JACKSON TO CONSIDER NEW SUBDIVISION REGS

JACKSON -- The last time Jackson passed laws to regulate subdivisions, Lyndon Johnson was president.

Jackson has changed considerably since then; the once-quaint town now contains prime real estate for people who want to live in Cape Girardeau County.

City leaders have been left to deal with the resulting growth. Last year they asked the Planning and Zoning Board to come up with some new subdivision regulations.

Tonight, they likely will approve those regulations -- the first set passed since 1966. Larry Cunningham, a member of the Planning and Zoning Board who helped write the new standards, said it is time to replace outdated laws with some to guide today's developers.

"Maybe down the road they will see that they should come back and amend some of it," he said. "But right now the developers can look at this and know what they have to do."

At a Jan. 2 public hearing on the regulations, two main concerns emerged.

First, developers didn't like a 36-foot street-width requirement. Ron Unterreiner, a developer of Fairway Estates, said the requirement might keep his company from building a subdivision where homes would be sold for less than $100,000.

"Jackson needs a good, working man's subdivision right now," he said at the hearing. "This is going in the opposite direction."

The only other people who commented at the hearing were in the concrete business.

They didn't like a provision that would allow developers to pick between asphalt and concrete, arguing that concrete was the safer, more cost-effective surface.

Aldermen didn't change anything about the street width -- the requirement will stay at 36 feet. But they did rewrite the regulations to allow only concrete streets in new subdivisions.

Mayor Paul Sander said most new subdivisions in Jackson have concrete streets anyway, and aldermen believe concrete is more durable than asphalt.

The concrete-only news was good for Clifton Allee, a salesman for McDonald Co. Inc. in Cape Girardeau.

"This is a good step to show the citizens of Jackson that their aldermen want to ensure a quality product that will save taxpayers in the future," Allee said.

"I would be crazy to say I don't want it to affect my business. I'm glad for that," he said. "But sometimes you have to look above that, and this decision is good for the community, too."

Allee said concrete streets usually last 40 years without major repairs and don't have the potholes asphalt streets do. He said the porous nature of asphalt allows water to get into it. After a freeze and thaw, the asphalt breaks up.

Asphalt companies have strong arguments for their product, too. Charlie Friend, general manager of Apex Paving Co. in Sikeston, said he wished the Jackson regulations gave developers a choice between concrete and asphalt.

He said asphalt may be preferable for some jobs because it initially costs less, hardens faster, has no bumpy joints and is recyclable.

An asphalt street lasts about 15 years without major repairs, depending on several variables, Friend said. The first repair usually is a thin overlay.

In Sikeston, the city has standards for both concrete and asphalt streets. Public Works Director Doug Friend said the standards for both are high, but his main concern is drainage -- keeping water off the streets.

In Cape Girardeau, the new subdivisions require concrete streets, curbs and gutters, Public Works Director Doug Leslie said.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen will meet at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall to consider the new regulations.