Poplar Bluff City Council to consider requests for re-zoning, alcohol delivery

A request to add business zoning to some property along Barron Road should be denied, members of the city’s planning and zoning commission believe.

The recommendation was discussed Tuesday by the Poplar Bluff City Council. The council is expected to vote on the matter in March after a 4-2 vote from the council.

The site is approximately three acres that runs along Barron Road with the remainder between The Manor and Mark Twain Caring Center.

Owner David Donley told the council he has tried to market the 20 acres of property as residential and no one is interested.

“I feel like if you drive through two nursing homes to get to your house, that’s not a very good setup for a builder to build a home,” he said.

The buyers have requested it be rezoned to office professional for future medical office use, city planner Matt Winters has said.

The recommendation from P&Z was presented to the council along with a petition dated Feb. 11, signed by over a dozen nearby residents and property owners.

Four area residents who live in the area came before the council to express their concerns if the property were rezoned.

Residents expressed concerns about traffic problems and storm water drainage.

A portion of the property adjoins a residential area, they wrote in the petition, asking for a 50-foot buffer of trees and vegetation if the matter is approved.

“Anything developed on that parcel will use May Street as the access, so there wouldn’t be another driveway added as direct access to Barron,” Winters has said.

A storm water management plan would also have to be submitted and approved before any improvements are made to the site, he said.

The property for both nearby nursing homes is zoned residential, falling under conditional-use permits, he continued. The city has asked the nursing homes to also file for rezoning.

Mayor Susan McVey said the city is running out of residential area and would hate to see it loose another. McVey, who is also on the P&Z board, said she was the member who made the motion to deny the request.

Another item up for a vote in March is a request to rezone 2250 and 2604 Russell Road, near Holiday Inn. The property is general residential and owners Connie Hurt, Teresa Heiuser and Stacy Medley of Fairdealing have asked for general commercial.

The owners are trying to sell the property and believe it would be beneficial, Winters has said.

P&Z members have recommended approval of this request.

__ALCOHOL DELIVERY__

Shad Burner of CARgo Technologies, Inc., appeared before the council to propose the delivery of alcohol by the ride-share provider.

The council voted to table the item until a later meeting.

CARgo has entered the food delivery service and is proposing to add alcohol to the list.

Rhodes and Wine Rack have expressed they would take part in the potential delivery option, Burner said, if the ordinance were to be passed by the council.

Burner said the main benefit would be the safety aspect of keeping people off the road who may have already consumed alcohol.

With about 40 CARgo drivers in Poplar Bluff, Burner said they are able to decide if they would like to be an alcohol delivery driver, but must be over 21.

The driver then must pass the same test bartenders in the state take to recognize fake IDs and more.

Once on the cellphone app, the person is prompted to enter their date of birth and the order will be sent to the store.

The store will then prepare the order and request a driver to take the alcohol to the customer.

The driver will then determine if the ID is valid and the order is recorded into the database.

Payments are sent directly to the store and the delivery cost is given to CARgo.

McVey said she would like to research the issue more before making a decision.

Councilman Ron Black said he did not think the delivery of alcohol by CARgo would be a good thing for the community.

“I don’t want, as a council person, to be a part of sanctioning alcohol delivery,” he said. “We already have a lot of regulations, which I may not agree with, but accept the law as it is. I think we are only enabling and I don’t want to be a part of it.”