COMMISSION RECONSIDERS COUNTY ZONING

JACKSON --In November 1992, Cape Girardeau County voters said no to a proposal to implement countywide zoning. But a new state law has the Cape Girardeau County Commission wondering how voters might feel about such a plan now.

Commissioners were in Jefferson City last week when Gov. Mel Carnahan signed HB 1259 into law. The legislation allows county commissions to appoint temporary zoning commissions to draw up master zoning plans. Once the master plans are complete, the finished products can be placed on the ballot for voter approval.

Under the old law voter approval was necessary to appoint the committee and then to approve countywide zoning, said Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones.

Requiring two elections "just seemed a little silly," Jones said. "It still seems a little silly. We proposed last December to eliminate a step, and several other counties did too.""I think it's a good bill," said Associate Commissioner Larry Bock. "It would allow the public to know what's in the planning and zoning proposal before they vote on it -- before you voted for or against it without ever seeing the plan."Now the commission has to decide what action, if any, it wants to take regarding reintroducing countywide zoning."We will visit that issue," Associate Commissioner Joe Gambill said.

Before they take any action, commissioners say they want input from voters."Whether the people want this or not, I don't know," Jones said. "We don't want to go ahead with this if they're just going to vote it down.""If we hear of some interest that the county should take a look at it, yes, we would take a look at it," Bock said.

Jones invited inquiries of the commission and input at 243-1052.

In 1972, voters approved countywide planning, but not zoning. When voters turned down the 1992 proposal for zoning, "they took it all out," Jones said. The 1992 proposal went before voters after residents opposed to the proposal organized a petition drive demanding it be placed on the ballot."We went from at least having planning to having nothing," Jones said. "Thank goodness the cities and the developers have used common sense. We haven't had a catastrophe, where people come running and screaming, "You've got to do something.'"Right now, he said, the commission can't do anything. "We've had several questions come up" that could be answered by a zoning code, he said.

Commissioners say they arent worried so much about what's happening in the county now; they're worried about what could happen if a less-than-desirable operation, such as a landfill or commercial hog farm, decides to locate in the county."If they wanted to do it, they could do it," Jones said. "The only regulations they'd fall under is whatever the Department of Natural Resources might have. You can do whatever you want in Cape County, whatever the Department of Natural Resources will let you do."Zoning would give the county some control over development, Gambill said."Without us having planning and zoning, they could put a hog farm right outside Jackson, and we couldn't have any say against it," he said.

A successful zoning code would have to strike the right balance between regulating new development and allowing individual property owners to keep control of their land, Gambill and Bock said."Do we want unorganized growth?" Bock asked. "When you start making rules, you're always stepping on someone's toes. But you have to have some control.""Nobody wants to be told what to do with their land, and I don't either," Gambill said. "I think what we need here is for people to get together to restrict all the objectionable things that might come in without all the nitpicking things we had before."