First-round approval given to affordable housing complex

Despite concerns from a handful of residents, the Cape Girardeau City Council gave first-round approval Monday night to a $4.1 million affordable housing project that would create 19 duplexes bordering Missouri and Jefferson avenues.

"It's an area that needs to be developed," Mayor Jay Knudtson said after the meeting. "I think all the issues and concerns that the neighbors had can be worked out. It's all about communication."

Only one neighbor spoke during the public hearing, though a couple and another woman were there to learn more about the project, which is called Napa Ridge.

Eunice Curry, who lives at 432 S. Missouri next to the proposal, said she was afraid stormwater runoff from the housing would make a creek that already floods into their back yard a worse problem.

"I know it will make it worse," she said. "It floods already when it rains. It comes halfway up in my back yard now."

Curry said she wasn't against the proposal, she just wants the problems addressed. She also worries about the traffic that it will create, especially considering it would be so near Jefferson Elementary.

"I don't have children living there, but I do worry about the children," she said.

PDC Cos. vice president Richard Pierce of Little Rock, Ark., said they have planned a retention basin that will allow no more water to leave the premises than what already does.

"We're upstream," he said. "The ordinances say that we can't allow more water than is currently coming off the property."

Pierce pointed to the company's existing Cape Girardeau project, the Fort Hope Apartments at 801 Good Hope. City officials and police chief Steve Strong raved about that project, which was built on the old St. Francis Hospital property.

"It turned it around," Strong said, who made it a point to tell Pierce that after the meeting. "It's so much better there now. We need more of that in other places."

Single-car garages, a community building and a playground and picnic area will be among the amenities offered to help revitalize the area.

Councilman Jay Purcell said the project is in his ward. He plans to meet with the residents and the developer and get the issues resolved.

"Any development in Cape Girardeau is good," Purcell said. "But you have to weigh that with the concerns of the neighbors. We'll see what we can get done."

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