CITY ASKED TO REZONE OLD HOSPITAL

A Cape Girardeau businessman asked the City Council Monday night to take steps to encourage the federal government to consider building a new courthouse on the old St. Francis Hospital site.

Businessman Ted Coalter asked the council to rezone the property from residential to commercial and include it as part of the city's central business district.

Mayor Al Spradling III said the city staff would study the matter, but the council can't rezone property without a request from the property owner. "The city can't unilaterally rezone the property," he said.

Coalter and other members of the Haarig Area Development Association want the vacant hospital torn down and replaced with a federal courthouse.

The move would revitalize the whole southeast area of the city, Coalter said.