Thorny issues await new members at first meeting

The first business meeting of new Jackson Board of Aldermen will require decisions on an issue that became a political football during the race for mayor and how new development will look along the East Main Street extension.

The public will get to weigh in on four zoning issues, including the development rules for East Main Street and a new baseball park.

The board has three new members -- Mark Dambach, Curtis Poore and David Hitt -- who will take part in a full meeting for the first time today. New Mayor Barbara Lohr will preside over a full agenda for the first time.

The most politically charged item will be former Mayor Paul Sander's veto of an action to abandon a proposed street connecting an existing subdivision with one under development. Shawn Drive, just west of Greensferry Road along Francis Drive, would have to be connected to a new development to the north, Nine Oaks, by Ron Clark.

A group of landowners in the area petitioned the board to abandon the designated street corridor, and the board approved the request by a 5-3 vote. But Mayor Paul Sander vetoed the measure, and the issue of whether to pass the abandonment over the veto was tabled in March. Six votes are required to override the

During the campaign for mayor, alderman David Reiminger and his supporters made an issue of the abandonment, questioning Lohr's integrity in voting in favor of the abandonment while accepting campaign support from Clark.

Reiminger remains opposed to the abandonment, saying it violates city ordinances governing development that direct developers to include interior connections with established developments in addition to access via major roads.

"The purpose of those local streets are to provide tranquility throughout the city, and that is what we have tried to do for the last five years," Reiminger said.

The key to the vote will be whether any returning board members have changed their view or whether new members will vote as their predecessors did. Lohr, a vote in favor of abandonment, was replaced by Poore, and Dambach defeated Val Tuschoff, another vote for the abandonment, in the April election. David Hitt replaced Kerry Hoffman, a vote against abandonment.

Hitt said he has visited the site where Shawn Drive would be built and studied the statements of landowners in the area and the minutes of past meetings. He's ready to vote, he said, but won't say which way he is leaning.

"I have been looking at Shawn Drive for several weeks," Hitt said. "I knew it would be an issue."

The public hearing on zoning rules along the Main Street extension will be the first time aldermen have had a formal look at the proposal. Developed over several months, the new ordinance would theoretically be usable anywhere in the city, but it is aimed first at the developments near the new Interstate 55 interchange.

Several features of the ordinance would be unlike any in the region, with limits on sign sizes, landscaping requirements to break up parking lots and create barriers with streets, and rules on building materials and screening of trash and storage units.

The zoning plan, called a commercial overlay district, is an attempt to create a distinctive look, Lohr said, while keeping residents of adjoining areas from feeling like they have been invaded by a shopping district.

"More than anything, there was some concern about the folks who wanted their residential property protected," Lohr said. This will go a long way toward doing that. There will be a very nice look to the area."

Board members are likely to have changes they want to make, Lohr said, so the public hearing will give residents their say but the ordinance probably won't be approved today.

Reiminger, for one, questions whether the 6-foot-height limit on individual signs is too restrictive.

"You could probably have some respectable franchises that have their own requirements on sign height and size," Reiminger said. "I would rather see them come here and keep them in Jackson and have their tax dollars."

The restrictions on the east side of the interchange, inside Cape Girardeau, aren't likely to be as limiting, Reiminger said. If the sign limitation is approved and then is shown to be a problem, Reiminger said, the city would "have to do the backstroke. And I don't like doing the backstroke."

Putting the ordinance off for more study following the public hearing makes sense, Hitt said. "I have seen a draft but I know there are changes on the way," he said. "It is something still in the works."

Other issues on the agenda for public hearings are the baseball park that will be built in Ron Clark's Nine Oaks Subdivision, a change of several lots in that subdivision from single-family to one- or two-family units and a proposal to increase the maximum building height.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 126