CITY P&Z RECOMMENDS ACTIVITY CENTER IN PARK

A city advisory board Wednesday endorsed the plan for a multiuse community activity center at Cape Girardeau's newest park.

The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended the city council grant a special use permit for the 32,000-square-foot building to be built at Osage Park, near the intersection of Mount Auburn Road and Kingshighway.

The 56-acre park was acquired with excess tourism funds as part of a Convention and Visitors Bureau recreation project. The project also includes construction of a softball and soccer complex in Shawnee Park.

In the application for the special use permit, Parks and Recreation Director Dan Muser said the activity center will serve recreational and social needs in the community.

"The building will be used for a variety of youth and adult recreational sports activities, including basketball, volleyball, aerobics, gymnastics, weight and fitness exercises," Muser said. "Other recreational activities include classes in arts and crafts, teen and adult dances, youth theater classes..."

The building also will be available for conventions and meetings, he said.

In other business, the commission recommended approval of the request of the Maple Avenue United Methodist Church for a special use permit to move its church to 2442 Jean Ann Drive.

But the commission recommend denial of a permit for Bible Missionary Church, 2885 Hopper Road, to move a double-wide mobile home on the church lot.

Robert Owens, pastor of the church, said the building would replace the existing parsonage, which is in severe disrepair.

The double-wide mobile home, which would be placed on a permanent foundation, would be an economical way to improve the church site, he said.

Henry Davis, a founding member of the church, said the congregation is small and would be unable to afford building a new parsonage on the lot.

But commissioners feared the precedent that would be set by granting the special use permit.

"If we allow you to do it, then we would have a number of people in the city trying to do the same thing because it's cheaper," said commissioner Tom Mogelnicki. "I don't want our city looking like a mobile home park."