Cellphone tower, business park rezoning approved

A much-debated special-use permit for a 140-foot cellphone tower to be built in downtown Cape Girardeau will be granted to AT&T, the city council decided Monday.

The council decided in favor of the issue as part of its consent agenda. Before the approval, several people spoke in favor of the cellphone tower, but no one, as they had at past meetings, spoke in opposition. Several people who live downtown, along with some who have interests in historic preservation, previously voiced concerns about the potential for reduced property values and damage to the view of the city's historic districts as a result of the tower.

Councilwoman Loretta Schneider was the only member of the council to oppose the permit Monday. Councilman Trent Summers was absent from the meeting.

Schneider and other people who were opposed have said they believe there is a better location for the tower than where it now will be built at 418 William St.

Many downtown business owners, along with people who work in the media and telecommunications industries, supported AT&T's plan.

"It is very important that we have the opportunity to let a major company spend it's money to bring us technologically up to date," said Dick Withers of Cape Girardeau, who asked the council to vote in favor of the permit.

AT&T representatives have said alternative locations and technologies could not be used because of the detrimental effect to the improved coverage in the downtown area the tower should provide and the cost to the company.

Business park

The council also approved rezoning a tract of land planned to hold a business park at Monday's meeting. At the Aug. 5 council meeting, between 30 and 40 people who live near the tract of land showed up to support several speakers with questions and concerns about the business park's potential effect on their residential neighborhoods, the Whispering Oaks and Meadows of Whispering Oaks subdivisions. The tract of land where the city plans to develop the business park is west of Interstate 55 near exit 102. The city bought the land in 2012 from the Southeast Missouri University Foundation.

The rezoning, which was finalized Monday by the vote of the council, will change the area from C-1, or general commercial, to M-1, or light manufacturing/industrial. An amendment that removed a section of the land closest to the neighborhoods from the rezoning plan also was given final approval. No one spoke in favor or opposition of the measure Monday.

The development of the business park will depend on what kind of businesses are interested in building there, city officials have said, and the land will "never be a smokestack type of development," according to Mayor Harry Rediger

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Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

418 William St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

County Road 618, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

LaSalle Avenue and Interstate 55, Cape Girardeau, Mo.