COUNCIL: RESIDENTS PETITION FOR STREET PARKING

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The City Council tonight will consider a petition by residents of Kage Hills Drive asking that a new no-parking law for that street be amended.

Also on the agenda for tonight's council study session is a revision of the City Code as it applies to posting address numbers on buildings.

Eleven of 16 property owners on Kage Hills last month submitted a petition asking that parking be allowed on at least one side of the street to "allow resident(s) free access to their property and parking of family members."

The petition also said the parking will allow residents to "entertain and have open house at times (of) celebration and holidays."

The signers of the petition pledged to use good judgment to assure that the street will be accessible at all time to residents and emergency vehicles.

The council Dec. 19 gave final approval of a law prohibiting parking on either side of Kage Hills Drive.

City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said last week in a letter to the council that the majority of the street "is of insufficient width to allow parking.

"Parking on even one side on the northern portion of the street creates a blind spot on the hill," Fischer said. "This blind spot will cause hazards for traffic that must drive in the opposing lane on the hill to pass parked vehicles."

Fischer also said parking on the street would present problems for garbage trucks, service vehicles and school buses when they meet oncoming traffic on the hill.

"Large vehicles, finding it necessary to back to allow traffic to clear, will be a risk," he said. "Because conditions will create a high probability of collisions, the city staff feels we must recommend denial of the residents petition to allow parking on Kage Hills Drive."

But Fischer said the council might want to consider making Kage Hills a one-way street with parking on one side.

"Due to the inconvenience one-way traffic may cause property owners located on the exit end of Kage Hills Drive, I would recommend that majority, if not unanimous, consent be required from the property owners before making this change," he wrote.

The council also will consider a measure that would require property owners to post address numbers on buildings.

The new provisions, if approved by the council, will require four-inch numbers on residential buildings and six-inch numbers on commercial and industrial buildings.

The city now requires posting of three-inch numbers on all buildings.

City Planner Kent Bratton said in a letter to the council that the "proposed ordinance will also require posting of numbers on the rear of commercial and industrial buildings where there is access to the rear or (are) other reasons for doing so."

If the council adopts the proposal, the city staff intends to begin a campaign to inform residents of the new policy "stressing the importance of building numbers," Bratton said.

The city's police and fire departments and building inspection office and the county ambulance service have endorsed the new provisions.

In other business, the council will consider:

Naming two streets at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport Rush Limbaugh Jr. Memorial Drive and John E. Godwin Jr. Memorial Drive. The city's Airport Advisory Board recommended the names.

In a letter to the council, Airport Manager Mark Seesing said: "The names chosen for the streets are in memory of two individuals who were instrumental in making this facility the excellent and useful facility it is today."

A law that would vacate the city's interest in a portion of the rights-of-way for Abbey Road and Lexington Ave.

A law accepting a permanent easement and construction easement from Drury Southwest Inc. and a street and sewer easement and construction easement from Olive M. Keller for the Southwest Sewer Project.