GROUP FORMED TO OPPOSE COUNTY PLANNING AND ZONING

Planning and zoning opponents are gearing up to fight a planning measure on the Cape Girardeau County Nov. 7 ballot.

Opponents led by Doug Flannery of Whitewater, Mo., have organized the Committee to Protect Taxpayer and Landowner Rights. About 100 people are involved so far with the anti-planning group, he said.

Flannery said Monday the group plans to raise and spend $25,000 or more to fight the ballot measure. That would be more than twice the amount spent in defeating planning and zoning in an election in 1992, Flannery said. About $10,000 was spent by planning and zoning opponents in that election, he said.

The county has operated without countywide planing since 1992 when voters rejected a proposal to impose zoning and tossed out planning as well.

Flannery opposed county planning and zoning in 1992. Eight years later, his opinion hasn't changed.

Many of the same people who fought the issue then are planning to do so again this time, he said. "We have to educate the voters of the county," he said.

The group plans to hold a public meeting on Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. at the American Legion Hall in Jackson, Mo. Flannery said the meeting is open to all interested county residents. Organizers plan to launch newspaper ads this week in an effort to encourage people to attend the meeting.

"What we are trying to protect first off is private-land-ownership rights," he said.

Flannery, who is a candidate for county commissioner, and others are concerned that county planning and zoning would make it tough for people to open small businesses in the county.

David Allen operates Dave's Towboat Repair in Whitewater. Like Flannery, he is opposed to county planning and zoning. "They are fooling with my livelihood," he said.

Allen doesn't want county government to regulate rural businesses.

Flannery said there is no reason why the county needs planning and zoning. The county became a first-class county without it, he said.

Flannery said county government has spent $21,435 so far in getting the issue back on the ballot.

County Auditor H. Weldon Macke said the money went to the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission in Perryville, Mo. The planning commission drew up the proposed zoning and subdivision development regulations that are at the heart of the ballot measure.

The regional planning commission worked with a temporary planning committee in developing the latest plan. The temporary planning commission was appointed by the county commission in December 1996 to draw up a zoning plan to be submitted to voters.

Macke said the $21,435 spent so far by the county is a small amount to pay for a comprehensive zoning plan.