LEXINGTON RESIDENTS OPPOSE PERMIT BID

Jerry Washoe wants to know what the future of Lexington Avenue will be.

Washoe, who lives on Perryville Road at its intersection with Lexington, will go before the Cape Girardeau City Council tonight to voice his opposition to a request for a special permit to build an insurance office on the northeast corner of the intersection.

The city's Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-4 to recommend granting the permit requested by Bo Shantz at its Nov. 12 meeting.

The members who voted in favor of granting the special use permit said the office would be a low-traffic commercial business and would not have much impact on the surrounding residential areas.

The members who voted against granting the permit said the city had promised residents in the area that it would remain residential.

The Shantz property is zoned R-1, single family residential. The special use permit, if granted by the City Council, would only be in effect while Shantz owns the property and uses it as an insurance office.

There's already a Wink's convenience at the intersection. It was grandfathered in when the area was annexed into the city.

Washoe said he has "mixed feelings" about Shantz's request, and knows that it would be difficult to sell the property, part of the old Emil Meyer family farm, for residential development.

Shantz's plans are to build a log-style house on the property, which totals 1.83 acres, and to house his agency in the home. The house would have a front porch and a paved parking area.

But Washoe said he's worried about what will happen next if Shantz's special use permit is requested.

"It could just be the beginning of Lexington ending up commercial," he said.

"If they went ahead and put apartments there, I would not be happy with that. I'm not sure anybody'd want to put a house there," Washoe said. "My concern is really for the city to turn Lexington into another Broadway."

In September, the zoning commission recommended denying a request for a special use permit for a car wash at the northwest corner of Lexington and Cape Rock Drive.

And Washoe wonders what will happen to his and his neighbors' property values if commercial development is allowed in.

"I don't want it to go in that direction, but I also don't want to lose my shirt," he said.

"It's such a nice residential area," Washoe said. "The north side has a little business, but it's a nice part of town. If they want to bastardize it with more mini-marts and commercial, then I want to know now."

Washoe and another neighbor collected signatures from 48 people who live around Shantz's property and are against the special use permit.

Shantz said he's surprised by the amount of opposition his request has stirred up.

In addition to the convenience store on the corner, Shantz said, several people along Lexington Road are operating businesses out of their homes without special use permits.

Shantz said he tried to design the building so it will blend in with the surrounding homes, and he's even planning to put rocking chairs out on the porch.

His office will generate very little traffic and will be close at 5:30 p.m., Shantz said.

"If I had to do it over, I would have simply put the house in and moved my office in there and not gotten the special use permit," he said.

He originally purchased the property to build a home on, he said, but the landlord who owns his current office told him he needed the space, so Shantz decided to use the Lexington Road property for his office.

He said he will not be tearing down the barn that now stands on the property, and may in fact re-side the barn with the possibility of putting in "a steer or two or maybe a couple of horses."

Shantz called his proposed use for the property "as uncommercial as you could possibly make it and still have a business."

Last year, Shantz voiced his opposition to a zoning change along Kingshighway that went in front of his home.

He said he was opposed to the change because there was no stated use for the property, and the change was only requested to drive up property values.

Shantz echoed Washoe's doubts that anyone would want to build a home at the intersection, and pointed out that there are several houses for sale along Lexington Avenue.

"I guess my other option would be to subdivide the property into five lots and put in 1,200-square foot rental homes on it, which would be well within my rights," he said.

The rental homes would generate a healthy income, he said, but he didn't want to exercise that option because it would harm his neighbors' property values and wouldn't meet his needs for office space.

Kent Bratton, Cape Girardeau's city planner, said the city's comprehensive plan shows Lexington as residential "in general terms."

"That means there could be some commercial in specific areas, but it's not planned for general, overall commercial," Bratton said.

Three requests for special use permits on the west side of Perryville Road and one on Cape Rock Drive have been turned down recently, he said.

"There's been a lot of neighborhood opposition to all of those requests," he said.