People who want to install a new fence, build a retaining wall or put up a high-tech sign for their business in Cape Girardeau will soon have new rules to follow.

The Cape Girardeau City Council held a public hearing Monday night on five proposed sections of a new development code dealing with signs, billboards, landscaping and buffer yards, retaining walls and fences. The council also gave first-round approval to an ordinance spelling out the general reasons for a development code as well as off-street parking requirements and exterior lighting.

The development code is the second part of an overhaul of the city's rules governing growth and land use. The first phase, a complete revision of the city zoning ordinance, was approved by the council in early March.

No one spoke during the public hearing. An ordinance setting out the ideas presented by Planning and Zoning Commission chairman Bill Hinckley will be considered by the council at its next regular meeting Aug. 16.

The proposed new rules would, for example, require property owners to obtain permits before constructing new or replacement fences. Height restrictions currently in place -- six feet for backyard fences and three feet for front yard fences in residential neighborhoods, eight feet for fences at commercial properties -- would not change, city planner Martha Brown said.

When a property owner wants to build a retaining wall, the city would also require a permit if the wall is taller than four feet. "That is a matter of public safety and not having things fall in the street," Hinckley said.

The landscaping and buffer yard provisions would require, for example, a 10-foot-wide landscaped area between a street and any parking lot within 20 feet of a roadway.

For billboards and signs, the development code would incorporate brightness restrictions and limit the use of animated or quickly changing messages. The brightness restrictions would be the first time the city has tried to control the light coming from billboards, Brown said.

The rules on signs at businesses would be the first time the city has tried to regulate computer-controlled electronic, video or digital message signs. While the city currently bans flashing signs, the code is silent on digital signs or those with animation, Brown said.

As signs become more sophisticated, the images and animation displayed are more complicated. Under the proposal, signs in Cape Girardeau would not be allowed to display moving pictures and each image must remain on the screen for a minimum of 1.5 seconds. Minor animations are allowed, not to exceed 3 seconds out of every two minutes of display.

"We don't want to hurt anybody and we are not trying to hurt anybody," planning and zoning commissioner Charles Haubold told the council during its work session. "We just want orderly growth."

Hinckley told the council he knows high-tech signs are expensive and a few businesses may not be able to use all the features of signs they have purchased. "The problem is with people who spent $50,000 on a sign that does everything but cook bacon in the morning," Hinckley said.

Haubold said he believes there may be three or four signs in town that will not be able to use their full set of functions. But if the city waits, he said, the number will multiply rapidly.

The proposed development code does not grandfather in existing signs, Hinckley said.

In other action, the council set Nov. 2 as the date for a citywide vote on casino gambling and set property tax rates for this year at the same level as 2009.

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO