MAYORS CALL FOR HARMONIOUS GROWTH (BORDER TALKS: JACKSON, CAPE GIRARDEAU) (FOURTH IN A SERIES)

Editor's Note: This is the last in a four-part series previewing the scheduled January meeting between Cape Girardeau and Jackson officials.

Annexation issues shouldn't divide Cape Girardeau and Jackson; they should unite them, say the cities' mayors.

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III and Jackson Mayor Paul Sander hope the cities can map out their future borders to avoid annexation battles like those that have divided them in the past.

Annexation is one of a handful of issues that the Cape Girardeau City Council and the Jackson Board of Aldermen will discuss at a joint meeting on Jan. 26.

Cape Girardeau and Jackson quarreled for years over each other's annexation plans. The on-and-off feuding went on for nearly two decades, beginning in the early 1970s, and running through the 1980s.

At times the feuding escalated to lawsuits as the cities tried to block each other's annexation plans.

As recently as the late 1980s, both cities sought to annex a 70-acre tract of land owned by developer Jim Drury just northeast of the Interstate 55-Highway 61 intersection.

Cape Girardeau and Jackson city officials met in December 1988 to work out their differences. But the talks broke down.

The issue was resolved in 1989 after the Jackson Board of Aldermen dropped plans to annex the disputed ground.

Interstate 55 serves as a natural boundary from Highway 61 north, Sander and Spradling said. But south along the Route K corridor, future city boundaries are less clear, the mayors said.

Sander said Jackson would look to expand its city limits southward along Highway 25 in the future. He envisions Cape Girardeau expanding westward along Route K.

Those projected expansions could leave both cities with a common border in an area or areas east of Highway 25 and north of Route K.

Sander predicted that construction of a new Notre Dame High School along Route K and a Jackson grade school along Highway 25 would spark residential growth in those areas.

Spradling said both cities need to agree upon basic boundary lines.

"We don't want to spend a lot of money and a lot of time fighting over where we will go," Spradling said.

Sander said, "We need to know what they would like to do, and they need to know what we would like to do."

The Jackson mayor said the annexation issue is one of long-range planning, not immediate land expansions. "We don't have any argument at all over annexation issues at this point," Sander said.

At the January meeting, the Jackson and Cape Girardeau councils may appoint a committee to study annexation issues, Sander said.

Spradling said any boundary plans won't be set in stone.

Both Cape Girardeau and Jackson have to plan ahead to provide street and utility improvements to meet the needs of developing areas, Sander said.

In Missouri, communities must be able to provide city services to any area they annex within three years.

Ken Eftink, Cape Girardeau's development services coordinator, said both cities need to look at the topography and the roads in a given area and determine which one could best provide water, sewers, police and fire protection.

Putting in trunk sewers and water lines sets the stage for more commercial and residential development, Eftink said.

Cape Girardeau, he said, isn't looking for annexation battles. "So much of what we are doing now is friendly annexations that are driven by the property owner," he said.

In 1994, Cape Girardeau's Planning and Zoning Commission recommended eight areas to be considered for future annexation.

Those areas include the area west of Cape West Business Park between Route K and Bloomfield, and an area south of Bloomfield Road and west of Interstate 55.

Jackson hasn't formulated an annexation plan. But the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission in Perryville is updating the city's development plan. The plan hasn't been updated since 1981.

The new plan should be finished next summer. Among other things, the comprehensive plan will identify the best areas for annexation, Sander said.

Both cities, he said, need to exercise some common sense in deciding on future boundaries.