SUBDIVISION RESIDENTS DEBATE KENT

Residents of the Woodland Hills Subdivision north of Lexington Avenue squared off at Monday's Cape Girardeau City Council meeting over whether the city should extend Kent Drive to connect with Lexington.

City officials decided they will study the matter.

Residents of Kent Drive told the council that extending their street would be a waste of money. Residents of nearby Belleridge Pike said extending Kent Drive would take excess traffic off their narrow residential street.

The extension of Kent Drive has been in the city's plans since as early as August 1990, when 170 residents of the subdivision signed a petition asking for it.

At the time, the intersection of Belleridge and Perryville Road was the only outlet for the subdivision and Lexington Avenue was still on the drawing board.

Now Belleridge connects with Lexington, and Woodland Hills residents can exit on Road Lane as well, while a developer plans a connection to Route W through Kenneth Drive.

Kent Drive resident Richard Burns presented 22 signatures on a petition to the council Monday. He said residents see no need for the outlet, so extending it would only waste taxpayers' money.

His neighbor from down the street, Laura Delgado, said she signed the petition in 1990, but no longer sees the need. "It's a very high price for just a quicker access in or out," she said.

But Lee Schneider of Belleridge Pike said his street has too much traffic. "You can't let your kids ride bicycles on Belleridge Pike," he said. Schneider said that when he moved in the developer promised to extend Kent Drive to relieve Belleridge Pike.

His neighbor, David Westrich, said developers plan more homes to the north that would put even more traffic on Belleridge Pike. And Craig Billmeyer said a Kent Drive extension would cut response times for fire trucks to the whole subdivision.

Burns said that building Kent might not relieve Belleridge's traffic because much of its traffic is from motorists using it for a shortcut from Perryville to Lexington.

The council reached no decision on the project. Councilman Tom Neumeyer entered a motion to terminate the extension. "We're looking at perhaps $112,000," he said. "I don't know if it's fiscally responsible to spend it."

Councilman Melvin Gateley said that wouldn't be fair to those in the subdivision who expected it to be completed.

Gateley asked for the motion to be tabled until the city could study traffic counts. The council voted 5 to 2, with Neumeyer and Jack Rickard dissenting.

City Manager Michael Miller said after the meeting that the traffic counts would not answer the question of where the cars are coming from or going.

In addition, Miller and City Engineer Mark Lester wrote a letter to the council before the meeting saying that sight lines at Kent's intersection with Lexington would make it hazardous, that Kent would not connect with an opposing street as required by city ordinances and that only $55,000 has been budgeted for it.

In other business, the council held a hearing about its proposed annexation policy. The proposal calls for requiring areas that are outside the city and want city utilities to petition for annexation and conform to all city codes if they are under construction.

Two developers, Jim Goggin and Keith Deimund, objected to requiring homes built outside the city limits to conform to city codes.

"You can shackle growth by putting restrictions on it," Goggin said.

The council also approved a controversial plan to build a mini-storage locker facility at the corner of Silver Springs Road and Whitener. Neighbors said the project is too close to apartments and would be too noisy and draw too much traffic.

Gateley and Rickard voted no, with Richard Eggimann dissenting.