Residents protest rezoning; panel rejects proposal

A request by Pat LaFont of LaFont Auto Sales to rezone property on Chesley Drive for commercial use was unanimously rejected Wednesday by the Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission.

In a show of neighborhood solidarity, 30 residents from the area attended the meeting and voiced their objection to the plan. LaFont insisted the property would only be used for professional space like offices for lawyers or doctors, but residents feared, given LaFont's line of work, that the space and its 7,000 square feet of parking might be used for automotive storage or even a gas station.

"I'm just worried about the aesthetic value," said Marty Niswonger of Meadowlark Lane. "With a business you get business lights and business noise, and we don't have any assurance of what's going in there and that concerns us. ... We just think it's too easy to go to the next level."

LaFont protested that because the property on Chesley Drive is only 237 feet from Bloomfield Road, motorists accessing it would have no reason to drive through the rest of the neighborhood. He also suggested to audible laughter from the crowd that a business might be a quieter neighbor than a large family.

"A family with seven or eight kids would be more of an annoyance than John Q. Attorney with his four or five clients that visit him at appointed times," LaFont said.

The commission voted 8-0 against the request.

"We're very much against putting businesses in residential districts, and we're against spot zoning," said commissioner Bill Hinckley.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245