REVERSAL: CITY COUNCIL SAYS NOT TO MOBILE HOME

After three residents of Vincent Park Drive objected, the Cape Girardeau City Council reversed itself and voted to deny George and Lora Lee Eaker a special use permit to put a double-wide mobile home on Vincent Park Drive in the northern part of the city.

Mayor Al Spradling III said he changed his vote because "there was sufficient neighborhood opposition" and no one spoke in the Eakers' favor at the meeting.

The Eakers watched the meeting on cable television from their home in a mobile home park off South West End Boulevard.

The case stirred controversy about what the city's policy on allowing mobile homes outside of mobile home parks should be. Currently the city requires a special use permit.

Under the code, the council decides whether to grant the permit based on "whether such building or use will ... adversely affect the character of the neighborhood" or "adversely affect the general welfare of the community."

After the vote on the Eakers' request, the council unanimously gave preliminary approval to amending the code to include more conditions for mobile homes in residential neighborhoods. Earlier the council held a hearing on the proposal but no one showed up.

The proposed ordinance would require mobile homes placed outside mobile home parks to look much like conventionally built homes with pitched, shingled roofs, siding, hard-surface driveways, permanent steps, and be permanently installed on a foundation that meets city building codes.

Before voting on the Eakers' special use permit, the council unanimously agreed to put those conditions on their permit. But then the council voted 5-1, with Councilman Richard Eggimann dissenting, to deny the permit. Councilman Jack Rickard was absent.

Bob Luebbers of 510 Vincent Park Drive told the council that he feared that putting a mobile home on his street would lower his property value. Mobile homes may look fine when they are built but as they age "they start to deteriorate," Luebbers said. "I'm afraid the neighborhood will become trashed out."

Nancy Johnson of 518 Vincent Park Drive said that some of the homes on the street are run down but they can be repaired. Once the city allows mobile homes in the area, Johnson said, "the devaluation of property will start."

Residents from two other neighborhoods went before the council to air grievances. Don Howard of the May Greene neighborhood brought a petition with 10 signatures asking for more vigorous enforcement of city property maintenance code violations. He thanked the city for condemning an abandoned building at 509 rear Linden. His petition included complaints about other properties in the neighborhood.

"That's why we have a minimum property maintenance code," said Councilman Tom Neumeyer, who represents the area. "Have you filed a complaint about the properties?"

Howard said he had filed one against the property at 509 rear Linden.

He or one of his neighbors can file a complaint only if they live within 200 feet of the property.

The other neighborhood represented at the meeting was the Woodland Hills subdivision. Once again residents of Kent Drive asked the city not to extend their street to Lexington Avenue while residents of Belleridge Pike asked the council to extend it to relieve their street of traffic.

The council reaffirmed its earlier decision to extend Kent Drive. Councilman Melvin Gateley asked the city police and engineers to "spend a great deal of time out there studying" and enforcing speed limits. Police Chief Rick Hetzel nodded his agreement.

In other business:

-- The council unanimously passed an ordinance giving the police chief the power to file complaints about violations of the minimum property maintenance code.

Hetzel said he wants the power to file complaints about building maintenance code violations to have another weapon to use against criminals "by applying some ordinances that aren't usually used."

In Cape Girardeau only tenants, invitees or patrons of commercial property or residents living within 200 feet of a property can complain. Complaints are not anonymous, so the neighbors of a nuisance building could be scared to file one, Hetzel said.

Property owner Mike Lawrence attended the meeting to protest the bill. He said he feared that it could be used to harass property owners "if you don't have the money to do the work right then, and there's no drug activity."

-- The council gave preliminary approval to an ordinance requiring builders to put sidewalks in new subdivisions.