Planning commission recommends approval of Olia Village tree-plan amendment, citing extra excavation for retaining wall

Creve Coeur — The Planning & Zoning Commission recommended approval of application 24-035 on Jan. 7, forwarding the amendment to the City Council for final action on Jan. 13, 2025. The amendment changes the Olia Village site concept and Phase 1 site development plans to allow additional clearing and a revised tree preservation and Phase 1 planting plan needed to construct a portion of the project’s retaining wall.

Jason Jagie, director of community development for the City of Creve Coeur, told the commission the request is a narrow amendment to work that was previously approved by ordinance and that recent site work and engineering have revealed the need for more excavation in the buffer area to structurally install the Phase 1a retaining wall. “The revised tree preservation plan … actually looks at all the individual trees in here because we’re looking at it in much finer detail,” Jagie said in the staff presentation, adding the city has used consulting engineers, a landscape architect and a certified arborist to review the work.

Developer representatives described the engineering reasons for the change and the mitigation the team proposes. Matt Fond of Jack Matthews Development said engineers used targeted soil borings and geotechnical analysis at the wall alignment and redesigned the wall as a geosynthetic-reinforced mechanically stabilized earth wall to limit top-of-slope disturbance. “It is 860 feet of retaining walls,” Fond said, breaking the runs into about 200 feet along Spady Woods and about 660 feet along Mission Hills and Ramblewood. He said soil conditions (softer clay and other site characteristics) required a more conservative structural approach and peer review of the design.

Fond and the project landscape architect said the revised planting plan increases the number of new plants substantially compared with the previously approved plan. Staff noted the ordinance’s replacement rules: trees 6–19 inches that are in good or fair condition are replaced at 1:1, and trees 20 inches or greater are replaced at 2:1. Jagie told the commission staff’s calculation of the replacement requirement for the trees affected by the excavation is 30 replacement trees; he also said 27 of the trees identified for removal were rated in fair or better condition and that at least three larger deciduous trees are among those to be removed.

Fond gave examples of the replacement approach: along a 200-foot Spady Woods segment, five trees to be removed would be replaced by 19 new plants (roughly 3.5 times the ordinance baseline), and along Mission Hills/Ramblewood 15 affected trees would be replaced by 60 plants (about 4 times). He said the total planting count in the package grew from roughly 318 previously approved plants to about 397 under the revised plan.

Wes Hyde, landscape architect with SWT Design, described plant sizes proposed for installation: evergreens at a minimum height of 8 feet and deciduous canopy trees at a minimum 2.5-inch caliper (with many deciduous specimens 14–20 feet tall at planting). On expected growth, Hyde said the time for planted stock to reach the size of mature trees that are being removed depends on site conditions and can take multiple decades in typical conditions.

The applicant said it has been meeting directly with nearby residents and property owners (the team said it contacted eight affected property owners), that it will provide more advance notice when work will occur adjacent to private property, and that it will post updated contact information on the project web page. The public comment period produced no speakers that evening.

The planning commission placed the staff packet exhibits into the record (notice, staff report, two presentations, applicable code and the public file) and voted to recommend approval of application 24-035, subject to the conditions in the staff report and draft resolution. The commission’s recommendation will be considered by the City Council at its Jan. 13 meeting at 7 p.m.

Votes at a glance: the motion to recommend approval was moved on the record and seconded (record shows a second by “Shiv”); the roll-call on the motion recorded affirmative votes from Miss O'Brien, Mister Patashnick, Miss Richter, Mister Wang and the chair, with Commissioners Tomlinson and Bielter recorded earlier as absent from this meeting. The commission’s recommendation is advisory; City Council will make the final decision.