COUNCIL BEGINS RIVERBOAT SELECTION PROCESS

The Cape Girardeau City Council tonight will consider a plan for soliciting proposals and selecting an excursion gambling boat operator for the city.

Voters this month approved riverboat gambling in the city by a vote of 6,471 to 6,046, which requires that the city must submit to the Missouri Gaming Commission a plan for how it will proceed to select a boat operator.

In a letter to city council members, Assistant City Manager Doug Leslie and City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said the state will set a deadline for the city to file the plan.

"The requirements for application for licensing also provide opportunity for the city to review and approve the applicant's economic development, impact and affirmative action plans," Leslie and Fischer said.

In the council letter, the city management said that due to the competition from other cities and possible limits on state licenses, the review and selection process should be "thorough but expeditious."

"It is the opinion of the city staff that this can best be accomplished in-house with input from the city council and planning and zoning commission," the letter said.

"The recent decision on riverboat gambling in Cape Girardeau provides the community with a significant and unique economic opportunity, but also places upon us a responsibility to ensure a quality development beneficial to all of the citizens of Cape Girardeau."

The city staff has examined procedures followed by other cities in Missouri where riverboat gambling has been approved. Fischer and Leslie said "high-quality" riverboat gambling can be a "catalyst for economic development, job creation, tourism and further development" of the city's riverfront.

"It is also imperative that we recognize the potential for substantial impacts on the infrastructure of the city," they added. "Without careful planning and forethought given to such development, there is obviously a potential for wasted resources and problems."

The city staff estimates a "thorough but accelerated" selection process will take about 3-1/2 months, and Fischer and Leslie set the council's March 7 meeting as the target for riverboat selection.

Some of the items that would be included in the process include assessment the riverboat's impact on the city's sanitary and storm sewers, water system, transportation, utilities, zoning laws, and economy.

Once a request for proposals is drafted, including criteria for reviewing the applicants, the city will advertise for submission of proposals.

The review, negotiation and recommendation process will take about 30 days, Fischer and Leslie said, and will be followed by contract negotiations with the recommended applicant.

Fischer and Leslie said some of the criteria that would be part of the review process include:

-- The development site will be in the Downtown Business District -- roughly between the new Mississippi River Bridge and Sloan's Creek.

-- The proposed development and boat design will be consistent with the "overall downtown riverfront redevelopment theme" and existing architecture.

-- All direct costs associated with review and processing of proposals will be paid by the individual applicants.

In other business tonight, the council will consider a request from Harold and Yvonne Werner to rezone 2011-2019 Perryville Road.

At a Nov. 1 public hearing regarding the request, the council received a petition with 49 signatures of property owners near the Werners' tract who were opposed to rezoning the lot from residential to commercial.

At the meeting, the council tabled the matter, and asked the city staff to prepare a map showing where the petitioners lived in relation to the Werner tract.

In a letter to council members, City Planner Kent Bratton explained that city law requires a super-majority of the council's vote to approve an amendment where 10 percent or more of the land within 185 feet of the boundaries of the development are represented by protesting property owners.

But some of the petitioners live as far as 1,800 feet from the Werner tract.

"The staff's calculations are that all of one lot and part of another is represented by protesting petitioners that own subject property within the 185-foot limits," Bratton said.

But the owners of the lot completely within the 185-foot barrier, Frank and Florence Bodlovic, have since withdrawn their protest against the rezoning.

The remaining lot, owned by Mayor Gene Rhodes and his wife, contains 18,100 square feet within the 185-foot limit, or 6.8 percent of the total.

"Therefore, the super-majority rule does not apply and a simple majority of the council's vote will suffice to adopt the measure," said Bratton.

The city's planning and zoning commission unanimously recommended approval of the zoning change after no one appeared at their meeting in opposition to the request.

Other agenda items for tonight's meeting include:

--20A resolution to adopt the solid waste management plan for the Southeast Missouri Solid Waste District.

-- A resolution to contract with Sverdrup Environmental Inc. to review and analyze the old St. Francis Hospital building for hazardous materials and alternative uses. The contract will cost $14,500 to $19,200.

-- A lease for Ace Rent A Car for a portion of the lobby at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport at a cost of 10 percent of the first $6,750 in gross revenue and 5 percent of any further gross revenue.