Cape, Jackson boards discuss blanket zoning

Jackson's success with blanket zoning may prompt Cape Girardeau's planning and zoning commission to consider rezoning whole neighborhood blocks at once rather than piecemeal.

Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission chairman Skip Smallwood suggested the idea at a joint meeting with Jackson's zoning commission Thursday night.

The commissions met for an hour at Cape Girardeau's Osage Community Centre to discuss zoning and street development issues but took no actions. Commissioners said they just wanted to share information.

Smallwood said blanket zoning might make sense in the Old Town Cape district, from West End Boulevard east to the Mississippi River and including the downtown. The area has undergone increasing redevelopment.

Cape Girardeau commissioners said any massive zoning changes could take at least two years to implement and would require numerous public meetings.

Janet Sanders, Jackson's building and planning superintendent, said her city began wholesale rezoning of property along widened Highway 34/72 earlier this year.

The first of three phases was completed in August. The city hopes to complete the final rezoning by January or February.

When finished, Jackson will have rezoned more than 100 tracts of land along both sides of the widened highway from the city's west end east to the Highway 25/61 intersection.

The city is rezoning most of the land from residential to commercial.

Such changes are inevitable because of the highway project, Jackson officials said.

"We figured this would be a faster way to do it," said Bernard Proffer, who chairs Jackson's planning and zoning commission.

Sanders said most property owners agreed with the zoning changes.

"I have been totally amazed at the lack of opposition," she said. "I thought the phone would be ringing off the hook, and I would be hiding under my desk."

Jackson commissioners said it has worked because the Board of Aldermen supported the approach and because the city sent letters to affected property owners to explain the zoning plan.

If Cape Girardeau wants to implement blanket zoning in the Old Town Cape district, the planning commission should inform property owners at the start, Sanders said.

"Tell them everything upfront."

mbliss@semissourian.com

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