A rural landscape… for the time being
Click here to see map and legend: https://comomag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/16_26_spread.pdf
Work crews began the construction of Columbia’s new high school this month on an 84-acre site on St. Charles Road.
Here is the lay of the land:
• The Northeast Columbia Area outlined by city and county planners is bordered by Mexico Gravel Road to the north, Route Z to the east, Interstate 70 to the south and, to the west, the Lake of the Woods golf course, a 145-acre green space owned by the city.
• Grindstone Creek runs from the northeast corner through the eastern edge of the school property and down to I-70. Hominy Creek runs in the same direction through the northwest quadrant of the area.
• Most of the land is rural, with commercial areas along Route Z and the outer road parallel with I-70.
The property owners:
1. In 2007, a company called St. Charles Road Development sold 80 acres of its land in the area to the school district for about $900,000. The company is in the process of selling another 4 acres to the school district. St. Charles Road Development still owns the lots directly to the north and west of the school site, which total 156 acres and were bought in 2004.
2. Directly across St. Charles Road from the school site is the Golf View subdivision. It consists mostly of duplex housing with appraised home values ranging from $90,000 to more than $200,000.
3. Directly to the east of the school site is the Copper Creek subdivision. Brothers Michael and Patrick McClung own this subdivision and about 65 acres on its northern border. These large, single-family homes have an average appraised value of $242,000, according to the Boone County assessor.
4. The land north of ABC Labs and below the Golf View subdivision is owned by Mona and Dr. Zaki Ajans, a local psychiatrist. They bought the 229 acres after the Lebanese civil war broke in case his two brothers living there needed a refuge.
5-10. Land east of the Ajans’ property and south of Copper Creek is owned by: Ruth Ann Stoecker Trustee (5), Daniel Mings (6), Ross and Elizabeth Mechlin (7), Gilpin-Sells LLC (8), Linda and Stephen Daily (9) and the Grone family (10) .
11. The land on the northwest corner of the Route Z-St. Charles Intersection is owned Kathy and Ken Davis. An historic blacksmith shop is on their 18-acre property, which was at the center of a small village at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
12-14. ABC Laboratories, located at the dead end of an outer road along I-70 (12), down from Fabick Cat (13) and Loveall RV Rentals (14) at the Route Z exit, is undergoing a $4.2 million renovation and expansion. ABC Labs’ pharmaceutical division previously moved its operations to Discovery Ridge.
15. On the eastern side of Route Z between the interstate exit and St. Charles Road is 160 acres set aside for a future industrial park. The land has already been rezoned and is for sale.
Infrastructure improvements:
16. The blue dotted line on the lower half of the map is the proposed route for an extension of the city sewer line, which is expected to be finished in the next year and a half. When this project is done, the city, not Boone County Regional Sewer District, will treat the sewage.
17. The yellow line extending from St. Charles road to the western side of the school site is the route of a new road that will allow buses to come and go separately from cars and trucks using the southern entrance. The road could extend further north in the future as the land develops in the direction shown by the dotted red line.
18. The long-term plans call for St. Charles Road to be upgraded to a major collector in the next 20 years at the price of about $20 million, but this project has no timeline.
19. Those plans also call for Clark Lane to be extended across the southern part of the area above ABC Labs, as shown by the red dotted line that extends to Route Z. There is no cost estimate, but this kind of road generally costs $1,000 per linear foot if the land for it is already owned.