COUNCIL GIVES 1ST NOD TO MOBILE HOME

The City Council voted against recommendations of the Planning and Zoning Commission twice Monday night.

In preliminary votes, it voted to allow George and Lora Lee Eaker to build a double-wide mobile home on a street of conventionally built homes and to allow the extension of Kent Drive south to Lexington Avenue.

The council also gave final approval to the $52.7 million 1997-98 budget that includes 2 percent raises for city employees beyond what they would get from merit increases.

George Eaker came to the council with family, neighbors and an exhibit of photographs of every house on Vincent Park Drive, the block-long dead-end street off Country Club Drive on the north end of the city where he has owned a half-acre of land for 40 years.

Eaker, a retired gas station owner, said his home would have a pitched roof with asphalt shingles, vinyl siding and concrete steps and foundation just like a conventionally built home.

"I don't feel like putting a $100,000 home on that lot because it's not a $100,000 area," Eaker told the council.

Councilman Richard Eggimann supported Eaker. "This is an area where we can put affordable housing that we so desperately need in Cape Girardeau," Eggimann said. "In this particular case, in this particular area, with no one who objects to it, I support it for that reason."

Councilman Melvin Gateley objected, pointing out that others on the same street built their homes for less than the $65,000 Eaker plans to spend.

The vote was 5-2, with Councilman Tom Neumeyer joining Gateley in dissenting. Those in favor, like Mayor Al Spradling III, stated that their support for the home doesn't mean they would support mobile homes in other parts of the city.

New developments spurred the decision on extending Kent Drive to Lexington. Some residents of the street objected to the extension, saying it would be a waste of money that would not significantly alter traffic patterns in the area, while residents of nearby Belleridge Pike contended that extending Kent would relieve traffic problems on their street.

Before the council meeting, city planner Kent Bratton handed the council a memo stating that the cost of the project would be dramatically lower than earlier estimates.

Developer David Gerlach, who owns the property the extension would go through, offered to give the city the right of way at no cost, use the area to dump debris from another subdivision he is building to fill the area to the elevation needed for the street, and split the cost of building the street with the city.

Instead of facing a bill of more than $100,000 for the extension, the fill would reduce the price to about $77,900, Bratton said. Divided equally between the city and Gerlach would yield a cost of about $38,950 to the city.

Eggimann said that the extension would improve the access of emergency vehicles into the subdivision at a minimal cost.

Neumeyer objected, saying the existing street is too narrow to carry much traffic, and the extension would create a dangerous intersection with Lexington. "It has a blind curve," he said. "To me you would be creating an additional hazard."