P&Z SUGGESTS DENIAL OF MAINTENANCE CODE

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The city Planning and Zoning Commission Monday recommended the City Council not adopt the 1990 Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) guidelines for minimum property maintenance.

The commission recommended the council instead appoint the city staff or a committee of advisers to define the city's low-income housing objectives and then draft an ordinance to meet those specific goals.

Commissioners said they agreed the city needs to address the problem of substandard housing for the poor, but they feared the BOCA maintenance code would be too broad and restrictive.

Three of the 25 people who attended a public hearing Monday spoke against adoption of the BOCA property maintenance code.

Frank Bean, a Cape Girardeau developer and former councilman, called the BOCA code "scary."

Bean said he owns more than 200 apartments in town. He said the code would give the city's building inspectors too much authority to inspect housing units and require that they meet strict maintenance requirements.

"From what I understand, the reason this is being brought before us is to take care mainly of dilapidated structures," he said. "If that is correct, there's the possibility of tremendous overkill here."

Bean said many of the code guidelines are too strict if enforced literally, and would present a financial hardship for many of the very people the city hopes to help with the property maintenance code.

"Every basement window that is operable shall have rat-proof shields or storm windows," he quoted from the code. "I suppose there are some areas of town that have a rat problem, but you're taking the 1 or 2 percent (that are a) problem and you're going to slap the whole city with an ordinance that, to my way of thinking, is out of sync."

Bean said the code would create a "new level of bureaucracy" and likely would increase housing costs for the poor as the city mandated landlords to make costly upgrades at previously inexpensive rental units.

J.D. Warren said that if the commission recommended the code to the City Council time should be given to residents to move to Jackson before it is enforced. He said "thousands" of people would move to avoid the code's restrictions.

Jack Rickard said the only thing good about the code book was the "real nice color combination" on its cover. He said the code was written by a "self-perpetuating bureaucracy, overseen by a self-serving, special-interest group."

Rickard said most of the commissioners and city councilmen own homes that likely wouldn't comply with the code.

"If you people are going to recommend this to the City Council, you should get your own houses in order first, then see that the City Council gets their's in order," he said. "I don't believe this is going to help the housing for the poor people of Cape Girardeau. It might put them out on the street."

But Commissioner Tom Mogelnicki said the city should do something to address the needs of the poor.

"We have a problem," Mogelnicki said. "Maybe this book is not the solution. But if people are living in it and can't afford any better, it's not fair to let them keep living there in danger."

"How can I disagree?" said Rickard. "Everyone's for good housing. But first I'm for housing. If you put them out on the street, you're not doing the people any good."

Bean suggested the city draft an ordinance that deals with specific housing needs in Cape Girardeau and not "write something that's going to be hitting 99 percent that are not a problem."

Commissioner Charles Haubold said the city is committed to doing something to address its low-income housing needs.

"If we do nothing, that's wrong," he said. "If we go overboard, that's a problem too. If we've got the problems, clearly we have to look at doing something as long as we don't go overboard."

Mogelnicki said he understood the citizens' concerns that the proposed code would be strictly enforced. He said that although the city inspectors now might not go "overboard" in the code's enforcement, future inspectors might. "How do you protect these people from an irrational inspector?" he said.

Commissioner Dennis Vollink said the code doesn't allow for any subjective interpretation.

"We legislate so you can't use common sense," he said. "It does not allow an inspector to use his head on safety issues. You follow the code no matter how ridiculous. It's not a question of interpretation, it's black and white."