Cape City Council passes updated zoning code with extra provision

The proposed new Cape Girardeau zoning code didn't make it through the city council Tuesday without change, despite warnings from Mayor Jay Knudtson that major alterations could undermine more than a year of work.

On a 4-3 vote, Ward 5 Councilman Mark Lanzotti won approval of a provision designed to encourage large landowners to bring their property into the city. Instead of a single section creating a new agricultural designation for parcels larger than 10 acres, the city will have two sections for large holdings. Lanzotti's amendment added a second agricultural designation, with parcels larger than 25 acres, and looser regulations including the right to continue hunting on those large holdings.

The council, after debating Lanzotti's amendment, voted 7-0 to approve the 180-page overhaul of the zoning rules. It was one of two items on the Tuesday agenda that will have a long-term effect on the city. The other was a decision to place a five-year renewal of the city's Transportation Trust Fund, or TTF, sales tax on the Aug. 3 ballot.

Despite the lasting effect of both decisions, none of the candidates for mayor or council seats in Wards 1, 2 and 6 in the April 6 election -- with the exception of Ward 1 incumbent John Voss -- attended the meeting.

Neither decision is final. The council plans final votes on both the zoning code and the tax extension at its next meeting March 1.

The need for two agricultural districts is the same as the need for multiple residential designations or commercial designations, Lanzotti said. "It struck me that the regulations for 10 acres need not be the same as those for 110 or 210 acres," he said.

Allowing timber harvest and a looser allowance for home-based businesses than in other districts are some of the key differences between Lanzotti's larger agricultural district and the original proposed all-purpose agriculture district. Both provisions are to encourage annexation while discouraging scattered development that would be difficult to support with city services.

Lanzotti was joined by Voss, Ward 2 council member Charlie Herbst and Ward 6 council member Marcia Ritter, while Mayor Jay Knudtson's opposition was joined by Debra Tracy of Ward 3 and Dr. Loretta Schneider of Ward 4.

In voting against the amendment, Knudtson and Schneider both said they wanted to accept unchanged the work done to rewrite the zoning code. "I think it would be terribly irresponsible to break away from them on this," Knudtson said.

Schneider said she agreed. "It is rather late in the day to be contradicting Planning and Zoning."

The zoning code overhaul represents the first comprehensive rewriting of the city's land use rules since 1967. Representing more than a year of work, 180-page draft ordinance was written in a process that included multiple meetings with major property owners, letters to individual landholders facing a change in their zoning and several public discussions at the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The proposed code includes limits on the size of garages and limits to three the number of unrelated people who can share a dwelling in most areas of the city. It also makes it more difficult to maintain a property use that doesn't fit the code by setting a shorter resumption time if the activity ceases for any reason.

The code encourages some uses, such as neighborhood stores and restaurants, or investment in rental property in certain parts of the central city by allowing more than three unrelated people to share a house.

When voters go to the polls Aug. 3, they will be voting on the fourth version of the TTF program. The latest round proposes a list of projects that range from new intersections at William Street and Aquamsi Street to major road construction that includes widening Bloomfield Road and extending Veterans Memorial Drive from Scenic Drive to Hopper Road.

Overall, the plan anticipates raising $21.3 million over five years, with $13.1 million allocated for 12 specific projects, $6.2 million set aside for general projects such as asphalt repairs and overlays, and $2 million for safety improvements and contingencies.

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO