Cape P&Z board approves DREAM strategic plan

The plans to beautify Broadway, reinvent the riverfront and work toward redevelopment of the Haarig-Good Hope area are winning endorsements from Cape Girardeau city advisory boards.

The Planning and Zoning Commission approved the DREAM Initiative Downtown Strategic Plan on Wednesday. The Historic Preservation Commission will get its turn at 7 p.m. this coming Wednesday when the panel discusses the strategic plan and looks at building design guidelines for both rehabilitation and new construction efforts.

The DREAM Initiative is a three-year state program begun in 2006. It awarded the city $300,000 in planning funds to hire Peckham Guyton Albers & Viets Inc., a St. Louis architecture, design and planning firm, to prepare the plan under consideration.

The DREAM Initiative also put the city into a priority group for distribution of state economic development grants during the three-year participation.

The proposal has big ideas the planners said should be part of an integrated effort to improve the three downtown areas. The most dramatic ideas included an aquarium, a 100-room hotel and a riverside amphitheater seating 500 to 1,000 people. Other ideas include a university village area for shopping along Broadway and residences aimed at artists near the River Campus.

The plan has also been endorsed by Old Town Cape and the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce. The plan's final approval must come from the Cape Girardeau City Council.

Pertinent addresses:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO