By Tavia Evans
Once home to a World War II-era nuclear plant, the city of Weldon Spring has become a destination for high-end home buyers and businesses in recent years, both looking to build on available acreage in St. Charles County.
And worries about the former nuclear site south of Highway 40 have dissipated since the federal government's $800 million cleanup was completed in 2002. The site was used during World War II to produce explosives and process uranium.
New home sales are driving the real estate market in Weldon Spring, with an average of 50 new homes built there a year, according to the city. That's rapid growth, considering Weldon Spring is eight square miles with a population of 5,270.
Home prices averaged $202,000 in the first five months of this year for homes sold by Realtors, according to the St. Charles Association of Realtors.
For businesses, the technology corridor - just adjacent to Highway 40 - holds promise as prime commercial real estate. Much of it now is a grassy field. But if longtime residents have their say, the farmland and undeveloped acreage - about one-third of Weldon Spring- will stay that way.
About a dozen land-rich families own the bulk of the undeveloped property, mostly back roads and woods north of Highway 40 and east of Highway 94. And they aren't itching to sell.
Dorothy Moore, who is considered the largest landowner in Weldon Spring, owns about 439 acres along Wolfrum Road, which is a major back road artery. She also owns 80 acres fronting Highway 40. Moore, 84, worries that urban sprawl and packed subdivisions will someday take over the open farmland she has known most of her life.
"We've been fighting the developers for 50 years. . . . They like to come and cut it up into tiny pieces, but this land is too beautiful to do that," Moore said.
Her 8,000-square-foot mansion sits in the woods off Wolfrum Road on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River.
Members of Moore's extended family own close to 1,000 acres of land in Weldon Spring, most of it along Wolfrum Road stretching to the river.
Today, Highway 40 is just a few feet from her property line on the south; the western border of Moore's property touches parts of the city's zoned technology corridor.
That corridor will be an area of growth for Weldon Spring, said Rick Finholt, executive director of the Missouri Research Park.
Finholt says the master plan for Weldon Spring includes a highway interchange that will improve traffic flow and increase access to the research park and future companies that locate in the corridor north of the highway.
Enterprise Leasing Co. has a 115,000-square-foot building for its technology center in the corridor, and the company plans to expand with another 140,000-square-foot building next to the current one. MCI Communications Inc. has about 1,200 employees in its complex there.
"There are some people who agree with (Mrs. Moore), but I think they recognize that the interchange helps preserve the pristine character of the community," Finholt said. "MCI employees can get on and off without going through the community, and it will be generally easier for traffic to get off the highway."
With development stretching to WingHaven and beyond to Lake Saint Louis, planning experts say more companies may consider Weldon Spring because of its proximity to St. Louis, an employee base, and land prices.
The corridor "is a strong employment growth card for the area," said Richard Ward, senior principal with Development Strategies. "If the land is appropriate for offices and light industrial or major institutional uses and the owners want to sell it, they'll be successful."
That's what the Bender family discovered. They sold 41 acres in the technology corridor to MCI for $7.50 a square foot in 1999. Just the year before, the family produced about 8,000 bales of hay on the property.
"We had a stipulation that the land be sold to a Fortune 500 company," said David Bender, a CPA in St. Louis who co-owns a remaining 25 acres with family members. "We want to be able to say, 'That was once our property, and we're proud of what's standing there.'"
The Kolb family controls nearly 175 acres of wooded land along Wolfrum Road. The family's history in Weldon Spring dates to 1841; they were among the first German immigrants to settle there.
Janet Kolb, a Weldon Spring alderman, says she doesn't even entertain offers from developers.
"We won't sell properties. We want it to stay the way it is," she said.
But as farmland gets carved into cul-de-sacs in St. Charles County, economic developers say the market for more upscale housing is strong in Weldon Spring.
"Weldon Spring has seen the larger proportion of its land developed in the upscale housing market than in other parts of the county," said Greg Prestemon, president of the Economic Development Center of St. Charles County.
Some home buyers seeking custom-built homes are eyeing Weldon Spring for its open spaces.
Weldon Spring Mayor Don Licklider said the city recently approved a 20,000-square-foot home for a private owner who plans to have a basketball court in his basement - so, the basement will require an 18-foot ceiling. Million-dollar homes dot subdivisions: A display home in Tudors Trace, a development by Cross Homes, lists for $1.4 million. When finished, the gated community will include three similarly priced homes built on one-acre lots.
But Mike Mullins promises that won't happen near his property. Years ago, he said he could see the Milky Way clearly from the front of his home on Wolfrum Road.
That has gotten harder, he says, and the noise level has gotten higher. Mullins and his wife, Anna, moved to the area in 1992 and own 40 acres. His neighbor, Dorothy Moore, also is his aunt.
"The biggest issue is trying to stop the sprawl of . . . high-density housing (from) coming and keep an open feel to the area," he said.
In the meantime, the Mullinses keep sheep and cows on the property and rent some of the land to farmers.
Weldon Spring
Incorporated: 1984
Population: 5,270
Average household income: $104,818
Median age: 38
Large employers: Enterprise Leasing Co., MCI Communications Inc.
