ZONING: CAPE CAN'T CONTROL USE OF NEARBY LAND

Cape Girardeau doesn't have any control over how land directly outside the city limits is used, nor does it want any control, the city planner said.

Questions have been raised at public meetings about how much control incorporated cities would have around city limits should Cape Girardeau County adopt countywide planning and zoning. The matter is to be decided at the polls Nov. 7.

Voters attending a series of public meetings on the subject have asked questions that county officials can't answer - buffer or peripheral zoning among them. City planner Kent Bratton says he hasn't read the current proposal enough to know that information. And the county mapper says he is unsure of whether the law actually applies in the county.

Bratton said there is a state law that allows cities with populations larger than 35,000 to adopt planning and zoning regulations for areas within two miles of the city limits. But that law has never applied to Cape Girardeau, although the city might reach the 35,000 mark with the latest census figures, he said.

The city never tried to adopt extraterritorial zoning, he said. Extraterritorial zoning would have given Cape Girardeau officials some degree of authority over what sort of planning and zoning was allowed in that two-mile area.

But it has never been a matter of concern for the city, said city attorney Eric Cunningham.

Extraterritorial zoning would require a city ordinance and County Commission approval.

"There are plenty of hoops that you have to go through," Bratton said.

When Cape Girardeau County had planning regulations, which were in effect until 1992, officials would often notify the city of any subdivision changes taking place within 1.5 miles of the city limits.

"If they would have had zoning, they would have notified us of those changes as well," Bratton said.

Under a new plan being put before voters, the county again would notify incorporated cities of any zoning changes within 1.5 miles of their corporate limits.

But that action is more of a courtesy extended by the county to the incorporated city, said Roger Arnzen, head of the county's mapping and appraisal department. The county would be working under the assumption that the issue eventually could be one of friendly annexation and that the city might want to be made aware of the change, he added.

Currently, there is no regulation or requirement for the county to notify officials in Cape Girardeau or Jackson, Mo., when a business or development begins construction within two miles of their corporate limits. The only restriction now is floodplain construction, Arnzen said.

Both voters in the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county will cast ballots on the planning issue. Should the measure be approved by a simple majority, the county could enact zoning regulations without voter approval. Commissioners say they plan to do that.

A temporary county planning commission, organized in 1996, has proposed five zoning classifications within the county based on current land uses. The categories are agricultural, residential, recreational/ conservation, commercial and industrial.

Any existing land use would be allowed to continue under a grandfather clause.