Concerns raised over business park rezoning

About 40 people -- some with questions, others, concerns -- attended a public hearing Monday night before the city council's consideration of rezoning a tract of land planned to become a business park on the northwest side of Cape Girardeau.

After the hearing, the council unanimously approved the rezoning from C-1, or general commercial, to M-1, or light manufacturing/industrial, after an amendment to remove a section of land just north of County Road 618 from the proposed area also was approved with no opposition. The area removed lies in the southeastern part of the city's property closest to a residential subdivision, Whispering Oaks, where many of the people who attended reside. Other property included in the area to be rezoned is east of Interstate 55 to the north and south of La Salle Avenue.

People who live in Whispering Oaks mostly wanted assurance from city officials that no major industrial businesses would be allowed to build in the area, which they said could adversely affect their property values.

Mike Ingram, president of Whispering Oaks' home-owners association, asked if a land survey was done before the city bought the land from the Southeast Missouri University Foundation, because he wanted to know if the city was aware the property contained an area of floodplain that residents want to see handled properly. City manager Scott Meyer said the city did a survey and would mitigate any stormwater issues. Ingram also asked if there was a chance the land could be later rezoned for heavy manufacturing, which the people living nearby do not want to see happen.

Councilmembers said overall the plan for the business park is for it to have a campus-type theme, where there would be walking trails, some green space and ponds adjacent to commercial businesses and smaller-scale distribution centers. There are, for example, according to Mayor Harry Rediger, tentative plans for the business park's first possible tenant to be housed in a complex of three upscale brick buildings.

"This will never be a smokestack type of development," Rediger said.

Don Hopper, president of the homeowners association for the Meadows at Whispering Oaks, requested that the city "keeps what it does at the south part of La Salle tasteful."

Vicki Lantz, who owns and operates Lazy L Safari Park near the area to be developed, also requested the area near County Road 618 include commercial-type developments, such as hotels and restaurants.

The council must approve a second and third reading of the rezoning ordinance at its next meeting before the change is complete.

eragan@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

La Salle Avenue, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

County Road 618, Cape Girardeau, Mo.