Parking, housing among top concerns for downtown plan

Cape Girardeau’s downtown needs more off-street parking and added housing options, property owners and neighborhood residents suggested at an open house Tuesday at Broadway Federal that sets the stage for development of a strategic plan.

Those were just some of the suggestions offered at the public meeting.

More than 40 people stopped by the second-floor meeting room to look over large maps detailing areas of downtown and talk with representatives of Arcturis Inc., a St. Louis-based consulting company that was hired to develop a new strategic plan for Cape Girardeau’s downtown.

The maps covered eight distinct areas, including the Good Hope neighborhood, Fountain Street corridor, Common Pleas Courthouse and the “courthouse village” neighborhood west of Lorimier Street.

Broadway and Main streets, North Main Street corridor, South Main Street corridor and the Marquette Tech area along Broadway.

The open house was the first step in efforts to update the downtown plan that was created in 2009.

Old Town Cape executive director Marla Mills said the plan will be developed over the coming weeks, with another open house tentatively scheduled for early December, when the consultant will present some proposals.

The goal is to finalize the plan by February and have the city council adopt the new plan by March, she said.

As part of the planning process, people may take a brief online survey on the Old Town Cape Facebook page, Mills said.

It will be available beginning today at facebook.com/CapeGirardeauStrategicPlan.

Downtown resident Charles Kent said the area needs lodging for visitors.

“I think we need something within walking distance between the casino and downtown,” he said. “If you come downtown, you don’t want to drive back across town (to find lodging).”

“Our downtown is a great place to walk,” he said, but added some of the sidewalks need to be upgraded to make the area even more pedestrian-friendly.

Downtown resident Chad Kight said the area needs to hold more events that draw people to the riverfront, including art and music festivals.

Kight said the downtown needs additional off-street, public parking, including perhaps a parking garage.

“We’ve got very limited public parking,” he said.

Margaret Waterman, who once lived along the western edge of downtown and now lives elsewhere in Cape Girardeau, said the area needs a grocery store to serve the families that live there.

She suggested the Good Hope area should be developed as a neighborhood for the arts.

“We have such a vibrant arts community,” she said.

“I think we need to build mixed-income housing,” Waterman said.

Some of the housing could be new, some could involve rehabbing old buildings, she said.

Like Kight, she said the area needs more off-street parking.

Russ Volmert, project manager for Arcturis, helped draw up the existing strategic plan when he was employed by a different firm.

Volmert said the new plan will look at ways to continue improving the downtown.

He said the area has a number of vacant properties that could be used for new housing.

Streetscapes will be addressed, but the focus is more on “land-use redevelopment” and what can be done to attract more private development, he said.

Developing business-incubator space for startup companies could be a part of the plan, Volmert said.

It is important for the plan to focus on retaining the downtown’s architectural heritage, he said.

“The historic architecture of downtown Cape Girardeau is part of its identity,” he said.

Preserving the Common Pleas Courthouse that overlooks the downtown “has been discussed,” he said.

“The general consensus I think is that it should stay a public space. It is kind of the downtown stage,” he said, adding “it has to be taken into account” in any strategic plan.

Volmert said on-street bike lines might be proposed as part of the plan.

“Housing will be a large focus of the plan,” he said, adding this could include “affordable and workforce housing.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

339 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.