COUNTY P&Z PLANS DESERVES TO BE AIRED FULLY

Cape Girardeau County voters once again will have an opportunity to decide on countywide planning and zoning.

The County Commission last week placed the issue on the April 4 ballot. The commission's action ended three years of work by a temporary county Planning and Zoning Commission to develop a master plan that would be considered suitable for the county. That commission was established in 1996 under a new state law that permits first-class counties like Cape Girardeau to formulate master plans.

The county outside incorporated city limits has been without any planning regulations since 1992, when voters rejected a proposal to add zoning. In defeating that proposal, voters also tossed out planning, which had been in effect for only a few years prior to 1992.

The county's P&Z commission members believe the new plan is less restrictive than the one proposed in 1992. It addresses how the county is expected to develop, a zoning order and mobile-home and subdivision requirements.

The zoning order would establish five districts: Residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial and parks and recreation. At the start, most everything would be zoned agricultural.

The chairman of the county's P&Z commission and the Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones emphasize that the master plan is the least restrictive they could propose. It should be noted that it doesn't involve any national codes, which are commonly used by municipalities and are heavily restrictive and complicated.

Instead, the new plan is patterned after the one in Boone County, which is similar in size and makeup to Cape Girardeau County.

The plan offers a starting point for countywide planning and zoning. The county wisely is proposing a plan with the least restrictions. You can be sure opposition will be heard this time around as well.

If the county wants planning and zoning to pass, it must sell this latest plan to voters. Public information meetings are planned to begin around March 1, and that offers little time to convince voters of the need. That is what it is going to take if Cape Girardeau is to embark upon planning and zoning a second time around.