Council OKs permit for treatment center, approves chicken ordinance

The Cape Girardeau City Council gave initial approval Monday to a measure granting a special-use permit for a residential treatment center and outpatient development center for adolescents.

The council also gave final approval to an ordinance that will allow chickens to be kept on any property in the city, beginning April 1.

Cape Girardeau resident Andrew Bard, who had petitioned the council to repeal an ordinance banning chickens, said after the meeting delaying the effective date of the ordinance will allow time for special classes to be held to educate people about how to raise chickens properly.

The vote to allow up to six hens on any property was approved on a 5-0 vote.

Councilmen Bob Fox and Wayne Bowen were absent. Bowen was the only councilman to vote against the measure when it won first-round approval last month.

No one in the audience addressed the council about the chicken ordinance, although a number of supporters of the measure attended, as they had at previous council meetings.

Supporters applauded the council at the conclusion of the brief meeting.

Council members, with little comment, swiftly approved the special use permit for the residential treatment center after no one spoke at a public hearing earlier in the meeting. The measure had the support of the city’s planning and zoning commission.

The Community Counseling Center had requested a special-use permit to allow it to turn a former nursing home at 2852 Independence St. into a treatment facility.

The 35,000-square-foot building formerly operated as the Life Care Center of Cape Girardeau.

In an agenda report to the council, city planner Ryan Shrimplin wrote the counseling center plans to renovate the interior of the structure.

It will replace the Cottonwood facility on property owned by Southeast Missouri State University on Sprigg Street.

“The residential treatment facility will initially comprise 25 percent of the floor area and contain 16 beds,” Shrimplin wrote.

The remaining floor area will be used for the outpatient development center and future expansion of the residential treatment facility up to 32 beds, according to Shrimplin.

“It is estimated there will be 36 employees on the largest shift for the development and residential treatment facility,” Shrimplin wrote.

Most of the clients will be taken to the center by vans operated by the Community Counseling Center, he added.

City staff recommended approval of the special-use permit.

According to Shrimplin, the proposed use “would not substantially increase traffic hazards or congestion” and will not adversely affect the character of the neighborhood.

The property is in an area characterized by commercial and multifamily residential uses, Shrimplin said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.