MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — The city council of a St. Louis suburb on Thursday approved construction of a facility for shipping automobiles by rail, despite the decision of its planning commission not to recommend the project and the objections of residents in the community of Maryland Heights and a neighboring city.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Precision Vehicle Holding of Wayne, Mich., wants to rezone 91 acres to allow construction of the facility to ship vehicles by rail and road from the General Motors assembly plant in Wentzville, Mo., about 25 miles away. The facility would include a 3,500-square-foot office building and 9,500-square-foot truck repair shop. The site is served by a short line in the process of being transferred to Jaguar Transport Holdings, which will operate it as the Missouri Eastern Railroad.
The site is on Maryland Heights’ border with Chesterfield, Mo., and sits below an area overlooked by some 388 homes. The planning commission declined to recommend the project because of the potential negative impact on those residents from overnight rail operations. Precision appealed that decision, saying the planning commission exceeded its authority because rail operations are under federal control.
The Chesterfield city council also passed a resolution last week opposing the project, although it has no legal force.
Some 200 residents were on hand at Thursday night’s council meeting, while a Chesterfield neighborhood group hired an attorney to represent it before the council. Precision’s attorney told the meeting the project would be “no different than a car dealership … just with rail access.”
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