Owensville aldermen on Monday postponed an up or down vote on a conditional use permit sought by a former Rosebud man to build storage units on a lot he owns on West Franklin after the board president sought additional information on lighting for the site.

A public hearing, advertised as required by city code and statute, was held to open the city’s hour and 45-minute long meeting. There were comments in person from four property owners near the proposed development at West Franklin and Ninth. One woman who spoke briefly, Esther Glandon, had shared her concerns in writing over the width of the utility easement being maintained between the proposed building site and her property on West Jackson. 

Sonya Hudson, a property owner on West Franklin, shared concerns about depreciating property values and the potential for increased crime.

“I’m not happy with that,” said Hudson.

The potential for increased vandalism, and even fires originating from people living in storage buildings, were issues mentioned by Tom Reed, a business owner across the street, and Clay Bogle, a nearby resident. The public hearing lasted nine minutes.

Daryl Heidbrink, who now resides at the Lake of the Ozarks, said he had met with the city’s engineer when he first applied Oct. 1 for a required conditional use permit — needed developing property zoned for highway commercial use. His request was forwarded by Planning and Zoning Commissioners to the Board of Aldermen after being reviewed at the P&Z session on Oct. 25. That set up the advertised public hearing for Monday and notification by registered mail to property owners within 185 feet of the site.

Heidbrink has owned the site since 2006 and leased it for more than 10 years prior to owning. A mobile home sat on two of the lots on the site prior to his ownership. He used the site as a car lot.

He said he was never asked for a lighting diagram and did provide a “sketch drawing on how the building was situated.”

He was not in attendance at either the P&Z session or the city’s hearing on Monday and said he could not comment on situation right now since he did not know enough about what the board’s concerns involved.

“There’s going to be some lighting,” he said. 

Asked what kind might be required, he replied, “They (the city) couldn’t answer that question.”

His son, Brad, was at each session and on Monday restated their intention to follow city requirements to install “evergreen” landscaping meeting certain height and width requirements as a “buffer zone” for screening purposes, or suitable chain-link fencing.

On Monday he told aldermen they were willing to do “whatever the city recommends” to prepare the site for up to four buildings which will measure 100-by-30-feet.

Ward 2 Alderman Rob Borgmann’s request for additional information on lighting at the site seemingly halted a vote either way on Monday.

Mayor John Kamler pointed out as a reminder that the city’s attorney had told them that as long as the list included in city code was met by the developer, the request met the threshold for approval.

Peggy Farrell, who has handled clerking duties for P&Z and will take over as the city’s clerk in 2022, also reminded aldermen of what their attorney had said. It was a pass or fail vote if a developer met all seven “standards for conditional use approval” as documented in Section 400.640, chapter E, of the city’s codes. It reads: “(The) Board shall adopt findings of fact as part of its decision to grant, grant with conditions, or deny the permit.”

These “findings of fact,” required in the code to be in the affirmative, are mentioned as those coming directly from information gathered during the public hearing process.

One of the seven standards is that conditional use of any development “will not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity for the purposes already permitted, nor substantially diminish or impair property values within the neighborhood.”

That was a question none of the aldermen could answer although several had their own opinions on the request.

Cathy Lahmeyer from Ward 1 said she “tends to agree with them (the neighbors)” and added a few moments later, “There’s a lot of other uses of the space that may be more aesthetically pleasing.”

The seven standards included for approval of a condition use permit are that it not being granted for a development which could be a public health threat, the conditional use will not impede future development of surrounding property, adequate utilities and access roads have been or will be provided, adequate ingress and egress to the site is available, it conforms to city regulations, and the protests to the conditional use must be “substantiated on a factual basis.”

Asked if a county assessor was in a position to make such a determination on the threat to declining property values, Gasconade County’s elected assessor, Paul Schulte said, “No. Not really.”

Schulte said the only way to determine a trend in declining property values would be to conduct a “market study” of a development — potentially over a three- to five-year period. 

The county assessor’s office does not do these studies, Schulte said. He also said he was not the duties of an assessor to make those determinations.

A study would be needed, he said, to determine “what you’re doing to reflect having a commercial property next door to a residential area had any effect over a three- to five-year period — just following the market,” said Schulte. “Right now the residential market is through the roof.”