The Field Town Board has taken a stand for local control, and township officials and residents across St. Louis County should be applauding.

By approving an interim ordinance that suspends major development in the township, including the construction of a proposed new K-12 school, for the next eight months, the town board is rightfully asserting the authority it has over its own zoning in order to protect residents from an obvious abuse of process.

Like most townships in our region, Field Township allows the St. Louis County Planning and Development Department to manage its land use planning, and for years that process has been a collaborative one between townships and the county. Township officials, including those in Field, have a long history of working in good faith with county planning staff to develop zoning regulations uniquely suited to needs and desires of local residents. For years, township officials have, for the most part, been able to rely on the county to enforce locally-developed ordinances.

But that relationship has come undone in recent months by the actions of top county planners, who tossed aside carefully developed rules to clear the way for a disruptive school project that most local residents oppose.

County Planning Director Barb Hayden started the runaway train rolling with her decision last March to define a large regional school as a “community center.” It was a baseless decision, in which the planning director essentially rewrote the ordinance unilaterally to allow for construction of a school in a zone district that does not allow for it. The ordinance is quite clear that in rural townships, a community center consists of town halls and fire halls—low-impact developments which do not in any way conflict with rural living, impede future development, or impinge on the rights of neighboring landowners.

Without Hayden’s decision, the project would have been dead in its tracks. But it was just one of several examples where county staff steamrolled the process in their blind rush to permit this project, regardless of the ordinance. County staff ignored the findings of public works engineers who noted that one of the roads likely to see increased traffic as a result of the new school would need substantial work to improve safety. County staff told members of the county planning commission that the school project was consistent with the goals of the Voyageur Plan, an ordinance revision that township officials in northwestern St. Louis County, including representatives from Field, developed back in the early 1980s. Yet one of the four key goals of the plan states that major development “should only take place if an area has adequate public facilities and services.” In this case, the school district is proposing the closure of existing schools in cities with existing infrastructure and services, and building a new consolidated school in a rural area without such facilities. That decision not only flouted a key goal of the Voyageur Plan, it added substantially to the capital cost of the new school as well as the long-term operating expense.

The county’s decision to grant a variance for the project, which exceeded allowable lot coverage by more than seven times, was not only inconsistent with the ordinance, but likely in violation of state law and recent state Supreme Court rulings. While the variance likely wouldn’t withstand a court challenge, county officials apparently gambled that township officials would opt against a lawsuit.

In the end, they did not have to, because the township had other tools at its disposal.

In asserting their authority, Field Township officials are not just standing up for their rights, but for all rural residents who rely on St. Louis County’s planning department for enforcement of local ordinances. As long as county planning officials are willing to toss the ordinances whenever a big project comes along, particularly if it’s one that’s backed by powerful interests, then no rural resident is safe from undesirable and incompatible development.

Zoning ordinances can’t just apply to the little guy. If the county planning staff won’t do their jobs when large projects are proposed, then townships need to start objecting. Field Township is doing that now. Other townships should be stepping up to support their effort.