NO IMMEDIATE TRAFFIC RELIEF FOR NEW CHURCH

If opponents to the proposed church on Old Hopper Road see the extension of Vantage Drive as a remedy for future traffic headaches, they might want to stock up on aspirin.

"I don't care what they say, that road won't be built for years," said Dorothy DiGirolamo, who lives nearby at 1002 Camino Court. "The traffic that church will cause, I'll be dealing with it for 10 years."

While a site plan for the new First Assembly of God shows a second entrance from the 53.7-acre site onto an extension of Vantage Drive, that project hasn't been built yet.

And it could be a ways down the road before it is.

City planner Kent Bratton said the Vantage Drive project is "at least a couple of years away," though he acknowledged there is no set time frame. The project calls for extending Vantage Drive along Interstate 55 from where it begins near William Street to Kingshighway.

Extension is planned

Bratton said the extension is on the city's major street plan, but it is not part of the capital-improvement or transportation-trust-fund programs, both of which are five-year programs. The capital-improvement projects, however, are looked at each year, and Bratton said Vantage could be put into that program as early as next year.

"But we've not had any real discussion about that at this point," he said. "The earliest it could even be out near that church is two years. But things can change. We'd have to get the money for it somewhere."

Councilman Richard "Butch" Eggimann was more blunt. He said the extension is not even on the city's radar screen.

"We've got too many other things we have to do," he said. "It's zero on my list. It has no stature in my thoughts of what we should do for the city, and certainly not with any money we've got in this five-year plan."

As it is, the church will have only one entrance on New Hopper Road. Bratton said he is comfortable that New Hopper Road can handle the amount of traffic the new church will generate.

Bratton recommends that the existing entrance to the property -- a gravel drive off of Old Hopper Road that used to lead to the farmstead that operated on the site -- remain open to provide an emergency entrance while the church is being built. But once the church is completed, he believes that entrance should be blocked, leaving only the New Hopper Road entrance.

There have been some questions about what restrictions the Cape Girardeau City Council might have over the church when it considers a special-use permit at next week's meetings. While most on the council believe they cannot legally tell the church not to build at all for fear of violating the First Amendment, some councilmen feel they have some say on the details.

"We can tell them to close off that second entrance," Councilman Frank Stoffregen said. "That wouldn't be stopping them from building the church. As a city, we have the ability to dictate driveways, entrances, exits. It's something we could do, if we want to."

Pastor Gary Brothers has said he has no intention of keeping the second entrance, if it is against the council's wishes. He also has said that the church will be less cantankerous than other uses such as a subdivision that could go on the property.

Stoffregen said, however, that he understands the neighbors' concerns about lighting, noise and traffic, even though the city's Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended eliminating an amphitheater and sports complex. Once the church is built, it could always come back later to get those items built, he said.

"When is a church no longer a church?" he said. "There used to be small-town churches. This feels like Billy Graham or Jim Bakker is coming in and building a humongous deal."