Watch this video to understand why the citizens are upset about the recent zoning changes.

A new lawsuit was filed on 8/20/08 to reverse the zoning that makes one third of Crystal City industrial.   Rumors abound about the future of the Crystal City riverfront.  The latest is that the Bill Bradley farm is on the verge of being sold and may be cleared for use as a barge port.

This new lawsuit is intended to make sure that the rezoning of Crystal City is done properly by letting neighboring property owners and the citizens of Crystal City voice their opinions about any changes that may take place.   The lawyer representing the plaintiffs is Bob Sweeney, the current city attorney for the city of Arnold that recently won the eminent domain case for the city of Arnold in the Missouri Supreme Court.  According to Mr. Sweeney this lawsuit only exists to make sure that the zoning is redone.  If the zoning is done properly the lawsuit will be dropped.

On Thursday, October 9 there was a public hearing to let the citizens and land owners express their opinions about the zoning.  At that meeting Bob Sweeney and independent attorney and Crystal City resident Joe Cunningham urged the P & Z Board to recommend that they put the riverfront properties back to recreational instead of industrial for the mere reason that the city would have more control of the development of the properties.  On Thursday, October 15 the Planning and Zoning Board voted to keep the zoning as industrial.

On Monday, October 20th there was a council meeting where motions were made to act on the recommendations of the previous P & Z Board recommendations.  The backyards of the residents of Mississippi Avenue was voted to be recreational and the Ursuline property was voted to be residential.  All other properties were voted to be industrial.  This is because the council needed at least a 6 to 2 vote to overturn the recommendations of the P & Z Board and the votes were either tied at 4 to 4 or, in the case of the Bill Bradley property, was 5 to 3.

It now appears that lawsuit filed on 8/20/08 will go into effect.

On Monday, January 14th, City officials passed an ordinance that literally changed the face of Crystal City.  It was also announced that Crystal City intends to annex the Festus Airport.  The annexation will be on a ballot in a special election in April.

Here is the major zoning change that will turn all of the Bill Bradley property and the surrounding area into an industrial zone.  Our group (CCCC) was allowed to view and photograph the planned zoning changes.  These changes are presumably necessary for the planned iron ore smelting facility and supporting barge port facility.

The major changes are illustrated in the picture to the right.  You can click on the picture to view a larger version of it.  The area outlined in blue is the area that was previously zoned M2.   It is the old PPG property being leased to Wings Enterprises.  The zoning classification of M2, General Industrial, is the most permissive of the two industrial zonings.  The other industrial zoning classification is M1, Light Industrial.  

The area outlined in red is the new area zoned as M2.  There are two exceptions.   They are the areas that surround Hugs Landing Road (including the Plattin Rock Boat Club) and Howard Dohack Drive. This entire area is currently zoned as RC, Conservation District.  Permitted uses of RC zones include agricultural activity, parks, parkways, scenic areas, wildlife refuges, golf courses, cemeteries, picnic grounds and boat docks.  

We took a picture of the old and new zoning maps that are on display in City Hall.  The picture can be found here.  It is hard to discern the differences in the colors.   But the biggest change is that the large chunk of land that was zoned RC, Conservation, is now proposed to be zoned M2, General Industrial.  This is changing the zoning from the most restrictive classification to the most permissive classification.   And the new map shows that there will be no RC (Conservation) zoning.  RC is not even on the legend anymore.