Cape Girardeau City Council likely to modify deer hunting ordinance

A final vote to allow archery deer hunting in the city limits could be delayed again Monday night as Cape Girardeau City Council members expressed an interest in continuing to fine-tune the controversial proposal with aims of making it safer and more palatable for worried residents.

While a continuation is by no means a certainty, Mayor Harry Rediger said he anticipates amendments to the ordinance that would establish requirements and regulations for the program that is intended to reduce what some call a problematic deer population that contributes to car crashes and ruined lawns.

Rediger said he intends to propose an amendment to change the land requirement from one acre to five acres. His motion will also remove the option of allowing property owners to combine their parcels to reach the five acres. Under his motion, the full five acres would have to belong to one owner.

"We have a map that clearly details the fact that there are plenty of spots within the city that are five acres, plus a lot that are five acres with one owner," Rediger said.

If his motion is agreed upon, Rediger said, he would switch his first-read no vote back to a favorable one, with a likely outcome of 5-2 and wider council support than the June 18 final 4-3. Other amendments may be made involving putting back in requirements from a previous draft, including the participants to hunt from an elevated level, the age stipulation, the length of the hunting season and whether to limit the hunt to does only.

"I think there's going to be considerable discussion before we get to a [final] vote," Rediger said.

Another consideration is allowing the hunting season, which is set by the Missouri Department of Conservation, to be shorter than that schedule if the city determines enough deer have been harvested for the year. This year, for example, the state has set urban deer hunting season as Sept. 15 to Jan. 15, with the exception of the regular firearms season that runs from Nov. 10 to 20.

If changes are substantial Monday night, Councilman John Voss said, he would not oppose allowing city staff to delay the vote again as the ordinance is reworked. It may be wise, he said, to have a concise, full rendered ordinance for the council to consider instead of one that had been modified that night. But the council could still decide to vote Monday. Other council members agreed that may need to happen.

The ordinance as written call for hunters to complete a hunter safety course through the Missouri Department of Conservation, hold an archery permit and apply for a municipal deer permit. No hunting would be allowed within 150 yards of any church, school or playground and hunters would be required to ensure that any arrows don't land within 75 feet of any front yard property line or within 50 feet of any street or public right of way.

As to increasing the requirement from one to five acres -- thought safer because arrows would have to travel farther to fly off permitted boundaries -- Voss said he would have to study a map prepared by city staff that shows how much property would be available for hunting. Voss is leaning toward making the size a larger tract of land, though he noted he remains unconvinced the property needs to be tied to a single owner.

Voss, the chief council proponent of allowing hunting, said that whatever the council finalizes should be reviewed after the first hunting season.

"Once we have some experience with this in the community, we should step back and evaluate," Voss said. "Is it meeting the intention we had in mind? I agree it needs to evolve. I can't believe we have so much foresight that we're going to get something right on the first try."

City officials have been working on the proposal for 10 months, which follows a failed attempt in 2008. This council's first official "first reading" vote came June 18, when a revised version of a draft ordinance was approved on a split vote, with Voss and fellow members Mark Lanzotti, Meg Davis Proffer and Trent Summers. Opponents were council members Kathy Swan and Loretta Schneider.

The final vote was delayed July 2 in light of Summers' absence from the meeting for a vacation that had been scheduled months before. The remaining six members voted to delay the vote so that every member could be present for plan that has been divisive and spawned an opposition group, Cape Friends of Wildlife. The group decries the program as inhumane toward a docile species.

The ordinance would also create an unsafe program, the group has said.

On Saturday, Summers said he had nothing more to say about his missed meeting. But Summers agreed there is not full council agreement -- even among supporters -- on what a final ordinance should look like. If changes are made to the extent that starting with a new ordinance is appropriate, Summers said he has no problem with that.

One of the amendments does go overboard, Summers said. Requiring five acres for hunting, he said, is too large for an effective program. When large tracts that would not be appropriate for hunting are removed, such as Southeast Missouri State University, hospitals, parks, schools, etc., there are few places left where hunting would be permitted.

"It's my opinion that it would not even be worth it to have a program under that scenario," Summers said.

The opposition group is waiting until the council does give final approval so it can get to work undoing it. The group has 40 days following the ordinance's enactment to collect enough signatures, about 2,400, to meet the requirement. Then the city clerk has 20 days to certify the signatures to ensure they are by residents who are registered voters. The state's certification for the Nov. 6 general election is Aug. 28, which removes that date as an option. Stephen Stigers, head of Cape Friends of Wildlife, said the group will probably seek to have a special election sometime this winter.

"The city has been spinning its wheels on this issue for months," Stigers said. "My hope is the council will just find a graceful way to walk away from what most people seem to know is a bad idea."

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO