ST CHARLES, Mo. — The St. Charles County Planning and Zoning Commission voted Wednesday to not recommend a controversial development to the county council.
Dozens of people showed up to the meeting Wednesday night to protest the Missouri Bluffs development.
That project would build 221 homes, mostly single-family and some condos or townhomes, on land near the Katy Trail that’s currently owned by the University of Missouri.
The University of Missouri acquired the land from the federal government in the late 1940s, advocates say for just $1, and now they want to sell it to a private developer.
“To sell for profit when it was supposed to be used for a public purpose is problematic,” Penny Pitman said.
Pitman can trace both sides of her family to that land for generations. They were forced out when the government moved in to produce TNT on the land during WWII.
Whittaker Homebuilders set aside 47 acres of the 386-acre plan for land conservation, but critics say it’s not enough.
The St. Charles County Council is expected to take up the project, and could still approve it, as early as next month’s meeting.