Cape City Council endorses $5.8 million low-income housing complex on 4-2 vote

Despite objections from two of its members, the Cape Girardeau City Council voted Monday night to endorse a $5.8 million apartment project off Silver Springs Road that would provide housing for low-income families.

The 4-2 vote means the project lives another day -- a council no-vote would have killed it -- but an executive with the development company said after Monday night's council meeting he still places the project's odds at 25 percent.

"We're nowhere close to the finish line," said Jason Maddox, executive vice president of Clarkton, Mo.-based MACO Development.

The project won't happen if the company isn't awarded more than $6 million in tax credits next year and that decision will ultimately decide its fate, Maddox said.

The company is proposing a 48-unit complex on 12 acres at the north end of Silver Springs Road, with plan for an additional phase down the road. But the company won't do the project without the tax credits that are administered by the Missouri Housing Development Commission.

Forty percent of the available $25 million in credits next year are slated to go to tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., and Maddox said St. Louis and Kansas City routinely get the lion's share of such credits.

"So it's going to be tough," Maddox told the council.

For the first time, applications for funding require a resolution of support from city councils. Before the vote, that seemed far from certain. At the request of Ward 5 council member Mark Lanzotti, the resolution was pulled off the consent agenda, meaning it would be voted on separately. That is typically only done if a council member has concerns or wants to more fully discuss an agenda item.

The project is in Ward 5, and Lanzotti and Ward 1 council member John Voss voted against it. Meg Davis Proffer, who represents Ward 2, did not attend the meeting.

Lanzotti argued that the area -- near Spruce Street and near other apartments and single-family homes in the west-central part of the city -- was "already strained" and he worried that it would create more traffic.

"I would not like to see more strain put on single-family residences already in that area," Lanzotti said.

Lanzotti also said that a planned second phase, which would take place a few years from now, would create a total of 96 units, which would equate to 1 unit per 5,000 square feet.

"To that end, I'm not sure that's what that area needs," he said.

But Mayor Harry Rediger and council members Kathy Swan, Debra Tracy and Loretta Schneider voted for the project, which would require that a family of four make less than $32,000 a year. Rent for each unit would be $415 a month.

"I do know we desperately need low-income housing," Tracy said. "On our comprehensive plan, it's listed as one of our greatest areas of need."

MACO intends to submit an application to the Missouri Housing Development Commission by the Nov. 14 deadline, Maddox said. The application asks for $669,055 annually over a 10-year period. A decision won't be made until March.

MACO, which already owns and manages three senior housing complexes in Cape Girardeau, knows there is a need for such housing in Cape Girardeau, Maddox said.

"We not only the developer, but we manage these properties as well," he said. "So we've got skin in the game, so to speak."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO