GIRARD, Kan. — Much of Friday’s county commission meeting was spent in an executive session, but during the last 15 minutes, the commissioners discussed the need for a targeted zoning survey.

Conducting a new survey has been discussed for several weeks. The purpose of the new survey would be to gauge support for zoning the entire county, specifically targeting the landowners who live or own property in the unzoned portions of the county.

County Counselor Jim Emerson told the commissioners, “We need to make a decision to either move forward on surveys or let the planning commission finish their work on the zoning piece” of the comprehensive plan.

Emerson said the planning commission has been “on hold” while the survey was discussed.

If allowed to move forward on the zoning component of the comprehensive plan, Emerson said the commission can then move forward on completing the rest of the plan.

Commissioner Tom Moody suggested letting the planning board continue their work and make a recommendation, in their opinion, whether the targeted survey is needed. If so, the commission will conduct the survey; if not, the board can make a recommendation for or against countywide zoning and continue to work on the rest of the comprehensive plan.

Emerson said the planning board would need two to three weeks, minimum, to make a recommendation because of state statutes governing the process, such as giving sufficient notification in the county’s official newspaper of the time and place of their next public meeting.

Commissioner Bruce Blair favors the targeted survey. He has said on several occasions that he hoped the results of the comprehensive survey would have provided him with the answers he needed, but that was not the case.

While the overall results of that survey supported countywide zoning, when Blair asked for the isolated results from just the unzoned areas, the results were split down the middle.

Blair said that doesn’t really help him, which is why he would like to just survey the unzoned property owners to get a clearer picture.

Commissioner Carl Wood proposed giving the planning board the time they need to make a recommendation on the need for a survey.

Blair and Moody agreed.

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