P&Z VOTES AGINST REZONING AFTER OBJECTIONS

Becki Essner brought a petition with 118 signatures to the Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission hearing because, she said, she wanted to preserve the property values in her subdivision.

The majority of the commissioners agreed with her.

Essner lives on Stoddard Street in the Highland Heights subdivision east of Perryville Road. She came with 30 of her neighbors to protest developer Larry McCulley's plans to build a 14-acre subdivision just east of her subdivision on lots smaller than the lots in her subdivision.

McCulley already had a subdivision platted and approved, but asked the commission to recommend rezoning his tract because the city plans to take some of his property for the Walker Branch stormwater drainage project and a new sewer trunk line. He said he redrew the property lines to take into account the loss of property to the sewers.

Both McCulley's property and the Highland Heights subdivision are zoned R-1, which calls for a minimum lot size of 10,000 square feet. Because the city approved the designs of both subdivisions in the 1960s when requirements were different, both are already platted for smaller lots.

McCulley's plan called for increasing the number of houses in the subdivision from 47 to 52 but decreasing the average size of the lots, without changing the size of the homes. He said the homes would sell for at least $100,000, while homes in the adjacent subdivision are now selling for an average of less than $80,000.

He said his new subdivision would connect Stoddard, LaWanda and Recardo streets with an extension of Clark Avenue, making the area more accessible to emergency vehicles and completing a grid of the water system.

When Essner raised her objections, Commissioner Tom Mogelnicki said, "Any new construction will increase your property values whether they are R-1 or R-2."

Essner replied that the lots next to her property would be nearly 2,000 square feet smaller than her lot, adding that the homes wouldn't be as well built as homes were 30 years ago and would deteriorate faster than the older homes.

Most of the commissioners sympathized with Essner and her neighbors. Commissioner Charles Haubold said he looked at the layout of the lots "and it's pretty tight."

Chairman R.J. McKinney said that after approving Holigan Homes' request for a subdivision of "less expensive homes, I wonder if we need any more R-2 developments."

Commissioner Dennis Vollink suggested working out a compromise before rezoning the subdivision.

Mogelnicki and Jim Ramage were the only commissioners voting for the rezoning. Tom Holshouser, Bob Blank, McKinney, Dennis Vollink and Robert Cox voted no, with Haubold abstaining.

McCulley had no comment about his next move. He could bring it before the City Council at its Aug. 4 meeting, drop the request or work for a compromise and come back to the commission.