Mo. Rev. Stat. § 67.870

The general assembly finds that the rapid growth and random spread of urban development is encroaching upon, impairing, or eliminating, many open areas and spaces of varied sizes and character, including many such sites having significant scenic or esthetic values, which areas and spaces, if preserved and maintained in their present open state, would constitute important physical, healthful, esthetic or economic assets adding to the value of existing or impending urban and metropolitan development.