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ST. CHARLES COUNTY — A controversial proposal for a 109-home subdivision near St. Paul was blocked by the St. Charles County Council Monday — a decision that the developer says represents the “end of reasonable development” in the county.

Opponents of the plan cheered, saying St. Charles roadways can’t keep up with the traffic such developments would bring to an already overloaded area. Some residents said they hope Monday’s outcome will lead to a moratorium on new home construction along Highway 79 until safety improvements are made on the two-lane roadway.

“People in St. Charles County are over the explosion of growth — the traffic is horrible, the schools are full,” said Councilman Joe Brazil, R-Defiance. He said the plan, from developer Tom Hughes, is “a really bad plan” that would be better suited along Interstate 70 than in a rural community like St. Paul.

Hughes, who has built thousands of homes in the ӣ����Ƶ region, was hoping the council would rezone a 38-acre property wedged between Dyer Road and Highway 79 north of O’Fallon so that his construction company could build “The Bluffs at Riverdale.” He had hoped construction could begin in 2026.

During the meeting, Hughes said he worried about the message the council would send to developers in one of Missouri’s fastest growing counties if they voted his proposal down.

“It will set a really bad precedent,” Hughes said. “Because you’re telling everybody that all you have to do is to get a lot of people together, intimidate the council, and spread falsehoods. It will be the end of reasonable development in St. Charles County.”

Brazil and Councilmen Matt Swanson, R-Wentzville; Mike Elam, R-Weldon Spring; and Dave Hammond, R-O’Fallon, voted in opposition to the request, and a standing-room-only crowd celebrated.

Among those reveling in the outcome was Michael Foristal, whose property would have been surrounded on three sides by the development. He said he had been pushing to block this development for more than two years.

But still on Monday, he said he was worried the rezoning would be approved, jeopardizing the serene country lifestyle that his family has enjoyed with deer and turkeys regularly grazing in the yard and where his children play baseball with neighborhood friends.

“Most of the residents of St. Paul don’t want big, dense development,” Foristal said. “We want development that makes room for wildlife, for kids to be kids. This plan had no room for any of that.”

He was one of several residents who spoke in opposition to the proposed development. Some cited concerns about traffic congestion on Highway 79, while others expressed worries about stormwater retention and environmental concerns.

Swanson said, prior to the vote, that he hoped Hughes would redesign the development, create larger lot sizes and resubmit it for approval.

“We did it with Tall Tree and we got a better project,” Swanson said, referring to a controversial 556-home proposed subdivision known as “Tall Tree” that would was pitched for 356 acres of a largely rural, wooded area along Highway DD west of O’Fallon. The council ultimately rejected the proposal, but later approved a reimagined proposal that is set to .

Elam said the message he heard from residents was “no development — at least not for right now.”

“They wanted us to pump the brakes and let infrastructure catch up to the construction that is already happening there — I think that is a fair request,” Elam said. Hughes, the developer, is still building homes in the nearby Grove at Riverdale, a 102-home subdivision on 60-acres.

But Elam said he didn’t know for how long development should be halted. Some residents had called for a moratorium on new large-scale development in the area until Highway 79 was widened — a project that officials with the Missouri Department of Transportation say is unfunded and potentially won’t happen for years.

Jack Wang, a MoDOT spokesperson, said the transportation agency is conducting a traffic and safety study on the Highway 79 corridor “to help MoDOT and the region weigh options for future improvements for that corridor.”