COUNTY'S P&Z STUDY IS JUST BEGINNING

Members of the Cape Girardeau County Planning and Zoning study committee are looking at ways to make planning and zoning rules palatable to voters.

"Nobody likes regulations," said John Dudley, chairman of the planning and zoning study committee. "But in this day and time something is needed."

The committee, which was appointed in December, meets monthly. The 10 panel members represent the county's 10 townships.

"We really are at the beginning of this process," Dudley said. "Basically we are trying to educate the group. We're at the start of the learning curve."

Eventually the committee will make a recommendation on zoning ordinances and a county zoning map to the Cape Girardeau County Commission. Commissioners will develop a master plan to present to voters.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said the plan won't come to voters anytime soon. He praised the work of the committee and said it was filled with "common sense" people from throughout the county.

The county currently has no authority to keep out offensive businesses such as large hog operations or landfills, or to prevent haphazard development.

"Everyone is concerned," Dudley said. "And at the same time everybody wants their own freedom."

In 1992, voters rejected a proposed master plan. That rejection led to the dissolution of the previous planning board.

The new panel is looking at the 1992 plan, ideas members like and ideas that have worked in other counties.

"We would like to pick the best of all worlds," Dudley said. "We are having open discussions among the members."

Any plan the commission develops would apply only to unincorporated areas of Cape Girardeau County. Even incorporated areas without municipal planning and zoning would not be affected. Cape Girardeau and Jackson are the only two cities in the county with planning boards.

Residents in incorporated areas, however, will still have a say on the matter if it comes to a vote.