PLANNING, ZONING A PLUS FOR CAPE COUNTY

Countywide planning and zoning remains as controversial today as it was 30 years ago when the Cape Girardeau County Commission first proposed planning.

The county has never had zoning, but it had countywide planning for the 20 years from 1972 to 1992. In 1975 the county commission adopted a set of regulations for subdivisions and mobile-home parks. A master plan for development also was adopted. But in 1992 voters rejected a plan to impose zoning, booting out everything that had been accomplished up to that point.

On Nov. 7, county voters, including those who live in towns, will decide whether the county again should have planning. Passage by a simple majority would lead to the appointment of a planning and zoning commission. The county commission has said in all probability it would implement zoning as early as next spring. A vote in favor of planning would permit the commission to do that after hearings are held on the zoning proposal in every township of the county.

Unlike the 1972 proposal, the county commission this time has laid out a detailed plan. It has tried to explain through a series of public meetings what would transpire if voters give their OK and has made available copies of the proposed planning and zoning regulations.

Planning and zoning would establish a layer of bureaucracy at the county level that residents wanting to use their land as they see fit have not had to deal with. How burdensome that bureaucracy might become is an unknown. Cumbersome building codes are not part of the proposal.

County planning and, ultimately, zoning are aimed at protecting existing land uses and assuring orderly growth in rural areas, some of which have seen significant commercial and residential development in recent years. When zoning is adopted, existing land uses would be grandfathered in, which means their uses would not have to change. There would be five zoning classifications, all of which would allow agricultural uses. No farming operations would be shut down. Both Cape Girardeau and Jackson city officials have gone on record in support of the proposal.

As Cape Girardeau County continues to develop, some means of assuring orderly growth must be established. Rural residents also must be assured that unwanted developments don't intrude upon their neighborhoods.

Limited planning and zoning, as envisioned by the committee that has worked long and hard on the current proposal, would be a plus for Cape Girardeau County.