P&Z GUIDELINE: USE COMMON SENSE IN DEVELOPING A PLAN

The 10 members of the new Cape Girardeau County Planning and Zoning Commission appear to have a clear vision of what they don't want to do: They don't want to repeat the mistakes that led in 1992 to voter rejection of planning and zoning for the unincorporated areas of the county.

In its first meeting recently, the panel talked about planning based on good judgment. Common sense is a good yardstick. Some of the commissioners served on the previous county panel, so they bring some experience of what went wrong five years ago.

The commissioners made three key points during their organizational meeting that bear repeating:

1. The commission needs to identify why voters didn't like the previous planning and zoning outline. Again, a little common sense goes a long way. One simple test would be to question every proposal from the point of view of a rural county resident, whether that is a homeowner on a small lot, a farmer with several hundred acres or a business person with a commercial operation somewhere in the county.

2. A planning and zoning master plan's aim should be protecting property owners, not imposing needless regulations. This is a situation that occurs at many levels of government which rely on the one-rulebook-fits-all sort of regulating.

3. Other counties have adopted workable planning and zoning outlines. Why not see what they did and how it works? This isn't to say Cape Girardeau County can simply copy what is being done elsewhere, but there is some value in gauging the experience of other counties that have been through all of this before.

There is a long way to go before planning and zoning proposals get to a point that voters can be asked what they think. Although there has been no deadline imposed on the commissioners, there is a sense of urgency that comes from the knowledge that a good deal of unregulated development is already occurring in the county. In most cases, these projects would likely fall well within the limits of any sensible planning and zoning regulations. But for the few exceptions, there needs to be a plan.

And if the 10 commissioners who have the responsibility of coming up with that plan remain loyal to the concept of common sense and protecting rather than over-regulating, the result is likely to win easy voter approval when the time comes.