Board tables Sprint request to erect phone tower

The Cape Girardeau City Council Monday night tabled the request of a special-use permit by Charlie Roberts and Sprint to erect a 150-foot cellular phone tower at 2215 Broadway because it wants to hear from a cellular tower subcommittee created by the planning and zoning board.

Councilman Tom Neumeyer said the cell tower subcommittee should be ready to submit some cell tower guidelines after its Feb. 12 meeting. Currently, the city has no cell tower regulations other than the request of a special-use permit.

The measure was tabled four votes to two. Hugh White and Frank Stoffregen voted no and mayor Al Spradling III abstained because of a conflict of interest.

Roberts' request was to tear down an existing 140-foot tower and replace it with a 150-foot tower.

Theresa Malone, representing Sprint, said the existing tower could not structurally support the cell antennae.

She also said the request is time sensitive because Sprint could lose business because of dropped calls and poor signals. The proposed tower would work in conjunction with a tower already in place on nearby Kingshighway. She said the extra tower is needed to handle more capacity.

"We didn't anticipate this customer demand," she said.

The proposed tower would have the capability of handling three antennae, Malone said.

When the subject was approached at last month's planning and zoning meeting, there was no opposition to the erection of the tower, but councilmen Neumeyer, Butch Eggimann and Jay Purcell all voiced their fears that they could be granting the permission of a tower that could violate soon-to-be regulations recommended by the subcommittee.

New speed limits

Acting on the recommendation of a speed study conducted by the Missouri Department of Transportation, the council took the first step toward approval of a speed-limit change on part of Old U.S. 61.

The council will likely make its final approval at the Feb. 19 council meeting.

Highway 74, starting at the western city limits will be 45 miles an hour until the intersection of Old U.S. 61. From there, Old U.S. 61 north to South Kingshighway will be changed from 55 to 45 miles an hour.

New TIF commission

The council also approved an ordinance to establish a new commission to oversee tax increment financing or TIF.

A request for the city to institute a TIF commission was made by Prestwick Plantation, the developers responsible for building the new Dalhousie Golf Course.

Currently, Prestwick Plantation's land is not part of the city and Prestwick is requesting annexation. The formation of the TIF commission is part of the annexing process, city manager Michael Miller said.

The council has discussed the formation of a TIF commission in the past, but it was never proposed by an outside agency like Prestwick.

TIF is basically an agreement between the city and a developer to use the extra tax money that is generated by the new land development to fund public works projects like the building of streets.

The city is in charge of where the extra tax money will be spent, thus the request for a commission to make recommendations to the council.

The proposed commission would consist of 11 members. Six members would be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the council. Two members would be appointed by the school district. Two members would be appointed by the county commission and one member would be appointed collectively by all other affected property taxing jurisdictions.

The Prestwick development consists of a 27-hole, 304-acre golf course and a 535-acre residential development.