COUNTY ZONING: PROCEED WITH CAUTION

In Cape Girardeau County, the wheels are in motion toward a vote on the issue of countywide planning and zoning next April. This will be a sensitive matter and will need to be handled with an eye toward that fact if there is to be any chance of success. The reason is that it wasn't that long ago -- 1992 to be exact -- that county voters resoundingly rejected planning by the margin of 2-1.

Since then Cape Girardeau County has evolved into a first-class county under state statutes, and county leaders have been looking at planning once again. A 10-member committee has been meeting since December 1996 to investigate and draft a proposal. Once they do this, they will submit their recommendations to the County Commission. These commissioners will then review them, make their own changes and hold a series of public hearings in each township in the county. Only after all this would an election be held on the proposed scheme of planning and zoning. Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones would like to hold the vote in April of next year.

Jones and his fellow commissioners are keenly aware of the need not to overdo the regulating part. "We are trying to get some control in the county," said Jones. "But we don't want to regulate every little thing. It was never our intention to have inspectors enforcing BOCA codes or measuring water pipes." Added Associate Commissioner Larry Bock: "The idea is orderly growth and protecting property values in the county."

Concerns about over-regulation are what sank the planning process less than six years ago. It will take a careful balancing act by all involved to allow any chance of success this time around.