DESPITE VOTE, COUNTY ZONING NOT FORGOTTEN

Not many problems have developed after two years with no planning and zoning in Cape Girardeau County, former county officials and current residents agree.

But those on both sides of the issue say Cape County voters haven't heard the end of it.

Questions about the value of planning and zoning first arose after Scott McDowell purchased some property in Cape Girardeau County in the mid-1980s. He went to a meeting of the county's Planning and Zoning Commission to ask a few questions, never intending to go to more than one.

He did, however, and studied zoning decisions passed by the organization. McDowell said he couldn't believe the way decisions were made, and he began telling county residents about it.

By 1992, McDowell and others had formed Citizens Against Unfair Planning and Zoning. They went before the voters with their arguments, attracted media attention, and managed to get the 20-year-old commission dissolved by vote in November of that year.

As a result, there is no planning or zoning power at all in Cape Girardeau County. McDowell says that's fine with him.

"They had gone too far in trying to protect everyone," he said of the commission. "When you did a plat of your house, you had to show where every rock outcropping and tree was. They never even addressed any building codes. It was just insane."

Former Planning and Zoning Director Charles Engelhart blamed the dissolution of the commission on anti-regulatory sentiment.

Many county residents had moved to the country to get away from so many rules and thought the zoning regulations were too strict.

Others believed they couldn't rebuild their homes in case of natural disaster because the structures wouldn't comply with new zoning ordinances, Engelhart said.

"It wasn't the end of the world for me when planning and zoning ended, but it was frustrating," he said. "I had been on the commission since it started in 1972, and I am still sold on the idea of having one."

But Englehart admits that the lack of zoning hasn't had a major effect on the county yet.

Former Presiding Commission Gene Huckstep agrees. He was on the Cape Girardeau County Commission when planning and zoning ended.

"Some people thought it would wind up being a disaster, but it hasn't," Huckstep said. "It might be premature to say. I thought there would already be some businesses cropping up that would trigger another vote.

"I'm a little worried that, with the rapid growth in the city and the out-county, things will become controversial. Time will tell."

So far, the only problem has been the appearance of mobile homes in neighborhoods dominated by single-family dwellings. That likely wouldn't happen in a zoned county, but Cape Girardeau County has no regulations separating one type of neighborhood from another.

Similar controversies will result in the planning and zoning issue coming back before voters before too long, both sides seem to agree.

Darrell Hanschen, who was on the Citizens Against Unfair Planning and Zoning committee with McDowell, said two years haven't changed his mind about zoning in Cape County.

"It will come back again, and when it does we will fight it again," he said. "When we got the word out in 1992 and let people know what was going on, it got defeated."