St. Charles County Transportation Plan 2030 - East-West Gateway ...

C. Present Land Use
Basic inputs into the Council's ongoing travel demand modeling process require some specific
knowledge of occurring major developments as they alter land use from its present patterns. Such
developments are continually monitored by the Council through general and business media, which
may be supplemented with information from county and city governments and other local entities
such as sewer and fire districts. Although somewhat broad-brush, not micro level, the monitored
data sufficiently enables differentiations between generalized housing types/densities and between
generalized land use types, such as commercial or industrial, as required by the travel demand
modeling network. Land use is discussed in detail in the St. Charles County Master Plan. It lists
the following land use categories; residential, commercial, combined community districts, high-tech,
industrial, recreation/wildlife/open space, transitional, and agricultural. These categories are shown
on the Land Use Map for 2015 in that report. The map is quite harmonious with the Council’s
estimates of future development and with data on population and employment. Since the Council
develops demographics for the St. Louis region on a more macro scale, the St. Charles County plan
has been referenced as representing anticipated land use for 2015. Land use for 2030 becomes less
clear but is estimated by the Council for purposes of developing 2030 population and employment.
C- 1. St. Charles County Sections
For purposes of discussing land use, the Council divided St. Charles County into five geographic
Sections. Each has similar features and many similar land uses. These Sections have been
numbered and named according to the approximate areas they represent and are shown on Figure
1. A general summary of the existing land use and new or proposed development in each Section
follows.
Section 1 - West Alton is in the northeast corner of the County and is sparsely populated due to the
fact that it is mostly in a flood plain. Two cities exist with small populations, West Alton which
centers around the junction of U.S. 67 and Rt. 94, and Portage Des Sioux which lies just north of
Rt. 94 at Rts. J and H. Each city has experienced some additional residential development during
the past 10 years but both have populations less than 500. Minor residential development has
occurred along Rt. 94 between St. Charles and West Alton and except for the Ameren electric
generating plant near Portage Des Sioux, there is little commercial or industrial development.
Section 2 - St. Charles encompasses an area from Section 1 on the north (approximately Rt. B),
along Huster Rd., Truman Rd., and Muegge Rd., on the west and southwest, and east to the Missouri
River along new Rt. 364 and the bridge across the Missouri River. It contains all of the City of St.
Charles and a part of St. Peters. This is the oldest and most densely developed residential part of
St. Charles County with the City of St. Charles containing the old urban core. Some new residential
development has occurred along Rt. 94 north of Rt. 370 and at Elm St., Zumbehl Rd., and Truman
Rd., around and south of Rt. 370. In addition, there has been quite a bit of new residential in-fill
from Rt. 94 east to the Missouri River north of Rt. 364. New commercial and industrial
development has occurred in the north part on Rt. 370 around the Elm St. interchange and east on
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