Living downtown: Cape Girardeau City Council looking at changes to ordinance regulating residences

Whatever Laurie Everett needs, she never has to go far.

A small grocery store is on the corner. A gourmet coffee shop is across the street. Several restaurants are just a few blocks down.

And when Everett goes to work, she walks downstairs.

The area shown in red is the Commercial Business District, with boundaries that extend up Broadway to Capaha Park and south along Sprigg Street from Broadway to Morgan Oak. The proposed overlay district, shown in green, would place residential regulations on buildings that face Broadway, Sprigg, Morgan Oak, Water and Main streets. Not all areas in the approximated map would be affected.

For four years, Everett has owned and operated Annie Laurie's Antiques in the same building on Broadway where she and her husband, Rocky, have made a home for themselves and their 2-year-old son, Fletcher.

"I love living downtown," she said. "A couple of times a year, we watch parades from our windows. In theory, I could stay in the downtown and never have to leave. It has everything we need."

The decision to live and work in downtown Cape Girardeau is precisely the kind of choice that is encouraged by those who have been trying for years to revitalize and strengthen that part of town. City planners and organizations like Old Town Cape say that creating a downtown that is an appropriate blend of homes and commerce is crucial for success.

Now, the Cape Girardeau City Council is taking a look at some complex changes to the city's zoning ordinances that would regulate exactly where -- and how -- people's homes fit in among the stores and shops that line streets like Broadway and Main Street. They'll also be considering whether to apply the same standard to more sparsely developed areas along streets like Morgan Oak and Sprigg.

The council at its meeting Tuesday will introduce amendments to fine-tune a new zoning ordinance that isn't even a year old. The changes call for creating a commercial overlay district, which basically runs the perimeter of the Commercial Business District. The CBD is a big area -- much larger than what is traditionally thought of as downtown -- with boundaries that extend up Broadway to Capaha Park and south along Sprigg Street from Broadway to Morgan Oak Street.

The overlay district would place residential regulations on buildings that face Broadway, Sprigg, Morgan Oak, Water and Main streets. According to the proposed amendment, buildings along downtown's so-called commercial corridor could have residences on upper floors but not the front of the buildings on the first floor. With a special-use permit, the rear of the first floors could be converted into dwellings.

That's the way it should be, said Stephen Hoffman, coordinator of the historic preservation program at Southeast Missouri State University, who was asked by city staff to provide input to the zoning ordinance.

Avoiding 'dead zones'

Having businesses occupying the main floors of buildings along commercial streets brings in more pedestrian traffic and is beneficial to all the downtown businesses, he said. If an apartment is on the main floor in the front of a building, then it creates what Hoffman called a "dead zone" that brings the people who live in that space but no one else.

"It doesn't generate any traffic at all," Hoffman said. "But you put a business there, that creates a destination and then you have momentum. Our vision is for mixed use. We want people living downtown. But we want them upstairs and we want them in the back. The goal is to preserve the commercial appeal of the area."

While most are in agreement on the intent of the amendments, there is some quibbling about exactly what's the best way to go about it and whether the same standards should be applied throughout the overlay district.

Council member Mark Lanzotti, for example, isn't sold on never allowing residences in the front of the first floor, especially along streets like Sprigg and Morgan Oak that have several vacant lots. In fact, he said he intends to make a motion at the meeting Tuesday to allow first-floor residences in the front that would require a special-use permit, just as it would in the rear of the first floors.

As the amendment is proposed now, any new development in the overlay district would be required to have a commercial component on the first floor, even if a developer wanted to put in nice apartments or brownstones, Lanzotti said.

"If the building's already built and built for a storefront, then I wouldn't favor changing that," Lanzotti said. "But if somebody wants to come in and buy a large chunk of land and put in something nice, why would we limit ourselves from ever allowing it? The area is so large that we can't predict everything that might happen. With special-use permits, we could evaluate each one on a case-by-case basis."

Hoffman and Old Town Cape's Marla Mills worry that Lanzotti's suggestion could lead to more storefront residences across the overlay district. Such residences already exist, although they are legal, nonconforming uses because they have been grandfathered in.

But if Lanzotti's motion passes, Hoffman and Mills fear the number of storefront residences could multiply.

'Faith in the system'

Lanzotti acknowledged that could happen if his motion passes. But he said he trusts the process, especially one where a special-use permit allows the city to take a look at such proposals and decide whether to allow them in each case.

"I have faith in the system and the processes we have in place with planning and zoning and the council that would serve as a check and balance to that," Lanzotti said.

Mills said the difference of opinion between the two sides isn't as great as it may appear.

"We do not want to discourage economic development, far from it," Mills said. "If you allow too many of those dead zones, it affects everyone. They impact each other, the same way it would impact a strictly residential neighborhood if a business wanted to open next door. We just want everyone to be mindful of that."

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO