPs, we may
be able to protect the streams and Rock Bridge State Park. But if we allow
development of the local watersheds at the level of this development (35
% or more) then we run a great risk of harming the local streams, biological
diversity, and Rock Bridge State Park.
For
More Information:
Go to the Center for Watershed Protection’s web site at www.stormwatercenter.net/
for slideshows and fact sheets.
Go to EPA’s Watershed Academy’s Web site at www.epa.gov/watertrain/
Ways to Help!
Talk to your friends and family about the development.
Attend the February 2 City Council public hearing on the development. 7 pm at City Council Chambers, 701 E Broadway, Columbia.
Write a letter to the Editor.
You can also
contact the mayor and your city council representative
and let her or him know you oppose the Philips development as
currently planned. This is also really effective!
To find out
which ward you are in go to:
http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Council/About_Us/council_wards.html
Email your concerns to the Mayor and City Council before Feb. 2nd. Emails should be sent to:
Mayor
Hindman: mayor@gocolumbiamo.com
Almeta Crayton: ward1@gocolumbiamo.com
Chris Janku: ward2@gocolumbiamo.com
Bob Hutton: ward3@gocolumbiamo.com
Jim Loveless: ward4@gocolumbiamo.com
Brian Ash: ward6@gocolumbiamo.com
(John John, Ward 5, has a conflict of interest and cannot vote. He is
the real estate agent for the sale of this property to Mr. Sapp.)
