DECATUR - A first-ever comprehensive plan that discourages urban sprawl while encouraging economic development such as expanded recreational opportunities along Lake Decatur will be presented to the Macon County Board for approval tonight.

The 130-page document, expected to go to the Decatur City Council for approval in August, represents the first joint plan by the city and county and one that contains recommendations for land use, roadway development, education, housing and economic development for the next 20 years.

"Too many times we look at these issues as being separate, but they're all part of the big ball we call community," said Mark Smith, senior planner of transportation and long-range planning for the city of Decatur and a key player in the development of the plan.

Other projects in the plan include the expansion of U.S. 51, construction of a southeast beltway around Decatur and creation of a modern agribusiness park environment around Richland Community College.

Ironically, at the same meeting members of the county board consider a comprehensive plan recommending that new growth be limited to a quarter mile from existing municipal boundaries, they also will face a controversial request to rezone two acres of agricultural land along Park Road in Hickory Point Township.

Staff and the Macon County Zoning Board of Appeals recommended the request be denied in the interest of preserving farmland for agricultural use, but the board's Environmental, Education, Health and Welfare Committee voted 5-0 June 18 in favor of the rezoning.

A super majority of 16 votes from the 21-member county board will be needed for the rezoning to go through.

Dennis and Betty Hughes want residential zoning for their house so they can sell the remaining eight acres of their 10-acre tract to their neighbor. Macon County zoning ordinances require a tract of at least 10 acres before a home can be built on land zoned agricultural.

"(The buyer) could split off 10 and do the same thing, and the first thing you know 10 years down the road, you could have 10 houses along there," Tony Van Natta, manager of planning and zoning, told the committee.

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