CITY COUNTY REFUSES PERMIT FOR SALVAGE YARD NEAR BRIDGE

Motorists crossing the Mississippi River into Cape Girardeau on the planned bridge and relocated Highway 74 will have one less eyesore to bear.

The Cape Girardeau City Council Monday refused to grant a special use permit to Lester Sample for a automobile salvage company at Giboney and Maple.

The city's planning and zoning commission had recommended -- by a 6-2 vote -- approval of the permit, but the issue failed Monday at the city council meeting for lack of a motion.

That means motorists on the new bridge and Highway 74 will be welcomed only by the sight of a dry dock, fuel farm, scrap metal operation and a saw mill as they enter Cape Girardeau's east side.

Council members said during Monday's council session that they would rather not have to permit junk yards in the city.

Sample has operated such an operation in violation of city zoning codes for years at 212 S. Spanish. The city attorney's office recently has pressured Sample to remove the abandoned vehicles at the site, and Sample was banking on approval of the special use permit to move his operation to 503 Maple St.

"It's been difficult to get a handle on this problem on Spanish Street," said Councilman Melvin Gateley.

City Attorney Warren Wells said the Spanish Street site isn't zoned for an automobile salvage business. He said Sample has promised to move the vehicles at Spanish to the Maple Street location upon approval of the permit.

But Councilman Al Spradling III questioned why such a business need be allowed in the city.

"Why do we need to detract from that area?" Spradling said. "Why don't we just get rid of both of them, and shut him down?

"I frankly don't like either alternative: one, to continue where he's at on Spanish, and two, moving to the new location."

Tom Ludwig, an attorney representing Sample, told the council that Sample has operated the Spanish Street business for 17 years.

"Our hope is that (the special use permit for the Maple Street location) will be a solution to our problem," Ludwig said. "We'd like to put all this dispute to rest."

The planning and zoning commission recommended approval of the request provided Sample erect an eight-foot solid fence around the property and refrain from parking vehicles on the street.

But Gateley said he thought the operation would detract from the neighborhood.

Tom Neumeyer, a spokesmen for the Downtown Neighborhood Association, said that group also was opposed to the auto salvage yard at either location.

Neumeyer said the relatively cramped lot at Maple Street -- about one-third acre -- is too small to store the junked vehicles.

He called the planning and zoning commission's attempt to "clean up a junk yard" an "oxymoron."

"Some of the most beautiful, historic homes in Cape Girardeau are in sight" of the Spanish Street business, he said.

"I know the members of the city council live in the north and west end of town, but I wonder how many would vote for this in their end of town."

Neumeyer said Sample, who has a similar salvage business in Fruitland, should move his Cape operation there.

"The east side of town doesn't need this," he added. "The city of Cape doesn't need this. Why allow it?"

Terry Juden, who owns property abutting the Maple Street site, said he also was opposed to the special use permit.

In other business, the council delayed action on another planning and zoning commission recommendation that the northwest corner of Lexington and Perryville Road be rezoned from single-family residential to local commercial district.

Council members voted to delay action until Nov. 15 after they were presented a petition with signatures of 49 residents of the area opposed to the zoning change.

The owner of the site, Harold Werner, said he planned to put two shops on the property. The site is bordered by Lexington, Perryville Road, a Wink's convenience store and gas station, and apartments. "The lot is no good at all as residential," Werner said.

But Marvin Broadbent of 2037 Perryville Road said the petitioners wanted the tract to remain as zoned.

Spradling voted against tabling the measure until Nov. 15. Mayor Gene Rhodes, whose wife signed the petition, abstained from voting.