Cape P&Z questions costs of elaborate road plan

A plan to extend Fountain Street as a decorative, divided boulevard with a brick-paver roadway and roundabouts at three Cape Girardeau downtown intersections seems extravagant, some planning and zoning commissioners said Wednesday night.

The commission said it wasn't ready yet to make a final recommendation to the city council on the street plan after an engineering firm estimated it could cost $1.3 million to build.

On another issue, the commissioners voted unanimously to recommend the council approve new regulations on business signs.

Robb McClary, the city's inspections services director, said the proposed regulations provide reasonable restrictions that businesses can live with, but that will allow the city to keep out "trashy" signs, including ones that are erected too close to the streets.

But most of the discussion at the city hall meeting centered on the Fountain Street project.

Commissioner Clifford Crosnoe said he can't justify the city spending $1.3 million to construct two blocks of paved street from Morgan Oak Street to William Street.

Crosnoe said the cost estimate given by Smith & Co., a Poplar Bluff, Mo., engineering firm that is designing the proposed street extension, is substantially higher than the original $800,000 estimate.

City planner Kent Bratton said in June that the project could cost anywhere from $800,000 to $1.4 million depending on the design. A more recent city staff estimate put the project at just over $1 million, commissioners said.

Paul Ridlen of Smith & Co. said his firm's estimate may be too high. He said the company is working to finalize the cost figures.

"I don't want to scare you with $1.3 million," he said.

But Ridlen said the proposed Fountain Street extension plan includes sidewalks on both sides of the proposed boulevard and decorative lights.

"It is not just a typical street," he said.

The roundabouts at Morgan Oak, Good Hope and William streets aren't a major expense, he said. They will add less than $100,000 to the cost, according to the engineers.

But Ridlen told commissioners that it would cost less to build a concrete street, but added that he had no specific figure on the cost difference.

Commissioner Gregory Williams favors the proposed street design. He said the project would provide a major entrance to the city's downtown and might qualify for federal funding that would pay 80 percent of the cost.

That didn't convince commissioner Raymond Buhs of the merits of building such a decorative street.

"A waste of money is a waste of money whether it is from the feds or Cape Girardeau taxpayers," he said.

But commissioner Harry Rediger said he would hate to see the city build a regular concrete street as an extension to the already existing part of new Fountain Street which was built with brick pavers.

Skip Smallwood, commission chairman, said the commission previously had given general approval to the use of roundabouts.

But he said commissioners weren't ready to make a final recommendation on the project until engineers can provide more accurate cost figures. Some commissioners also have expressed concern about whether paving stones would hold up as well as concrete.

"It is obvious there are still a lot of questions," Smallwood said.

In other business, the commission recommended approval of five special-use permits:

For a day-care operation at 609 Maple St.

For a clerical office at 2732 Bloomfield Road

For an illuminated sign for First Pentecostal Church at 3054 Lexington Ave.

For a sign for Second Missionary Baptist Church at 835 Beaudean Lane

For a proposed development of 32 residential apartments and an on-site manager's unit in the 1000 block of Hackberry Street.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123