By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — A proposal for a salvage yard west of Carthage points to Jasper County’s need for planning and zoning, John Bartosh, Jasper County presiding commissioner, said Friday.

He said the landowner confirmed plans to open the business, to be called Mejia Salvage, on Ivy Road just off County Road 162. The county will try to impose some limits, he said, in the absence of land-use controls.

“He’s already got the sign up, but the building he planned to use is just more of an outbuilding, without any utilities,” Bartosh said. “I told him that if he planned to open a business, that he has to have a county license, and his building would have to have septic service.”

Bartosh said the county also will require the salvage yard to be surrounded by a solid fence that would block it from view.

“That’s already in the law,” he said. “I’ve been told we probably can’t make it retroactive, but we could require it from here on out.”

Blake Wolf, who serves as legal adviser to the County Commission, said he has been asked to research whether the county can require fence construction before a business license would be issued for a salvage yard.

“At this point, we can’t keep them out, but we may be able to require the fence before we approve the license,” he said.

Bartosh and Wolf both said they had been contacted by residents who have concerns about a salvage yard being operated in the area, which includes mostly homes on large lots, and a mobile home park.

The commission earlier this year changed county licensing requirements to restrict the operation of what is now an adult-video arcade off Interstate 44 between Joplin and Sarcoxie.

Neighborhood residents opposed to the operation, which first was planned as an adult cabaret, said it illustrated that the county needs the kind of land-use regulations that would come with planning and zoning. Bartosh on Friday said he did not disagree.

“Lots of things we wouldn’t be able to keep out, but we could restrict them to certain areas,” he said. “I’ve been thinking more and more that we ought to look at something that would put limits on just a few things — like salvage yards and sexually oriented businesses. Then if people want to restrict other things, like trailer parks, that would be put to a vote.”

He said his goal would be to limit control by a county board, and let voters decide most questions.