Ellisville council rejects Seven Brew’s bid to the delight of Field Avenue residents

 (This is my totally unedited West Newsmagazine piece following three previous articles I had published on this subject that each time filled the council chambers of Ellisville City Hall!)

As the Seven Brew Drive-Thru Coffee proceedings developed, the Jan. 18 packed-house, Ellisville council meeting was far more reminiscent of a highly contentious court case.

Following a 7-1 negative setback at the Jan. 11 Ellisville Planning & Zoning Commission meeting, Seven Brew needed a super majority verdict to win the case. Instead, the Field Avenue faithful prevailed with a 4-2 vote with council member Dan Duffy (District 3) absent.

Five residents spoke in the initial Public Comments session.  Each one mentioned horrible traffic increases, backups on Clarkson and its own street plus imminent safety concerns stemming from Seven Brew’s plan of having one drive-thru side of the operation and the other walk up and bike up.

Bernie Barton added he was against any egress from that lot onto Field, including Seven Brew’s delivery truck.  Dave Goessman complained of potential loud music disturbances from onsite speakers.

The site of a proposed Seven Brew Drive Thru Coffee at Clarkson Road and Field Avenue in Ellisville. (Source: Google Maps) 

Words started calmly as attorney Chris Graville addressed the council as to why Seven Brew would be a good fit for the 309 Clarkson Road address. He noted that it’s a mere 600 square foot grab and go coffee kiosk that only serves beverages with no food or dine-in area. He also said the business is set up with a circulation type that avoids traffic tie-ups and it’s primarily a site for customers to make a brief stop to and from work.

Graville constantly defended a traffic study performed by both St. Louis County and MODOT showed this business would add very little traffic to the area. He also stated it’s the type of business Ellisville has been seeking for this area.

“We believe this is not only consistent with the Comprehensive Plan; we believe it furthers it,” he said. “We want to work with the city and its residents to get them comfortable with this conceptplan. Unlike Chick-fil-A, the traffic study shows there’s no significant trip generation with our plan.”

Graville spoke of a variety of sub-topics that he claimed would be a great fit for the city of Ellisville, including ones from the neighboring Field Avenue. But over time, it developed into an emotional, tension-filled verbal spat between Graville and his crew and Field attendees.

“You all have a very difficult job because you have to take your code, use your city engineer’s report and apply the facts to the code,” Graville said.  “If you apply the facts to the code, this is a very good development. You all took an oath when you were elected to office no different from Planning & Zoning to uphold the law.  We believe to deny our approval of this is completely arbitrary and is capricious.”

He added that every single negative issue brought up by the residents has been shot down by the traffic study.

“This is not traffic Armageddon.  We’ve been threatened at these meetings.  We’ve been told you’re never going away.  We’ve been told people are going to die.  We’ve heard Planning & Zoning saying they’re going to get sued. The residents have every right to give their opinion, but the Armageddon presented by the residents on this petition is not supported by this document which is the city’s engineering report.”

There were just a handful of questions from the council; mostly from Rob Compton (District 1). One inquiry was about the number of cars that might be waiting to leave the site and get back onto Clarkson Road. Julie Nolfo of Lochmueller Group answered that information was not from the traffic study, but provided by Seven Brew.

Compton calmly took exception to Graville comparing Vero Lane and its commercial development to that of Field with Seven Brew’s proposed development. Compton noted that Vero has a traffic light whereas Field has none.

A few more Field Avenue residents spoke out against the proposed development at the start of the second Public Comments session. What followed was a highly upset property owner Jordan Srote.

“Frankly, I’m disappointed to where we’ve gotten to today. I’ve listened to about 90 minutes over the last two P&Z meetings from everybody telling us why traffic was not going to work and none of them were experts. We spent countless amounts of time and money in Julie, and her team spent energy in building up a traffic study which states the facts. Nothing done there is arbitrary.  It’s based on science and facts with a proven method that works….and you’re saying ignore that.

Srote added that walk ability is a major part of Ellisville’s Comprehensive Plan, and he was highly disappointed that residents “were using children as pawns.” While safety is a concern, he said it was no worse than his long-abandoned property being vandalized twice since he’s owned it. He also vehemently denied rumors that property values would decrease.

“There’s the Harvard study and a lot of other studies out there. They call it the Starbucks Effect.  What’s it’s about is if you have a walkable coffee shop within your distance, your house is actually going to appreciate 3% more than a house that doesn’t have those things. And yet, we’re arguing that an abandoned property with a giant ‘For Lease’ signs is not degrading property values in the area?

“I’m also disappointed that when a resident states moments before a vote that somebody is going to die here, and that you, council members and the P&Z are going to be responsible for that and be in for a proper lawsuit.  That’s a blatant intimidation tactic. I’m disappointed in that and the disregard for facts. At the end of the day, this is not my lot or their street.  This is a community with 10,000 residents in it.  They will be directly and indirectly impacted by this through property taxes, accumulation of money that goes to the schools, the fire department.”

Srote’s own comments were followed by nine more sets of negative citizen comments.

Sara Fox said Comprehensive Plan states that it wants to ensure future developments and not duplicating existing developments and strengthen diversification within the business sector. “I did an online search and found there are already three coffee shops and two smoothie places within 1.2 miles or less of this particular development.”

Ed Fasnacht added that not just Field Avenue signed the petition against this specific development but more than 200 people from the general area did, and nobody wants to live close to dumpster smells.

“What’s actually disappointing is to hear the applicant disregarding and minimizing safety concerns that were communicated by the citizens,” Mahmoud Kaaki said.  “That’s disappointing and insulting.”

For the legislation segment, Mayor Mike Roemerman said it’s always very difficult when you have so many citizens vehemently opposed to a potential economic development.

“As elected officials, these are the tough ones for us. We have to consider the neighbors and Ellisville as a whole. Through it all, I’ve personally been on your side.  We had a development on my street, and I was opposed to it for a lot of reasons. But it was approved and looking back, it’s easy for me to see that it wasn’t as bad as what my neighbors made it out to be.”

Roemerman used an example of a neighbor across the street and one house over as an example that property values can actually jump sky high when commercial developments are build close by. He also said that Clarkson Road is dangerous all the time and everybody has to be extra diligent driving up Clarkson Road to Manchester.

Compton had an amendment added that no music can be played at the site. ‘No speakers’ was added by Roemerman.  All voted in favor of that. Still, only Roemerman and Greg Sanborn (District 2) voted for the project while council members Vince McGrath (District 1), Compton, Mick Cahill (District 2) and Curt Boggs (District 3) voted no.