LIGHTED NINE-HOLE GOLF COURSE BEING PROPOSED AT JACKSON

JACKSON -- A lighted nine-hole golf course that would enable golfers to play until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights is being planned on the north side of Jackson.

The proposed Nine Oaks Golf Course is being planned as a short, family-oriented course with only par 3s and par 4s. It would be built on 35 acres of land east of North High Street just north of the Sunset Hills Subdivision at 1600 N. High St. An application was submitted by Ronald Clark, who lives at 4100 State Highway Y in Jackson and is a partner in an excavation company in Cape Girardeau. The other owner of the parcel listed is Bobbie Clark.

They told the Planning and Zoning Commission this week that they want to build the course for families and beginners who struggle learning to play golf on the full-sized holes of regulation courses.

Light standards would be built on every hole, with a 120-by-60-foot clubhouse with a grill planned. The clubhouse would include areas for banquets and wedding receptions. They plan to keep the course open until 10 p.m. on weeknights.

The land currently is zoned residential but is bounded on one end by the People's Bank of Altenburg. The land would have to be rezoned before the developers could proceed.

The city's Comprehensive Plan designates the parcel for residential uses, but P&Z Chairwoman Barbara Lohr said that does not necessarily mean the commission will oppose the rezoning. "Those are intended as guidelines," she said.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 8 to receive comments about whether the land should be rezoned from R-2 (single family residential) to C-2 (general commercial). The commission's recommendation then will be sent to the Jackson Board of Aldermen, which will hold its own public hearing on the rezoning issue.

Public hearings are customarily held whenever a change to a less restrictive zoning is being requested. All property owners within 185 feet of the proposed rezoning will be notified of the public hearing by mail.

Rodney Bollinger, the city's planning official, emphasized that the public hearings are intended to help the city decide only whether the land should be rezoned, not whether a golf course should be built there. If the rezoning occurs, the owners would be free to build the golf course, Bollinger said. At Tuesday's P&Z meeting, the developers talked about possibly building a 6-foot fence along the line between the golf course and subdivision. Bollinger said there are approximately 25 residences within a 185-foot radius of the parcel.

The lighting is one of the reasons for holding the public hearing, he said. "We want to see how they feel about that I think that's going to be an issue."Jackson currently has two golf courses, the private Kimbeland Country Club and the public Bent Creek Golf Course.