MOBILE HOME PARK PASSES FIRST HURDLE

A mobile home park that could help ease the "critical need" for affordable housing in Cape Girardeau got its first nod of approval from the city council Monday.

A rezoning request for 24-acres west of the Cape West Business Park and north of Bloomfield Road was unanimously approved by the Cape Girardeau City Council Monday night.

RAD Investments, a company owned by Robert A. Drury, sought both the rezoning request and voluntary annexation of the land at Monday's meeting.

The rezoning request was unanimously approved on first reading. It also had been approved by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission during a December meeting.

The annexation request, which was discussed at a public hearing Monday, will be considered again at the Jan. 18 meeting.

When the city annexes property, it enters the city limits under an R-1, single family residential designation. The council approved RAD Investments' request to change its status from R-1 to MH-1, or mobile home park district.

If the annexation is not approved, then RAD Investments will put its development on hold, said Dennis Vollink of Drury Southwest Inc.

There are other options for developing the area as a mobile home park, he said, but the company would prefer to offer city water and sewer services to the residents.

"Affordable housing is a critical need," he said. Offering mobile homes in a $35,000 to $45,000 price range would help fill that need, Vollink said.

Neighboring property owners opposed both the annexation and the property rezoning during the scheduled public hearing.

"We don't want the city limits any closer than what it is," said Clara Bierschwal. "We are trying to keep something from happening that we don't want."

Other landowners expressed concern about overcrowding at the city schools or property values. Mayor Al Spradling III said those issues would have to be addressed by the developer, not the city.

Mobile home parks conjure up a lot of connotations, Vollink said. But the park developed by RAD Investments would have a "neighborhood effect," he said. There will be plenty of green space and trees.

Much of the park -- with about 100 lots for lease -- won't even be seen from the road or highway because the area sits in a valley and will be hidden by a line of trees.

The development plans include 30-foot-wide streets, not the 20-feet minimum, and sidewalks around the perimeter of the park and on every street in the park. There is also the possibility of adding playgrounds and enclosed bus stops, Vollink said.

"It's not just a trailer park, but a development that complements the quality of homes going in," said Roger Reisenbichler with DMart Homes.

Other cities around the nation are approving developments similar to the one proposed by RAD Investments, company representatives said. Vollink cited examples in Texas, where he lived in such a community, and others in Asheville, N.C., and Orlando, Fla.

The only comparable park in Southeast Missouri is Weiss Park at Fruitland. That park has an on-site manager who lives in the park and resident restrictions and requirements for leasing, Reisenbichler said.