Over the past 20 or so years we've seen the town of Flomaton attempt to implement zoning within the town limits only to see those efforts die.
We've long advocated that zoning was needed to attract businesses and we know we've lost potential businesses due to the lack of zoning.
Mayor Dewey Bondurant Jr., told us this week that he has had as many as five businesses over the past 16 years that wanted to come to Flomaton, but refused because of the lack of zoning. He said one of those happened about a month ago.
We understand the 'Z' word scares a lot of people. They don't want the government telling them what they can and cannot do on their own property. We also know many of those people would cry foul if their neighbordood opened up a pig farm next door.
Mayor Bondurant is in contact with a man who says he can solve the town's economic development issues without zoning. We talked to the man on the telephone that other day.
We learned that John Robert Smith turned downtown Meridian, Miss., into a viable business district, without zoning while he served as the city's mayor.
Smith has been working with a company that develops a 'Form Based Code' for towns that will enable those towns to attract new businesses without that town having to implement zoning.
As we talked to Smith, we were impressed with what he said and we hope the town council will move forward to at least study his proposal.
What we ask of the citizens of Flomaton is to come into this venture with an open mind. Don't come in with a closed mind and not willing to listen to what is said before you make up your mind.
Too often people make their minds up with false information and once somebody's mind is made up it's hard to change directions.
This may or may not work for Flomaton. We don't know. But it's worth a look to see if this plan can open the door for economic development in this town.
