Close to 500 came to the gym at St. Paul's United Church of Christ to find out what they could about the National Church Residences senior living complex planned to be build on Telegraph Road, in Oakville. The project is a HUD housing project.
State Rep. (R) Marsha Haefner, attorney Mark Haefner, and assistant to County Executive Jonathan Boesch mostly answered questions, after Rep. Hefner said they have a small window of opportunity to stop the project. It was noted more than once that the area’s county representative Steve Stenger (District 6) was absent.
Haefner said the first zoning hearing on the property was held March 19, 2012. She said she doubts a sign was on the property announcing the hearing for the entire time it should have been there.
“When our councilman said we should have been in St. Louis County because we knew, my comeback to that is we only knew a very small part of the story,” Haefner said. “In my opinion there was a concerted effort to keep from the public the scope of the project.”
Many there expressed concern about how close the planned three-story building is to be built to the Goddard School, a preschool.
“The three-story building will be very close, to the point where they will be peering into our playground. And there should never be a situation where you have people watching children play, like that,” owner of the Goddard School, Cindy Pyatt said.
Pyatt’s husband, David, said they have nothing against the elderly.
“It’s the scope of the building, and the fact that the windows at the back are going to be available to look into the playground,” he said. “It will be awkward for people to have their children out there to play.”
Aleen Hendrix said the meeting left her wanting to do something but not knowing what.
“First they said we could do a petition, then someone said it was too late,” she said. “Its kind of frustrating to come to this meeting and have all these people who want to do something, and they answered questions, but they did not tell us what we can do.”
Kathleen Muehlheausler said it’s very difficult to talk to someone at the county government about it.
“The worst nightmare is to be talking about this two years from now when that building is up, and we didn’t get nothing done,” she said.
Haefner said they have a small window of opportunity to act. She said she spoke to an attorney who specializes in zoning, but his last case was an $80,000 case.
“I just hope people can keep a civil tone and not make it personal,” We need to keep our heads about this and stick to the facts, because you can’t get to the right solution if you’re paying attention to emotion and rhetoric.”
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