Jetton: Village law wasn't a big deal

~ The law sets no minimum population for an area to become a village.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- House Speaker Rod Jetton says he didn't believe a law making it easier for landowners to incorporate as villages would be a big deal, though it has sparked controversy in southwest Missouri.

Jetton, R-Marble Hill, so far has declined to speak publicly about his role in the law, but he has sent e-mails to people who had called or written to him about the issue, or whom he knew personally in southwest Missouri.

Jetton generally defends the law, writing in the e-mail posted online by the Springfield News-Leader that "I really didn't think it would be a big deal."

But the new law has generated concern among some Stone County officials and residents because representatives of a landowner are attempting to use it to designate about 400 acres of property near Table Rock Lake as a village. That could allow the landowner to bypass certain county government rules.

The law, which took effect Aug. 28, sets no minimum population for an area to become a village, and requires no regularly laid out public streets, businesses, schools, parks, churches or other such entities that might typically be in a town. The law says that if 15 percent of the registered voters sign the petition, the local governing body "shall submit" the question to the voters.

If incorporated as a village, the area could be exempt from county jurisdiction on such things as planning and zoning ordinances.

That's why some Stone County residents are concerned, but that's also why Jetton supports the law.

"Letting people do what they want with their property is something I believe in," Jetton wrote. "The way I read the law, allowing a few citizens to start their village is about as close to local control as you can get."

Jetton described the village law as a "small change to a law that was unclear" and added that "the only place in the state it has been a problem so far is Stone County."

Jetton said the measure was included in a larger bill in a House committee April 17 and went unchanged as the bill moved through the House and Senate. But Jetton's e-mail did not address whether he personally asked for the provision to be inserted into the legislation, as Rep. Dennis Wood, R-Kimberling City, has said he did.

Greene County Commissioner Dave Coonrod received Jetton's e-mail in response to one he sent Jetton last month. He said the e-mail shows Jetton misunderstands the new law's implications for counties. The Missouri Association of County Commissioners is meeting Nov. 18 and 19, and members are to discuss how the village law threatens them, Coonrod said.

"He missed the whole point that what he has done is absolutely infringing on the property rights of people throughout the state of Missouri because without some kind of accountability on a local level, people are going to end up with just about anything under the sun put in under the guise of a village," Coonrod said.

The Stone County Commission is to meet Nov. 27 to conduct a public hearing and vote on the petition to incorporate the Village of Table Rock. The land is owned by Evergreen National Corp., of which Lebanon businessman Robert Plaster is president and chairman.

An attorney for Plaster has filed a lawsuit against the county commission for failing to immediately act on the petition.

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Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.springfieldnews-leader.com