MAN DEMONSTRATES OVER CITY'S HANDLING OF PERMIT

Max Pind of 2542 Lynnwood wants the city of Cape Girardeau to compensate him for work he's already done on a garage that the planning and inspection division says doesn't comply with building codes.

Pind staged a one-man protest Tuesday in front of City Hall, where he parked his pickup truck complete with a sign and display in the bed that stated his dissatisfaction with the city for what he called its "screw-up."

The display included a mannequin with a giant screw through its chest.

Pind said the city staff last December issued him a building permit for the work after approving the plans for the garage. But when an inspector surveyed the project in June before the concrete footings were poured, he told Pind the garage was too close to the street.

City Planner Kent Bratton said that the city approved plans that placed the garage 10 feet from the city's right of way for Lynnwood Street. It's another 10 feet from the property line to the street.

But Pind contends that his drawings of the project show the garage 10 feet from the street, not the right of way. He said he can't move the structure back to comply with city codes because it would cost too much money.

Pind said the city inspectors shouldn't have approved the building permit if the garage was too close to the street.

"There's been a mistake, but it seems like to me that's their opossum and they're gonna' hafta' wool it," Pind said. "My argument is not that it should go there; I just think if it was their error they ought to compensate me for it."

But Bratton said the mistake was Pind's. He said most people who bring plans for projects like Pind's to City Hall draw dimensions to rights of way, not the street.

"They commonly won't specify on the drawing where the street is," Bratton said. "It's assumed the plans are drawn to the property line."

The city planner said Pind last week went before the city's Board of Adjustment to request a variance for the garage. The board denied the request.

But Bratton said it shouldn't be too difficult to build the garage 10 feet farther back on Pind's property.