Owensville Planning and Zoning Commission members on Monday tabled action on a proposed four-building, 28-unit apartment complex development along Highway 28 during a 47-minute long public hearing held prior to the Board of Aldermen session.

The hearing was scheduled to address a request for a change of zoning from R-1 (residential) and C-2 (commercial) to R-5 (multi-family) and  permission for a conditional use permit to allow for apartments in an R-5 setting.

To address prior concerns of landowners adjacent to the proposed development, the developers presented a revised site plan showing their entrance road off of Highway 28 would not utilize an easement through the Ron and Monica Meyer property as originally proposed. Rather, it would go on the project site’s land several feet north of the driveway directly across from the parking lot where the Compass Health facility is located.

The Meyer were in attendance with their attorney, David Baylard, who addressed the appointed P&Z members with a point-by-point review of the city’s ordinance pertaining to these requests.

“I want to point out the legal problems you’re going to have,” Baylard told commission members.

In a previous P&Z session, the original proposal called for a single entrance to the development directly across from Compass. The city’s engineer, Travis Hernandez addressed the commission saying that Missouri Department of Transportation officials had yet to approve the proposed new entrance which would allow the developers to access the site from their own property.

Baylard, who questioned the number of cars entering and exiting the site in a day, saying it could be 80 to 100 a day, said, “We don’t know what access road they’re applying for,” and added, “I think they’re a little premature” on their requests for rezoning and the conditional use permit.

Shifting the driveway to the north, he said, would move it away from the MoDOT desired location directly across from an established driveway.

“They don’t like offset access,” Hernandez told P&Z members.

He reminded them the front parcel was previously zoned commercial and the back of the site had never been developed. A platted cul-de-sac entering the property off of Olive was never developed and eliminated  during prior city proceedings at the landowners’ request. Members of the Loeb family which owns the property expressed the desire to sell that tract of land off and had a developer ready to build 600-square foot housing units designed for residents 55 and older.

Hernandez also said the developers were seeking MoDOT approval for the new entrance location and asked for approval of the rezoning and conditional use permitting needed to “move forward with a plan for the number of units and access off of 28.”

The Meyers had previously inquired about a proposal to add an exit and entrance off of Henry Street, a dead-end road exiting off 28 just north of the tract proposed for the apartment complex. Hernandez, citing the narrowness of Henry currently and the slope leading up to the building site, said “significant investment was needed” to make that happen. “It’s not financially feasible” for the city to improve Henry “to accommodate that development,” he said. “Get Henry out of your mind.”

Developers Blaine Blankenship and Jacob Andreasson were represented by Karl Schoenike, an engineer with Civil and Environmental Consultants, who told P&Z members they were “trying to keep moving forward” and were waiting to see if the project receives MoDOT approval for the new access off 28.

He noted they had to have this public hearing after receiving initial approval of the “concept.” Now, he said, he hoped they could “table addressing this new issue on the way to a vote with final approval going to the Board of Aldermen.”

Tom Lahmeyer, chairman of the P&Z Commission, sought options for their group and the city board’s next step. Did they want to keep the public hearing open until the next meeting or table the discussion. Fellow members agreed they should table the discussion and any final action until a final answer is received regarding the request for a new entrance off of 28.

Pat Sexton’s motion to table the discussion was seconded by Patrick Leslie and received full approval from the five-member commission.