COUNTY REJECTS PLANNING & ZONING

JACKSON, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau County voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have imposed planning and zoning on the unincorporated areas of the county.

With all 37 precincts counted, the measure had 8,670 yes votes to 19,212 no votes. The margin was 69 percent against the plan and 31 percent in favor of planning and zoning.

Doug Flannery, who led the opposition, said a lawsuit that challenged the county's funding to develop the planning and zoning regulations likely wouldn't be dropped even though the measure failed. Flannery, who also was a candidate for county commissioner, lost to incumbent Larry Bock.

Sixty-three percent of the county's registered voters or 30,588 went to the polls, breaking the record set in 1992 when 28,886 votes were cast.

County Clerk Rodney Miller said the turnout was slightly less than the 67 percent turnout he had predicted.

As to planning and zoning, opponents had argued that the proposed regulations would have amounted to an unwarranted intrusion of government into their lives.

They also claimed it would have led to the establishment of a costly tax-funded planning office to enforce the proposed regulations.

The allegation that passage of the planning and zoning proposal would have led to higher taxes was refuted by the Cape Girardeau County Commission.

Commissioners said planning and zoning is needed to ensure orderly development in the county's rural areas.

The proposed regulations wouldn't have affected the county's incorporated areas, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

But voters throughout the county, including city voters in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, rejected the proposal to establish county planning.

County commissioners said they won't put the issue back on the ballot unless county residents submit an initiative petition to put it on the ballot.

"I didn't realize this thing would be such an emotional issue," said Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones as he watched the vote totals being posted on a bulletin board in the Cape Girardeau County Administrative Building.

"I feel like I am in the middle of a tidal wave, and all I got is a sump pump," Jones said.

"We couldn't refute all the misconceptions," he said..

Flannery, of Whitewater, Mo., chatted with Jones and then said, "Realistically, people aren't ready for that."

Flannery said voters felt planning and zoning would be "too restrictive" and involve too much government bureaucracy.

"What we need is nuisance-abatement laws," said Flannery.

Businesses aren't going to locate major plants in undeveloped parts of the county, he said. County residents aren't worried about development issues, he said.

"Nobody is going to build the match factory next to the dynamite factory," Flannery said.