Developers revise their plans for luxury townhouse project

Developers of a project to build luxury townhouses on now vacant ground north of Broadway in downtown Cape Girardeau have revised building plans and met with neighbors in an effort to gain city approval.

The Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing Wednesday on the request of developers Jim and Michaele Riley and Jerri and John Wyman for a special-use permit needed to proceed with the project. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at city hall.

The commission will make a recommendation to the city council, which has the final say.

The developers have submitted a revised plan for the site to city staff that has adjusted the proposed locations of the 17 luxury townhouses that will surround a European-style courtyard.

They also have met with surrounding property owners including Missouri Supreme Court Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. and his wife, Marsha, who live at 205 Bellevue. The development site borders their back yard at the bottom of a hill.

Marsha Limbaugh said Friday that she and her neighbors remain concerned about the number of units planned on a tract of ground that covers less than two acres.

"There are concerns about light pollution and noise pollution," she said.

Limbaugh said any assurances from the developers need to be spelled out in writing.

"I think it all could be worked out to everyone's satisfaction," she said.

Development of the $4 million Spanish Court at 210 N. Spanish St. depends on securing a special-use permit from the city council as well as getting the city to vacate a Spanish Street right of way. Spanish Street currently dead ends north of Broadway.

The planning and zoning commission last month tabled the developers' request after neighboring property owners worried that the project would crowd too many townhouses on the site, might block their views of the Mississippi River and might place buildings too close to their yards.

Skip Smallwood, chairman of the planning and zoning commission, said commissioners wanted to give the developers time to meet with neighbors in an effort to get their support for the project.

"It helps when you have adjoining neighbors that they don't have any opposition to it," he said.

10 feet farther from line

Plans initially called for some of the townhouses on the north side of the tract to be built within 10 feet of the property line. Those plans would have needed city approval of a variance to allow such construction.

But under the revised plans, the townhouses will sit 20 feet back from the north and west property lines in keeping with city regulations, eliminating the need for a variance, said city planner Kent Bratton.

In a written report to the planning commission, the developers outlined various meetings they have had with individual property owners to offer assurances that the two-story townhouses won't block neighbors' views of the downtown and the Mississippi River.

Michael Schroeder, a Minneapolis designer who previously did some design work for the Old Town Cape downtown redevelopment organization, is helping with the project design.

In a letter to the developers, which was subsequently forwarded to the planning and zoning commission, Schroeder said "I don't see how a city council could deny Spanish Court" based on the city's own ordinances.

"Spanish Court is far more important to the character of downtown than a vacant lot, and its development enhances the character of the neighborhood," Schroeder wrote.

The proposed development is on land that Jim Riley bought in 2000 from the Boyd Group, which at one time had looked to develop riverboat gambling in Cape Girardeau.

Riley has said he spent $30,000 to clear the neglected ground, which was overgrown with trees.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123