LETTERS: SYLVAN ACRES RESPONSE

To the editor:

We are incensed at the article on the front page Sept. 10 implying our neighborhood opposes 59 rental houses because they would devalue our property. No such statement was made, and no such inference was made.

It is regretted that the writer attempted to put words in our mouths to make it appear that we in Sylvan Acres oppose low-income housing because it would devalue property.

The reasons for our position are as follows:

-- Rental housing. We believe a project like this is needed in Cape Girardeau. However, we don't condone these concentrated rental dwellings in an area where 95 percent of the homes are owner-occupied and well-maintained.

-- Traffic is already above capacity with the Show Me Center and the SEMO Relay field adding to everyday SEMO classes on the playing field due west of the selected plat. It is common to see bumper-to-bumper cars parked on each side of Sprigg for blocks and blocks.

-- Waste of taxpayer money. Although we don't know the exact figure for the purchase of the ground, developers tell us the ground price should be no more than $4,000 per acre to make a profit on their venture. However, we understand DeHarder Real Estate (of Satellite Beach, Fla.) has agreed to three times that amount or more per acre for this ground.

-- Incidentally, DeHarder's letter to a local federal agency claimed, "The size of the homes are 79 four bedroom, two bath homes with a single car garage about 1,260 square feed." The number of homes how has been reduced, we understand, to 59. In addition, DeHarder is requesting this federal agency's help with future rentals in order to subsidize the rental income (again, our tax dollars).

DeHarder could find ground in the city that would be more cost effective for its project, and then it could live up to its claim in its literature to the city: "The community benefits by enhanced property values and the elimination of blighted areas." If the beautiful property at the intersection of Bertling and Sprigg is blighted, then the Marquette Hotel if the Taj Mahal.

WILLIAM S. RADER

BIRDIE W. RADER

Cape Girardeau