County rejects plans for gated community

Developers of a 46-home subdivision south of Columbia will not be permitted to create a gated community with private streets, the Boone County Commission decided Monday.

The commission has asked developers David and Daniel Finke to submit a new proposal for their High Point development. The 53-acre property is a hilly, wooded tract that lies about a half mile south of Columbia’s city limits off of Route K.

The Finkes submitted their plan to the commission Monday night as an appeal after the Boone County Planning and Zoning Commission rejected their original proposal, which called for a single gated entrance and a series of private cul-de-sacs branching off from public streets.

Commissioners Keith Schnarre, Karen Miller and Skip Elkin said they felt the single access posed a safety problem, that the gated subdivision would run counter to “community spirit” and worried that the private streets might fall into disrepair over time. They did not, however, share neighbors’ concerns that the development was too dense for the area.

A handful of neighboring property owners spoke at the meeting, arguing that the High Point plan would compromise the rural landscape, which generally features homes on larger tracts of land.

“We have to preserve the character of the area,” resident Michael Wahlster said.

Elkin, however, noted that the development is appropriate for the area because the city of Columbia inevitably will expand.

The commission asked the Finkes, represented by Jay Gephardt of A Civil Group, to return with a plan that includes another access and no private roads. Miller also asked that the new plan allow for preservation of the land’s rolling topography and that trees be preserved around the home sites and along the borders of the property.

The developers agreed to all the recommendations and said

they would return with new plans.