8 PROTEST PERRYVILLE ZONE CHANGE

PERRYVILLE--Eight people protested a proposed oil change business in a residential zone at this week's Perryville City Council meeting.

Charles Glueck, owner of Jackson Fast Lube, wants to buy two lots on French Lane just south of St. Joseph Street, tear down the white frame houses and put in a quick oil change business. Glueck leases the adjacent property on St. Joseph and is building Plaza Tire there.

Glueck said the two houses are eyesores that need to be torn down and that the lots will provide the extra parking he needs for the tire business. That would keep customers from parking on the narrow residential street.

He applied to the city for a rezoning of the lots from R-2 residential to C-2 commercial. Glueck said he had a contract to buy them if the rezoning went through.

But nearly all of nearby residents objected. Lindola Seabaugh, whose husband spoke against the rezoning, said the Plaza Tire store under construction is ugly, and the oil change place would make it worse.

The French Street homeowner said that section of St. Joseph Street is the entrance to Perryville for many people. "You come down that bypass, and you see a used-car lot, all kinds of hog sheds and now this, and one of them is less attractive than the other," Seabaugh said.

Her neighbor on Richardet Street, the next street over, Larry Abbott, said that if the city allows commercial development to encroach on the neighborhood, it will continue down those narrow residential streets.

He added that paving the two residential lots would increase problems with stormwater that floods the subdivisions after hard rains.

One resident, Gary Hopewell, spoke in favor of the zoning change. He acknowledged that he might be the only one in favor of it in the subdivision.

Hopewell lives next door to the affected lots. He said the houses there are eyesores and that this is "the way I could see" of getting them torn down.

Glueck said he would make the water from the lots drain away from the neighborhood. He said he is sure that the neighbors would effectively oppose any attempt to rezone any more lots in the neighborhood.

The Perryville Planning and Zoning Commission already voted against the rezoning. The City Council won't vote on the matter until its next meeting.