COUNCIL OKs ADDED FLOOR TO OFFICE BUILDING

The Cape Girardeau City Council did an about-face Monday night, approving a special-use permit to add a sixth floor to a William Street office building after rejecting the request earlier this month.

The council voted unanimously to grant the request from Drury Southwest Inc. and Robert A. and Anna R. Drury for a sixth floor on the building under construction at 3065 William.

The request was rejected at the April 6 meeting on a 3-3 tie vote. Voting to grant the special-use permit at that meeting were Mayor Al Spradling III and Councilmen Richard Eggimann and Melvin Kasten.

Voting against the request were Councilmen Melvin Gateley, Tom Neumeyer and James "J.J." Williamson Jr.

The makeup of the council has changed since the April 6 vote. Williamson lost his Ward 1 seat on the council to Frank Stoffregen, and Jay Purcell filled a vacant seat in Ward 3.

Neumeyer was not in at at Monday night's meeting.

Eggimann asked that the item be put on the agenda for reconsideration.

Council members did stipulate that none of the building can be occupied until there is sufficient parking for all six floors.

Larry Westrich of DSW Inc. said the development is about 20 parking spaces short of the needed number, but the total number necessary and the total number now available were unclear Monday night.

Concerns were expressed at the April 6 meeting and at the March 18 Planning and Zoning Commission that DSW had begun construction on the sixth floor before applying for the permit.

Westrich denied the firm intentionally violated the permit requirement but said the decision was made to add the sixth floor, originally planned as an attic, at the last minute as prime commercial-office space.

He said at the April 6 meeting that DSW had missed the deadline for the February planning and zoning meeting to apply for the special-use permit and had to wait until the March meeting, and went ahead with adding the additional steel necessary for the sixth floor, thinking the permit request was "reasonable."

The city's zoning code requires a special-use permit for any building higher than three floors in a C-3 central commercial district.

He also denied that DSW was seeking any kind of special treatment from the city.

"It has never been and never will be our policy to ask for any special treatment from any city staff or any council member," Westrich said Monday night.

Eggimann said he asked the permit request to be re-introduced "because I never did see the validity of the issues against it."

He said the change in the makeup of the council played no part in bringing the matter up again.

"I knew that everybody had had a chance to think it through," Eggimann said, adding that he felt the building would be "a landmark" for the city.

Spradling III did chastise DSW at the April 6 meeting for the timing of its request, adding approving it would set a "dangerous precedent" for other developers.

Spradling made no comment during Monday night's discussion or vote.

In other action, the council approved three liquor licenses and took no action on a fourth.

The council did not vote on a request from Roscoe Newbern Jr. for a liquor-by-the-drink license for Scoebe's Bar and Lounge, 625 Good Hope.

St. Mary's Cathedral School opposes granting the license to Newbern. Under city ordinance, the council cannot approve a license if the operators of a school or church within 200 feet of the tavern in question oppose granting the license.

Spradling suggested Newbern go back to school officials and ask them to reconsider.

With the ordinance written as it is, Spradling said, "we're kind of stuck."

The council granted liquor licenses for Scott Franklin McClanahan for Auntie Albert's, 731 Broadway, and for Kevin Silvers, d/b/a Silvers Inc., who requested a retail liquor by-the-drink and Sunday sales license for Broussard's, 120 N. Main, and a 5 percent beer by-the-drink and Sunday sales license for Bob's Fish House, 1015 N. Kingshighway.