NEIGHBORS OPPOSE HOUSING PLAN

Not In My Back Yard.

That's the sentiment of property owners near a planned 28-acre development at the southeast corner of Sprigg and Bertling.

DeHarder Real Estate of Satellite Beach, Fla., has submitted a preliminary plat that calls for building 59 rental homes on the tract.

The Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the preliminary plat at its meeting Wednesday night. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at City Hall.

But opponents of the project, who have expensive homes in the neighboring Sylvan Lane area, privately worry the subdivision could devalue their properties.

Publicly, they voice other concerns, ranging from traffic congestion to the threat of added overcrowding at Washington Elementary School.

They charge the project amounts to public housing.

They don't want a large number of rental homes next door.

But city officials say they can't prohibit the project on the residentially zoned tract.

"To my knowledge, it is properly zoned," Mayor Al Spradling III said.

Spradling said the project isn't public housing, but a private development.

He said public housing involves establishment of a local housing authority, which then builds units subsidized solely by Housing and Urban Development funds.

Cape Girardeau voters rejected public housing in 1968 and again in 1970.

DeHarder applied to the Missouri Housing Development Commission for a low-interest loan and tax credits to help finance construction of the rental homes for low-income residents.

The state commission turned down the request. "We did not have enough money to do all the proposals," the commission's Jane Anderson said.

But for opponents like Bill and Birdie Rader, who live at 613 Pieronnet Drive in the Sylvan Lane area, DeHarder's loan application makes the project appear to be public housing.

"It is a low-rent housing district that is funded by our tax dollars," Bill Rader said.

Given Cape Girardeau voters' rejection of public housing, neighbors like Bill Spitzmiller, 666 Sylvan Lane, question the legality of the project.

For now, the low-interest loan isn't an issue. The Housing Development Commission meets again Friday, but DeHarder's project isn't on the list of recommended projects.

"It is not a high priority development," Anderson said.

Gov. Mel Carnahan and three other top state officials serve on the commission, along with six citizens appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate.

The state agency, based in Kansas City, makes low-interest loans and issues state and federal tax credits to non-profit and limited-dividend sponsors of residential housing for low- and moderate-income people.

The loan money comes from the state and federal governments.

Anderson said developers can obtain tax credits without the loans. But without the loan, some projects aren't financially feasible, she said.

Anderson said DeHarder would have to submit a new application if he plans to continue to seek a low-interest loan and tax credits.

Opponents of project, called "The Capes" in DeHarder's preliminary plat, recently wrote letters to the commission outlining their objections.

The Raders said some of the homes in the neighborhood are in the $450,000 range. "Owners have invested their own money in their properties and are proud of where they live," they wrote.

The Raders said DeHarder claims the company puts its subdivisions in blighted areas.

But in this case, the proposed site isn't blighted, the Raders said.

City Planner Kent Bratton has had little contact with DeHarder officials, and he is unaware of the company's finances. Repeated telephone calls to the developer's Florida office went unreturned last week.

But a DeHarder official outlined the project in a Dec. 22 letter to a social service agency in Cape Girardeau.

DeHarder's Michael Marini wrote that the firm wanted to build rental homes for families with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median income level.

Each home would be about 1,260 square feet, with four bedrooms, two baths and a single-car garage.

Marini said the homes would be handicapped accessible.

"Our strategy is to build development properties that are economically feasible and needed by local residents," Marini wrote. "We are opposed to warehousing people just because they earn less money."