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Board of Adjustment approves retaining-wall variance at 2636 Windcrest Ridge Drive with conditions
Summary
The City of Wildwood Board of Adjustment approved a variance allowing a new modular block retaining wall up to 8 feet high to be built partly inside a designated natural resource protection area at 2636 Windcrest Ridge Drive, subject to a landscape plan, arborist approval of tree work, and a pre-construction meeting with city staff.
The City of Wildwood Board of Adjustment on Jan. 16 approved a variance (BA 1-25) allowing construction of a new modular block retaining wall up to 8 feet high and related stairs that intrude into a portion of the lot’s natural resource protection area at 2636 Windcrest Ridge Drive, with conditions requiring a landscape plan, city arborist review, and a pre-construction meeting.
Why it matters: The property lies in the Windcrest Subdivision (R1A, 22,000-square-foot residence district and Planned Residential Development overlay) and the site is in a mapped natural resource protection area intended to limit erosion and preserve wooded buffers for downstream watersheds. Neighbors, the department, and the applicant debated whether the engineered wall would stabilize an eroding slope or further degrade the protected area.
The petition, filed in the name of property owner Mitchell Alting and represented by contractor Zach Weyhart of Saint Louis Hardscape Solutions, requests permission to remove an existing, failing block wall and replace it with a 150-linear-foot modular block retaining wall (maximum 8 feet high), new stairs that would sit in the side-yard setback, and associated hardscape. Planner Robin Keefe told the board the proposed new wall would intrude roughly one-third of the way into the mapped natural resource protection area and that the city arborist identified seven trees proposed for removal and about 18 total trees that could be affected by construction.
Keefe said the Department of Planning recommended denial of the new wall but supported variances allowing reconstruction of the existing wall in its current location and approving the stairs into the setback. “We are recommending denial of the new wall in this case,” Keefe told the board, noting the department’s concern that approvals of similar intrusions could chip away at the subdivision’s protected wooded buffer.
The applicant’s contractor described site conditions and the installation approach. Zach Weyhart said the existing wall was “just over 4 foot” in height and that the engineered replacement is intended primarily for erosion and drainage control, not aesthetics. He told the board the new wall includes engineered backfill and leaching to relieve hydrostatic pressure and that the installation would be staged to reduce disturbance. “The impact that we are gonna have on this area is gonna be less than what it has been made out to be,” Weyhart said, and added the homeowners intended to replant native trees as part of the project.
One nearby resident and Windcrest HOA trustee, Randall Roth, testified in support, saying trustees had reviewed the homeowner packet and hoped conditions would protect the detention basin and Cox Creek downstream. “Bottom line is…we want to try to find that balance and allow Mitch and his family to have a nice project, but at the same time, trust in the judgment of the Board of Adjustment to make sure that this project is done in a manner that will have a neutral to positive impact on the environment and Wildwood,” Roth said.
After discussion, a motion to approve the variance carried. The board recorded affirmative votes from members Arnie Sprunger, Dave Berlino, Kevin Lux and Michael Lee; the motion included three explicit conditions: (1) submission and Department of Planning approval of a landscape plan that addresses removal and replacement of trees identified as removed or potentially impacted; (2) city arborist involvement and approval of proposed root-pruning and tree-protection measures and agreement on tree removals/replacements; and (3) a required pre-construction meeting with the Department of Planning to finalize protective measures and construction sequencing. The department asked that the contractor follow the city’s pre-construction procedures and that the arborist approve proposed protection steps before work begins.
The board’s action allows the petitioner six months to obtain required permits or the variance will expire, per the hearing procedures announced at the start of the meeting.
Votes at a glance: Motion to approve variance BA 1-25 with the three conditions — approved (4 yes, 0 no). The transcript did not record additional dissenting votes on the record.
