Orchard Lakes Subdivision Faces September Buyout Deadline

Residents in the Orchard Lakes subdivision sitting between Creve Coeur and Maryland Heights have a new offer and a new deadline to consider as developers keep up efforts to buy out the neighborhood as part of an as yet unspecified commercial retail project.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Devereux Company and NAI/Desco have now upped the offer to the roughly 250 homeowners--60 percent above appraised value and $20,000 per homeowner to buy up common ground properties in the subdivision. The paper said there is a September 25 deadline for residents to accept.

According to the subdivision's Facebook page which has been used as a sounding board to talk about the offer, there is an expectation that Devereux would walk away from the project without enough response by this coming deadline.

The developers on the project have declined multiple opportunities to comment over the past three months but indicated in their earliest communications with residents that they did not have an interest in using eminent domain to obtain property. That hasn't stopped residents from having concerns over the prospect, and was part of the discussion at a forum for neighborhood residents last month.

The Post-Dispatch reports that the developers have also not spoken to county officials about the proposal.

“It’s a well-guarded secret,” St. Louis County Planning Director Glenn Powers told the paper.