The St. Louis County Planning Commission on Monday unanimously backed a casino and entertainment complex along the Mississippi River in Spanish Lake.

The members acted after little discussion, heeding a staff report that favored the development but noted that the complex would be very challenging to design and build. Douglas Morgan, the commission chairman, was absent.

The commission's recommendation for a rezoning of the 377-acre site goes to the County Council. The council's favorable action on land use is just one of numerous federal, county and state approvals the project would need.

North County Development wants to put on the site a casino, convention center, theater, hotel, sports bar, buffet, store space, 18-hole golf course, wind farm and more than 8,000 parking spaces. The complex's site on Riverview Boulevard is just south of the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, almost a mile north of Interstate 270.

Glenn Powers, the director of planning, told the commission, "there are only a couple of good sites in the county for a casino, and this is one of them." The staff report noted the site meets state location requirements and has good access and visibility from Interstate 270. The complex would promote tourism, an activity recommended by the 1999 Spanish Lake Community Area Study, the report said.

The developer would have to raise the casino and some other buildings 30 feet to keep the complex out of the Mississippi River floodway while the layout of the development must not cause water to rise anywhere else, the report said.

More than 40 protesters opposed to the casino marched for about an hour in front of the County Administration Building in Clayton before the commission met.

"Eagles yes, casino no," "save natural beauty," "save our wildlife," the pickets chanted.

Dora Gianoulakis, president of the Spanish Lake Community Association, which opposes the complex, said after the commission vote that the study called for low-intensity uses in the area, not an entertainment complex.

The Rev. Harold Hendrick, a casino opponent, said the development would hurt the local environment and churches.

In the public hearing portion of the meeting, commission members were to hear a discussion about permitting casinos, sport stadiums and large entertainment venues in the unincorporated area to have larger signs than the county now allows.

The issue arose when Pinnacle Entertainment of Las Vegas, owner of the River City Casino under construction in Lemay, submitted a sign plan that included a roof sign and other signs larger than those the county now permits. Gianoulakis said decisions about such signs should be site-specific.