North vs. West: Comprehensive plan suggests ways to keep the west end vital

Cape Girardeau's draft comprehensive plan has targeted William Street for a renovation.

Consultants from the St. Louis-based design firm, Arcturis, drafted the plan based on interviews with city officials, workers and residents. It suggests Cape Girardeau's southwest commercial district along the William Street corridor could be threatened by development around the future Interstate 55 interchange. The new interchange, under construction at Lasalle Street, could redirect shoppers to the north, according to the draft comprehensive plan.

Kent Evans said he's seen it happen to Town Plaza, as national chains "hopped over to the highway's edge."

Evans is vice president of the commercial division of the St. Charles, Mo.-based Greater Missouri Builders, which bought the strip mall in 1972.

Just 25 years ago, the Drury Development Corporation created the Silver Springs shopping complex, which drew shoppers west, away from Town Plaza.

"That kind of left the interior a little vacant," Evans said. "But with good planning and good incentives, there's no reason the interior can't be fortified to keep lots of good retailers here."

A Drury corporate spokeswoman said no new developments are on the horizon. As for the effect a new retail center at the future I-55 East Main-Lasalle Street interchange may have on southside business, she said, "We can't really judge how it's going to affect us."

Martha Brown, Cape Girardeau's city planner, said Southeast Missouri State University, which owns three-quarters of the land surrounding the future interchange, is looking into its options. Developer Earl Norman owns the remaining land but has not announced specific plans for that area.

The comprehensive plan characterizes William Street "as a very important piece of the core area," Brown said.

The Town Plaza, at the intersection of William Street and Kingshighway, the I-55 business loop, "is prime for redevelopment. It's basically obsolete at this point," Brown said, adding that it may be a good location for a community college because it is close to Southeast Missouri State University and halfway between Cape Girardeau's two hospitals.

"It would be very accessible for everyone," she said.

The comprehensive plan supports its William Street renovation advice with a case study on Birkdale Village in Huntersville, N.C., 15 miles north of Charlotte. That community design features a main-street-style layout with walkways and a traditional street grid as well as the majority of its living spaces -- 81 percent -- in apartments situated above the streetside shops.

But Brown said William Street may be destined for a simpler makeover, with a landscaped median, special lighting and "reconfiguring the existing corridor to accommodate a trail and sidewalk system" which can be done "without a lot of acquisition of property."

She said those changes will make the area more attractive to potential shoppers and business owners. What the work would cost, she said, remains to be seen.

Evans said softening what is now "a concrete jungle" and adding bus stop shelters and bike racks will lure area employees as well as nearby neighborhoods to linger -- and spend money -- at the strip mall's theater, bookstore, restaurants and other shops.

"Town Plaza a is neighborhood shopping center. It's not a superregional one. It's not drawing people from 200, 300 miles away," he said.

Recent renovations to the former Sears building at Town Plaza as part of a lease agreement with National Asset Recovery Service has helped bring 400 workers to the space. The work was financed through a joint agreement between the city and Cape Girardeau County to create a Community Improvement District, a special property tax assessment to repay loans.

"If we keep updating and keeping it clean and neat and making it modern and safe and really just having a good community of tenants that support each other," he said. "Our biggest hurdle was that Sears building."

Evans said that although he has neither read the draft comprehensive plan nor talked to any city officials about it, "they've been a good group of folks to work with on the improvements we're doing. It wouldn't have happened without a lot of vision and foresight on the part of those folks. Hopefully it'll trickle down, and we'll be able to lease the rest of the Sears building."

Details about William Street start on page 10 of the comprehensive plan. The plan is online at www.cityofcapegirardeau.org and available at city hall, 401 Independence St. The book-length document has not been adopted by the city. A joint meeting of the City Council and the planning and zoning commission is set for 7 p.m. Sept. 26 at the Osage Community Centre.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127