Urban planner envisions parks, trails in Red Star neighborhood

An urban planner envisions Cape Girardeau’s Red Star neighborhood could become home to parks and walking trails.

Main Street, which is blocked off by Isle Casino Cape Girardeau, could be opened up as a “pedestrian bridge” with planters, decorative lighting and seating, according to one concept.

The proposed “Main Street Bridge Park” would benefit from returning Sloan Creek — currently an unsightly drainage ditch — into a more natural stream, urban planner Vagn Hansen II said Tuesday.

Grants often are available to improve wetlands, he said.

“There are thousands of examples where those projects are done,” he added.

Robert Loyd and his wife, Linda Loyd, look at charts during a Red Star community plan input meeting Tuesday at the Red Star Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.Andrew J. Whitaker

Other possible improvements include an environmental education center and a community garden.

Hansen, of North Carolina-based Benchmark Planning, displayed the concepts on easels for the public to see Tuesday at an open-house-style meeting in the fellowship hall at Red Star Baptist Church.

The open house began at 2 p.m. and was scheduled to end at 8 p.m.

About a dozen people had looked over the planning displays by midafternoon, and meeting organizers expected more to stop by later in the day.

Benchmark Planning, which also has an office in St. Louis, is providing 100 hours of pro bono urban planning to help improve the neighborhood.

Hansen said the planning focuses on a 35-acre site near the Mississippi River that is largely vacant because of a previous federal flood buyout.

“Most of the structures in the area are gone,” he said.

Hansen has suggested development of walking trails.

Dan Presson, president of the Red Star Revival neighborhood development group, said he favors extending the existing riverfront trail northward to Cape Rock Park and developing another trail on the south end of the neighborhood, extending westward and ending at the Show Me Center.

“A trail would be perfect,” he said.

Presson said the Red Star neighborhood needs to be included in discussions involving Cape Girardeau’s downtown.

The Red Star neighborhood has available housing that could tie into efforts to encourage people to make the downtown area their home, Presson said.

The housing-vacancy rate in the Red Star neighborhood is 22 percent, twice has high as the city as a whole, according to data provided by the urban planner.

Median home value in the Red Star area stood at $76,700 in 2015 compared to a median value of $130,800 citywide, according to data shown by the planning firm.

In addition, 59 percent of homes in the Red Star area are renter-occupied, according to data displayed at the meeting.

City planner Ryan Shrimplin said the open house provided an opportunity for Red Star residents to provide feedback on the various general concepts.

Hansen said he hopes to have final plans to present to the city and the Red Star Revival group by May.

Red Star resident Bob Loyd stopped by the church to view the various concepts.

Loyd said he liked the idea of a developing a park near the river.

Loyd suggested the park include a campsite for recreational vehicles.

“It would give an opportunity for small businesses to pop up around here,” he said.

“We used to have a bar. We used to have a gas station. When the casino moved in, those businesses disappeared,” Loyd said.

Red Star resident Dale Brown said he wants the vacant buyout site turned into a park.

“It would be nice,” he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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