ST. LOUIS COUNTY —ÌýAlong the Meramec River just north of Arnold, a contractor has piled tons of dirt in a scrubby clearing, the start of what may become a new sports complex.
But the site is almost entirely in the river’s flood plain — the Meramec regularly runs through the fields and forests here, lapping at backyards and even back patios — and that’s making neighbors nervous that this new development, OK’d so far by government officials, will make future flooding far, far worse.
“That is a concern for all of us that live down here in this area,†said Judy Geger, who has lived nearby for 44 years. “The Meramec River floods down there all the time.â€
The piles of dirt, at 5400 Meramec Bottom Road, have now transformed into a plateau reaching out into the field. Local construction company Budrovich Excavating, based in the South County municipality of Green Park, has submitted plans to the county that show a baseball field and 105,000-square-foot recreational sports center atop the plateau.
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Nearby residents who have braved floods here say that the new development shows that lessons about flood risk have been dangerously ignored: Just south of them, a community of clubhouses once stood, between the project site and the river. Across the Meramec, in Arnold, hundreds of property owners moved out after the flood of 1993 rather than fight the river for the land. And experts warn that flooding will get worse, as development continues to squeeze rivers and climate change makes heavy rain storms more likely.
“We continue to aggravate this problem in and around ºüÀêÊÓƵ,†said Bob Criss, a Washington University professor dedicated to regional flooding issues, who was contacted by residents. “It’s the wrong thing to do. It’s the wrong place to build. I don’t know why we have such an appetite to do this.â€
Budrovich executives said the work does not threaten to make local flood risk worse, pointing to the completion of a flood plain study that assessed potential impacts.
“That’s why you do a flood plain study — to prove that you’re not impacting the area,†said Steve Gower, the vice president of land development for Budrovich. He added that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County had all signed off on the study’s findings.
County officials, too, said that the project will not trigger flooding. And, even if it boosts water levels during a flood, such an impact would occur farther downstream than the nearby homes of concerned residents, they said.
‘Too preliminary’
State and local officials have begun to push back against development in the flood plain. State legislators moved to bar tax incentives for flood-prone projects in recent years, and passed the bill last year. It took effect Jan. 1.
A commission appointed in part by ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Executive Sam Page last year blocked incentives to help build out the levee-protected flood plain north of Creve Coeur Park; Page said the use of tax increment financing in green space “should be rare.â€
And just last month, Webster Groves officials faced their own debate about the use of tax incentives to spur a $320 million retail-and-housing project proposed partially in a flood zone. Officials have, at least for now, turned down building there.
But river developments past and present are still causing controversy across the region.
A few years ago, a development group pitched a lighthouse, hotel, restaurants and public marina in the flood plain along the Mississippi River at the northern edge of ºüÀêÊÓƵ, near the Interstate 270 bridge.
Construction started last year on a 1.3 million-square-foot industrial park in levee-protected flood land in Maryland Heights.
And farther upstream on the Meramec itself, structures like the Valley Park levee have — after rounds of devastating flooding in neighboring communities — stoked heated controversies about river constriction, improper levee heights, and whether one community’s flood safety comes at the cost of others nearby.
For now, ºüÀêÊÓƵ County officials have only approved “land disturbance†at the Meramec Bottom project. Budrovich has been filling the site with dirt for at least several months.
Project maps submitted to the county in 2020, however, show the rec center, baseball field and 370 parking spaces. That additional work is yet to be approved, and a representative for Budrovich said it’s “too preliminary†to discuss any future development at the site.
Flood maps show that only a sliver of the land at the address — an area far smaller than the project’s 11-acre footprint — is outside of the officially designated flood plain, delineated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2015. (Since the flood map was drawn, the area has been affected by repeated major floods.)
And it stretches to within about 100 feet of the river’s actual floodway — the space that, according to FEMA, “must be reserved†for the channel of a river to discharge floodwater safely.
But FEMA hasn’t changed the flood boundaries in that area in recent years. And that means FEMA, too, doesn’t expect the project to change flood risk there.
‘Lousy planning’
Just a quarter-mile down the street, neighborhoods have been threatened by water repeatedly in recent years. Longtime residents say the water is creeping higher and closer to their homes than ever before. They worry the new project will give the river an extra push higher.
“I’m nervous,†said Darlene Mahfood, another longtime resident of the neighborhood closest to the development.
Homes like hers have come uncomfortably close to getting overrun by water. For example, one of the most recent floods brought water all the way up to her back patio.
“It didn’t used to get this high up,†said Mahfood.
She and other residents also voice frustration with what they say has been an absence of shared information or public dialogue about the change.
No one has officially proposed the next phase of development at the site, which would require a final site plan that the county would need to review.
But local residents feel defeated. They say that, at this point, it doesn’t matter much whether a recreational sports center is built atop the elevated dirt pile taking shape down the road. They argue that, with so much dirt already dumped into the flood plain, the damage is done.
“It seems like truck after truck, all day long,†said resident Amanda Loyd.
“That right there,†said Geger, the 44-year resident, “is changing the lay of the land. It’s been going on for so long there’s probably nothing we can do.â€
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County officials deflected blame.
Major flooding is a state and regional issue, a problem passed downstream from other parts of watersheds like the Meramec, said Dan Dreisewerd, who manages code enforcement at the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Department of Public Works. “The majority of the time, the issue is caused way upstream,†he said.
Besides, he said, their hands are tied.
The county must approve work that satisfies zoning and other requirements for a given property, and does not necessarily weigh whether a proposal is a good idea or not.
“All we’re doing is making sure it meets the criteria,†said Dreisewerd. Judgment calls are made only if projects run into certain gray areas.
And the work on Meramec Bottom Road complies with local zoning — something that has not changed in years, if not decades, for that location.
“It could be a much, much bigger development,†said Dreisewerd. “I’m extremely happy that it’s at least the size development that it is, compared to what it could be.â€
But Criss remains convinced that the project is a bad idea that will compound flood risk for adjacent areas — echoing warnings he has emphasized for years, and especially in the aftermath of recent floods.
“They’re restricting the width of the river. ... That’s going to back water up,†he said. “I certainly don’t know how this was approved.â€
“This is lousy planning on so many accounts,†he said.
“It’s a sad statement on the region.â€