'SIMPLE' P&Z PLAN WILL NEED EXPLANATION

Since Cape Girardeau County officials remain intent on enacting some kind of planning and zoning laws to regulate land use in rural areas, they had best continue to take their time before asking voters to approve a plan.

Back in January, officials said a vote on planning and zoning might be held as early as August. But the chairman of a committee that has spent the last two years drafting planning and zoning regulations now says it won't be ready by then. The chairman, John Dudley, said a November vote is more likely.

All of this comes after voters in 1992 rejected a proposed countywide master plan for land use. In so doing, voters scrapped Cape Girardeau County's 20-year-old planning commission and all efforts to regulate land use up to that point.

Not to give up on planning and zoning, the County Commission in 1995 appointed the committee to come up with a land-use plan. The Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission at Perryville is reviewing the committee's proposal and comparing it to the widely accepted Building Officials and Code Administrators -- usually called BOCA -- plan with an eye on simplifying planning and zoning for Cape Girardeau County and not to include any building codes.

There are areas in the county -- most of them industrial or residential in close proximity to Cape Girardeau and Jackson -- that need land-use regulations for the protection of property owners. But there also remains a lot of agricultural land that doesn't need to be regulated for any purpose other than to protect it from industrial invasion. Voters in 1992 clearly expressed the opinion that over-regulation of land is unwanted.

It appears county officials got that message. The committee drafting the plan is working tediously slow on the latest effort, its chairman and the presiding commissioner of the county, Gerald Jones, have stressed that they intend to keep the plan simple.

It is encouraging to see that they are proceeding under that priority. However, there is nothing simple about BOCA codes, and any part of those regulations will have to be simplified to produce an acceptable plan.

It also is important that the county continue to proceed with deliberation. Whether the plan being drafted is good or bad, it is incumbent upon county officials to explain it to county residents in its entirety so that they will know how the regulations would affect them. And that process will take time, perhaps far past November.