A St. Louis-area homebuilder wants to put 74 townhomes on 10.4 acres of wooded land along Manchester Road in Wildwood, a proposal that would clear six acres of trees and demolish three homes more than 75 years old, triggering a required historic preservation review.

Lombardo Homes of St. Louis LLC filed the rezoning petition in January for the project, called Mia Bella, targeting four properties at 17115, 17119, 17127, and 17135 Manchester Road on the north side of the road west of Hwy. 109. The site sits within Wildwood's Town Center district in Ward One.

The company is asking the city to rezone the land from Non-Urban to a residential classification (R6-A) with a planned development overlay that allows attached housing. The proposed density is 7.1 units per acre, though the site falls within the Town Center district where the city has directed denser development.

Doug Nance, Lombardo's representative, told the Planning & Zoning Commission that the plan has already been scaled back significantly. The developer originally proposed 110 units in 10-unit buildings with one-way traffic on 16-foot-wide streets. "We went to four- and five-unit buildings, got rid of one-way traffic and went to two entrances, 26-foot-wide streets, with three and four-unit buildings, which reduced the count to 62," Nance said.

The current proposal of 74 units sits above that 62-unit threshold. At its May 4 meeting, the P&Z Commission discussed the planning department's recommendation that any approved plan be capped at 62 units in clusters of four or fewer. The item appeared on the agenda as an information report. The rezoning still requires City Council approval, and no council hearing date has been set.

The site is adjacent to The Reserve at Wildwood, where McKelvey Homes is building 115 single-family homes on 50 acres. Resident Lynn Link noted that combining 115 homes next door with 74 units on 10 acres represents a significant density increase in a small area.

Not all residents oppose the project. Jen Murawski, a Wildwood resident, spoke in favor, saying the development would give people who want to stay in the community an option beyond single-family homes. She argued that reducing density would limit the local tax base and mean fewer customers for businesses and fewer families in schools.

Mayor Joe Garritano weighed in on the design, saying he wants the detention basin areas to function as parklike settings with heavy landscaping, water features, and no parking along the entrance.

Because the three existing homes exceed the 75-year threshold, the city's Historic Preservation Commission must review them before demolition can proceed. One acre of woodland will be retained around the site's perimeter. Planning Director Joe Vujnich said the reduced unit count allows for "greater open space and more maneuverability relative to the layout of roads."

The Town Center area where Mia Bella is proposed represents just 2% of Wildwood's 68-square-mile land area. The city has stated that denser development is confined to this boundary. Wildwood was incorporated in 1995 partly in response to development pressure after residents defeated a proposed expressway along Hwy. 109.

A traffic study will be required before any site development plan is approved. The project would have 1,100 feet of frontage on Manchester Road, with two access points and 45 visitor parking spaces beyond the units' rear-entry two-car garages.