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members last week pored over 102 pages of

proposed changes to the county's development

regulations and 34 pages of similar changes to

subdivision regulations.

It

was tedious work involving such minute concerns

as the height and width of street curbing and how

one measures a flood plain. But, according to

county engineer Kirk Houser, the results will be

important to Fayette residents in the future.

Houser

and assistant David Borkowski have been working

to rewrite the regulations since January, in

hopes of reducing the possibility of engineering

problems in future subdivisions, streets,

commercial and industrial buildings.

"My

goal for this effort," Houser told the

Planning Commission, "is that 30 years from

now some future county engineer won't be dealing

with some of the same problems and complaints I'm

dealing with now. Everything from flooding

problems to the structural integrity of buildings

will be affected by the changes, he added.

When

Fayette was a rural county, the standards of

development were logically less stringent, he

said, but now that development is going on at a

rapid pace, the need for exact standards grows.

"As we get more dense, these things become

more urgent," he said.

Houser's

copy of the proposed changes quickly filled up

with red tab markers as commissioners suggested

minor changes or noted typographical errors.

The

group agreed to go over the changes again at its

November work session before asking for public

comment in its regular business session Dec. 2.

The

Planning Commission will discuss the changes at

one more work session in January before voting on

them in February for presentation to the county

Board of Commissioners later that month.

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