Constructing a feud

Developers' plans to expand a Cape Girardeau apartment complex worries neighbors who say the landlord doesn't keep up his property and that construction of more apartments on the site would make an eyesore worse.

E.W. Geiser and his son, Jody Geiser, operate the Collegewood Apartments, a complex of two brick buildings housing 58 one-bedroom apartments at 807 N. Sprigg St. They want to add four more buildings with a combined 40 units: 24 one-bedroom units and 16 two-bedroom units. The Geisers want the city to grant a special-use permit to allow construction to begin. The project would be completed in phases over the next couple of years, the developers said.

The city's planning and zoning commission, which tabled the issue last month after neighbors objected to the project, will consider the request again tonight. The meeting at city hall starts at 7 p.m. The ultimate decision will rest with the city council.

The apartment project doesn't sit well with neighbors who say the Geisers routinely leave rubbish piled on the property and don't do a good job of policing the existing apartments, which are rented largely to college students.

The only "rubbish" that neighbors could be referring to, Jody Geiser said, are construction materials that have been stockpiled on the ground. The materials include landscaping timbers.

An unused swimming pool, which neighbors said had become a breeding ground for mosquitoes, was torn out last year.

Neighbors complain that residents of the apartments often are a nuisance, holding loud parties, littering the ground with beer cans and jumping neighbor John Voss' backyard fence on their way to nearby classes at Southeast. Voss said some students jump a chain-link fence that separates his back yard from a grassy slope in the apartment complex to take a shorter route to nearby classes at the university.

Jody Geiser said he's not aware of any such problems. "There are no wild parties," he said. "We haven't had to evict anybody in a long, long time."

Police responded 15 times to the apartment complex over the past six months, mostly to serve arrest warrants. During that period, police also responded to three domestic disturbance calls, a case of harassment and one involving indecent exposure, said assistant police chief Capt. Carl Kinnison.

Some of the tenants have been out of school for years and have professional jobs, Jody Geiser said.

Cheryl Sebaugh, a math teacher at Cape Girardeau Central High School, has lived in the apartment complex for 17 years.

Sebaugh said the apartment complex isn't a nuisance. "I wouldn't be there if it was a loud, party animal type of place," she said.

The complex, a fixture in Cape Girardeau since the 1960s, is on a hill overlooking Southeast Missouri State University's Towers high-rise residence halls.

The Geiser family bought the apartment complex in 1974.

"What is frustrating for us is the lack of maintenance," said Voss, who lives at 834 Alta Vista Drive. "His track record is not real good."

Voss' back yard and those of several neighbors look out over the apartment complex. "I would rather look at a parking garage than what I am looking at today," Voss said.

He lives in a neighborhood of well-maintained, older homes. Voss currently is restoring his 1930s-era home, which he has owned for the past five years.

The proposed development would place one two-story apartment building within 13 feet of Voss' landscaped back yard.

"I am concerned about his ability to maintain even more buildings on this ground," Voss said. He is one of about eight property owners along Alta Vista Drive and Sprigg Street who have concerns about the project.

Planning and zoning commissioner Raymond Buhs sympathized with the neighborhood's concerns when the issue surfaced at last month's meeting. "You've got a bunch of neighbors who have looked at junk for years, and they are tired of it," he said.

The developers insisted the project would help clean up the area. But neighbors doubt it.

The proposed apartment project also would border the Ratliff Care Center, a 46-unit nursing home at 717 N. Sprigg St. The apartment project would extend to the west and north of the care center.

Carlos and Emmagene Ratliff, who operate the nursing home, said loud parties and littering by drunken apartment dwellers are a constant nuisance.

"My biggest concern is the partying of tenants," she said. "They throw beer cans and bottles."

The Ratliffs also question the developers' plan to construct another entrance into the apartment complex that partly uses a Sprigg Street driveway that serves the nursing home.

Commissioners tabled the permit request last month after advising the developers and project architect Tom Holshouser to meet with the neighbors and try to work out their differences.

"It is very frustrating when developers don't communicate with neighbors," said commissioner Scott McClanahan.

Last week, the Geisers met with about eight of the neighbors at the Cape Girardeau Public Library to discuss the proposed project.

Holshouser said the Geisers have begun cleaning up the property. But Voss and other neighbors worry that the debris is only being moved from one area of the property to another.

Neighbors on Alta Vista Drive want the planning commission to require the Geisers to screen the property with trees and a 6-foot high wooden fence.

Holshouser said the developers are willing to plant some eastern white pine and perhaps erect a fence.

But the area already is zoned for apartments, and part of the site is zoned commercial. As a result, Holshouser said, the Geisers could subdivide the 3.6-acre site, if necessary, to construct the apartment buildings. No special-use permit would be needed in that case, he said.

The Geisers are asking for a special-use permit because they want to place more than one apartment building on the lot.

"We are going to build the apartment buildings there one way or another," Holshouser said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123