COLUMBIA — The City Council is expected to decide whether Columbia will have a new park and a trail along Perche Creek at its meeting on Jan. 20.
There was little to no discussion about the proposed annexation and zoning request for the 27.5-acre tract northwest of Columbia at a public hearing Monday night.
The request filed by the property's owner, LaVeta Anderson, asks the council to approve single-family zoning, or R-1, to “facilitate the sale and subsequent City purchase of the property for park purposes,” according to a city staff report submitted to the council.
The land is currently zoned for single-family homes in Boone County, which is equivalent to the single-family city zoning requested. Most of Columbia’s existing parkland is zoned R-1.
In 2002, in the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan, the Parks and Recreation Department expressed a need for a Perche Creek Trail to start near Interstate 70 and connect with the MKT Trail to the south.
That year, Anderson contacted the city about selling the land to the city. After six years of bidding, Anderson reached an agreement with the city’s park staff to sell the property for $185,500.
The site currently consists of hay fields along the east side of Perche Creek with an intermittent stream running along the south side. Tree cover runs alongside Perche Creek, the stream and Strawn Road, according to a report submitted to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
The 2007 Trails Plan shows a proposed secondary trail along Perche Creek, adjacent to the site’s western boundary, and a proposed tertiary trail along Harmony Creek, adjacent to the southern boundary of the subject tract, according to the agenda report.