JACKSON REZONING ISSUE MAY BE DECIDED TODAY

JACKSON -- The question of whether land on the north side of a new section of East Main Street should be rezoned for commercial use is scheduled to be answered Monday by the Jackson Board of Aldermen.

The city's Planning & Zoning Commission has recommended that the parcel of land east of Shawnee Boulevard be rezoned from single-family residential and general residential to general commercial. But at a public hearing May 15, opponents expressed worries about traffic, noise and stormwater runoff. They said they represented 45 property owners who signed petitions opposing any rezoning.

Landowners requesting the rezoning presented petitions with the signatures of 18 people in favor.

The landowners had originally asked that 53.5 acres on both sides of East Main Street be rezoned general commercial, but P&Z rejected the request in favor of rezoning a smaller amount of land. The owners of the 53.5 acres are Edna Hawthorne, Mr. and Mrs. John V. Priest, William Francis, Joe Bullinger, Mary Hartje, Pat Tollison and Roy D. Bollinger.

The rezoning decision may affect another issue regarding tractor-trailer refrigeration units Jack Priest on his part of the land north of East Main Street. For a while, he and the city were in a dispute over his parking of tractor-trailers on the land. He has moved the trailers, but Mayor Paul Sander has said the refrigeration units should be hidden from public view. Residents have come before the board criticizing the site, terming it "an eyesore."

The site became much more visible when the East Main Street extension was opened last year. Priest has maintained that the city grandfathered in his business' use of the land when it was annexed in the 1970s.

But City Administrator Steve Wilson says the city now is questioning whether the business was being operated on the site when the property was annexed.

"We've been told by Mr. Priest and his legal counsel this is a business that has been in existence for 30 years," Wilson said. "We're not convinced of that at this point."

Wilson said the city is researching the history of Priest's business. "We do know he has never had a business license in the city with regard to that piece of property," he said.

Priest says he didn't think it was necessary to get a city business license because his was a road business at first that eventually operated out of the Rhodes 101 truck stop in Cape Girardeau.

He also says he and his brother started the business in 1974 before the annexation. "We fixed units in my house prior to the city taking that in," he said. The business then was called Al's Refer Service, he said. His business now is called Transport Refrigeration.

If the business did not exist at the site before the annexation and the commercial rezoning is denied, operating it in a residential zone would be an illegal use, Wilson said.

The city already has denied Priest's request to build a storage shed for the trailers and refrigeration units because the plan called for constructing a building closer to East Main Street than the city's required setback. But Priest doesn't think that's the final word on the matter.

"It's still in negotiations as far as I'm concerned. I have to prove to them or they have to prove to me that I can't use my land for what it was originally."

At the previous meeting of the board, Priest attorney John Lichtenegger distributed a copy of a July 1998 letter from Wilson to Priest in which he wrote that the board appeared to have no opposition to maintaining a commercial corridor and allowing R-3 rezoning for apartment buildings and duplexes.

"That's different from what he has asked for (general commercial)," Wilson said. "Specifically on numerous occasions in talking with Mr. Priest in front of city staff or others I told him there was no guarantee on rezoning."

He said landowners commonly want to hear guarantees when they are annexed into the city. "They want to know, Can you guarantee that we can get rezoned?' The facts are, no, we can't," Wilson said.

Priest said city has suggested that lawsuits could follow if he doesn't do what the city wants him to do at the site.

"I hope (people) understand this is not just me being a stubborn old grouch or something. There's something a little more going on here. It's another piece of the pie that everybody's taking," he said.

"Individual rights are being gobbled up by cities and governments so they can do what they want to do."

The board also is due to decide Monday whether to rezone land east of Priest's from single-family residential to general commercial. The land owned by Gerald Huskey has a house that would be used as a CPA office.