O'Fallon drops plan to annex wildlife area

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The city of O'Fallon has dropped an annexation plan that included a nearly 7,000-acre conservation area and the Missouri Research Park.

City Administrator Robert Lowery Jr. said this week the plan had become too divisive.

"We want to be viewed as a good neighbor," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Lowery said public unease over the fate of the wildlife area drove the city to reconsider its plans.

The plan came under criticism last week from some local officials and environmentalists, including Adolphus Busch IV, whose grandmother gave the state $70,000 to buy the parcel in 1947.

Lowery said the city had no intention of altering the area, but critics worried that the future of the preserve, including its popular hunting and shooting range activities, would be compromised.

"I'm just glad to see O'Fallon recognized the will of the people and took the high road on this thing," Busch said. "To have places like this that are so close to major metropolitan areas are so important."

Officials had proposed annexing the 6,987-acre August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area and about 400 acres of the Weldon Spring Wildlife Management area to get a required contiguous boundary to take the 700-acre Missouri Research Park. The complete annexation would have encompassed about 12.6 square miles and expanded the city's area by 42 percent.

The research park is home to 15 companies, two federal agencies and the Missouri Bluffs golf course. The research park would have brought in about $265,000 in property taxes a year to the city. O'Fallon officials said they wanted the research park to further entice interested companies to come to the city.

The week's actions prompted state Rep. Kevin Threlkeld, R-Washington, to request a formal opinion by the state attorney general on the legality of annexing state-owned land. If the state says it's legal, Threlkeld said, he might consider introducing legislation blocking future annexation of state parks and wildlife areas.

One of the proposal's harshest critics was Mayor Donna Morrow, who said the City Council ought to take a formal vote Thursday to kill the annexation plan.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com