- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
The Irony Of It All
Brad Hollerbach is the Director of Information Technology for the Southeast Missourian. His opinions are his own and do not reflect those of the newspaper or its editorial board.
He writes this blog primarily for his own amusement and to parody the absurdities of the world we live in. He lives with his wife and two cats that don't really care for one another in Cape.
Mayor Candidate May Want To Bone Up On Zoning Code
Posted Thursday, December 17, 2009, at 12:00 AM
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~NOTE - The sign discussed in this blog was removed on Friday, December 18 by Mr. Rediger's campaign.
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I knew this was bound to happen.
Back in August I {http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/hollerbach/entry/29581 wrote a blog} about witnessing city workers cutting down a dead tree that appeared to be on private property at the northwest corner of William Street and West End Boulevard.
Having personally footed the bill to have a tree cut down a few years ago, I was a little miffed that the city would be doing this valuable service for a private property owner.
However, my initial assumption was wrong.
I checked with the Cape Girardeau public works department and according to them, the city actually owns this lot almost up to the south-facing wall of the first house north of the corner. It's not been privately owned for a long, long time.
The land was bought by the state in the 1970s when William Street was widened and at some point over the years was transferred to the city. The city also maintains a larger-than-ordinary right-of-way on this corner not that that really matters since they already own the lot.
Now, according to the Cape Girardeau zoning ordinances, "no sign other than an official traffic sign shall be placed within any public right-of-way." This law is not new. It's been on the books for years.
That means that the forest of political signs that sprout up on this corner prior to every election -- and has for so many years -- is in violation of the zoning code. The signs are not only on city-owned property, they're well with-in city right-of-way.
There is no proviso in the zoning ordinances that I could find exempting political signage from the city's signage laws. If this were the case, signs would line the perimeter of city-owned properties like Capaha Park every time there was an election. But they don't.
Considering the signage history of this corner, I was not surprised that a campaign sign for Harry Rediger's mayoral campaign appeared on it this past week. Political signs always crowd this corner, so why should this next election be any different?
I'm sure it was just an honest mistake on the part of Mr. Rediger's supporters especially considering the corner's history of prolific political propaganda. It's also not as if this corner is clearly marked as being city-owned property. And frankly, most people wouldn't know the legal right-of-way of a particular location without consulting the experts at city hall. That's what I had to do.
But it did give me a good laugh considering Mr. Rediger's background.
Amongst his other accomplishments, he's been a member of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission for the last 20 years and has served twice as its chairman.
Photo of map showing the city's right of ways around the intersection. #
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