September 14, 2023, Horseshoe Bend Special Road District Meeting

I usually try to attend the Horseshoe Bend Special Road District meetings because they are a surprisingly good source of information about the latest developments on Horseshoe Bend.

I walked into the September 14, 2023, meeting and I was surprised to see it was a full house. It took me a few moments to figure out what the fuss was all about.

Like most people who live on Horseshoe Bend, Mrs. Gadfly and I have participated in more than a few conversations regarding what might be built on the large property at the corner of Bagnell Dam Boulevard and the Horseshoe Bend Parkway. It seemed like a great location, but the most activity we’d ever spied over there was a pile of big rocks we called “Hillbilly Stonehenge.”

There had been no shortage of “secrets” spread around about what the plans were for that prime piece of real estate. These stories were usually prefaced by the classic line of any Missourian before they give you the real scoop: “Now you can’t tell anybody I told you this because I was sworn to secrecy by the guy who told me.”

We heard it was going to be a Top Golf business, but the the franchise fee was over $10 million.

We heard it was going to be a convention center.

We heard it was going to be luxury man caves.

We heard it was going to be a fine din….What? Hold on. Did you say luxury man caves?

Yes, dear readers. Luxury man caves. At least that’s what the guy who delivers my propane told me.

And he’s rarely wrong.

So why was this development being discussed at a Horseshoe Bend Special Road District (HBSRD) meeting?

The property is located in Camden County, but within the city limits of Lake Ozark. Its development is under the jurisdiction of Lake Ozark Planning and Zoning. It is bordered by the Horseshoe Bend Parkway, which is maintained by the HBSRD. The right of way along the side of the road belongs to the HBSRD and switches to Lake Ozark at the property line.

The issue that was going to be discussed at this meeting was the proposed entrance for this luxury man cave (or “Toy Box”) development. It quickly became clear that the proposal was for the new development to share the driveway access on the Horseshoe Bend Parkway with the entrance previously used by the Blue Heron restaurant.

The first speaker during Public Comment was Michael Elliott. He is a real estate broker and represents Mary Boer for the sale of her adjacent property that includes the old Blue Heron restaurant. He was opposed to having the new development share the entrance with the Blue Heron property. He felt there were two other possible entrances that could be used by the Toy Box development.

He was in the process of negotiating contracts for the potential purchase of the Blue Heron property. One of those contracts was for a 300-room resort. He stated that he and Boer had signed confidentiality agreements with the buyers. They could not disclose anything other than a letter from the buyer that stated if it was agreed that the Toy Box development would share the entrance with the Blue Heron property, they would not be interested in purchasing the property.

According to Elliott, another interested purchaser had also declined to purchase the property if the entry was shared with the Toy Box property. Elliott felt that a shared entry might reduce the valuation of the Blue Heron property by 50%. Elliott also opined that the location of the entryway would cause traffic problems on the Horseshoe Bend Parkway.

He asked that the HBSRD Board decline approval for the shared entryway onto the property.

Mary Boer, the owner of the Blue Heron property, came before the board to speak. She said she was informed by Kevin Luttrell (HBSRD Administrator) that the culvert under the Blue Heron driveway needed to be replaced or fixed. She was also never notified that the development on the Toy Box property would involve blasting. According to Boer, she was only informed that her property would be sharing an entrance with the Man Cave property during a later meeting with the developers.

Lee Schuman arrived just in time to explain the design of the shared entranceway with the Blue Heron. He was the engineer hired by the developers to design the shared entrance. In a classic “Only at the Lake” moment, he also happens to be the engineer for the HBSRD.

Schuman stated that the shared entrance was necessary to reduce traffic congestion. The entrance was designed wide enough to allow trucks with trailers to easily make the left turn into the new development. Schuman described the roadway as a “limited access corridor” where you would want as few approaches as possible.

Elliott asked Schuman why they weren’t planning to use the current access point to the property? Schuman pointed out that it was further up the hill and he didn’t feel that the road could handle left hand movement that close to the traffic signal at the Bagnell Dam Boulevard intersection. Schuman was questioned by Boer and Elliott about the culvert under the Blue Heron driveway. Schuman explained several different techniques they could use to improve the efficiency of the culvert.

Elliott was skeptical that the Schuman-designed entryway could safely handle the traffic level. Schuman explained that, in his opinion, the storage buildings wouldn’t generate as much traffic as Elliott expected.

Mary Boer felt that she was being singled out. She didn’t feel it was fair that her property was going to have to share access with the new Toy Box property.

Todd Miller, the legal counsel for the HBSRD, intervened at this point and explained that Lee Schuman was the engineer for the road district, and he was an individual whose expertise the board could rely on. He suggested to Elliott and Boer that if they disagreed with Schuman’s opinion, they should probably hire an expert who could prepare plans that the board could consider as an alternative. Miller felt that Elliott’s opinion that the shared driveway would devalue the Blue Heron property “might be a reach.” Miller again encouraged them to hire an engineer who might design some alternative plan that the board could consider.

Elliott asked if there were other examples of shared driveways like this? Miller and others mentioned several shared driveways along the Horseshoe Bend Parkway that combined access for different properties.

A citizen asked Schuman about using the road access from the Baxter’s overflow parking lot on Bagnell Dam Blvd for an access point? Schuman explained that it was a steep decline down to the property and it was too close to the existing intersection.

(Agreed. That stretch of road is already terrible for accidents.)

Missy Pinkel spoke before the board. She was concerned about the increase in traffic, and she did not seem excited about having storage units built at the entrance for Horseshoe Bend. She was worried about box trucks pulling in and people living in their storage units. Pinkel asked if Schuman was paid by the developers? He said he was. She asked if the people at the meeting wanted the future of the Horseshoe Bend intersection to be garages with double wide trailers turning in?

Todd Miller responded that there had been previous development proposals for the Toy Box property. One was a ferris wheel with a Top Golf franchise that fell through because the fee went from $2 million to $9 million (Oh snap. My propane guy was right.).

Commissioner Gohagan, sitting next to me, let out a soft groan that he really wanted that ferris wheel. Miller described several other proposed projects that the HBSRD had approved or denied based of the expert advice of their engineer.

Commissioner Gohagan recommended that the complaining parties should consult with Lake Ozark and ask to review the minutes from the previous Lake Ozark Planning and Zoning meetings.

Kevin Luttrell, the HBSRD Administrator, stated that the normal process is that an engineer will prepare plans for a driveway entrance on the main parkway. They will then be reviewed and taken before the board. They only received the driveway entrance plans for the Toy Box project a week before.

Peter Brown (Lodge of the Four Seasons) was in the audience and he figured out the funniest part of this whole discussion. So Lee Schuman, the engineer for the Toy Box developers, designed the intersection. And Lee Schuman, the engineer for the HBSRD, would then review and approve the intersection he designed?

Yessir. Lee didn’t even have to change the hat he was wearing.

Kids, we really need more of you to study engineering.

Luttrell explained that Shoreline Engineering and Miller Companies had merged into one company, so it’s becoming even more difficult to find two engineers locally from different companies.

Schuman approved the intersection he had designed. The width and radius of the intersection were appropriate for the requirements. I would have preferred if he had made it more dramatic for the approval portion by switching hats or using a different voice to approve it as the HBSRD engineer, but my wishes rarely come true.

Jerry Jackson, President of the HBSRD Board, asked Schuman how this proposed intersection compared to very busy intersections like Cherokee, Bittersweet, and Carol?

Schuman responded that this proposed intersection was much larger in width and turning movement, which would prevent congestion for truck and trailers trying to make a left turn onto the property. The intersection is similar to the shared access points used by MODOT at highway on and off ramps.

Susan Brown complained that traffic was already heavy on the Horseshoe Bend Parkway, and this proposed intersection would increase the traffic on that route.

Todd Miller pointed out that some of the other projects previously proposed for this land would have had even higher traffic counts. Schuman added that the 300-unit resort project that Elliott discussed for the Boer property would also have an impact on traffic.

Luttrell informed Schuman that Lake Ozark is planning to add Gridsmart traffic lights at the Horseshoe Bend entrance and the CVS intersection. HBSRD currently operates one of these traffic lights at the Duckhead intersection, and it allows a user (Luttrell, in this case) to remotely operate the light during peak traffic periods.

Missy Pinkel commented that she felt there were two conflicts of interest involved with this project: the engineering of the intersection and [the process] at Lake Ozark. So now Mary Boer would have to hire her own engineer to design an alternative entrance?

A few more citizens discussed the issue of whether the intersection would help or hurt traffic conditions, with some of them falling on either side. Elliott added that the right of way was unusually wide around the Boer property driveway. He felt this was most likely because there was a drain box on the Toy Box property that had to be maintained.

Once their concerns had been heard by the HBSRD Board, the Board moved onto the next agenda item and most of the audience members departed.

As for the rest of the meeting, HBSRD has been concentrating on maintenance of the ditches. They planned to interview one new employee, and they put up a new light pole that had been knocked down in a traffic collision. The new Waters on Horseshoe Bend project is working on their roads to make sure that those roadways meet the standards of the HBSRD.

There was also a discussion concerning a Sunshine Law request for records from the HBSRD to the Camden County Collector regarding the details on past property tax revenue received for their roads, and what they felt was an unsatisfactory response to their request.

And that was that.