LETTERS: REGULATION IS NEEDED, BUT NOT IN BITS, PIECES

To the editor:

Planning, zoning and building permits in a growing area like ours are needed. To date we have been fortunate largely due to common sense and courtesy. However, it won't last much longer.

I am voting against countywide P&Z because no plan acceptable to most is in place. P&Z may be OK, but it will soon migrate to adoption of nationwide BOCA codes. These codes were written by architects for architects to be all-inclusive. Any project, under those codes, would require certified plans that would add 4 percent to 15 percent cost to a project. A small project would be hard to work into a busy architect's schedule, perhaps requiring delays of months. The building-permit history in Cape Girardeau and Jackson has a stormy past. Both towns are working on improving this. However, this prospect for the county scares property owners.

We cannot allow our county to grow unregulated much longer. On the other hand, we do not want P&Z to develop in bits and pieces as it has in other places. Let's do our best to get it right at the outset.

JOHN POPP

Fruitland, Mo.