Fayetteville and Fayette County officials will take a coordinated approach to land use planning and zoning along the joint city/county borders from now on.

That's among the agreements that came out of the first in a series of joint meetings between the Fayette County Commission and local city councils last week.

"We need to put our planning departments together and put a band around the city so we mirror the zoning," said Commissioner Greg Dunn during the dinner meeting last week.

"It ought to be cooperative so there's not a lot of shopping of zoning, us against you," agreed City Councilman Al Hovey-King.

Although there was no agenda for the informal gathering, commissioners and city council members talked about land use and zoning, annexation, cooperative agreements between fire and police services, and plans for a new county jail.

Fayetteville probably will be called upon to annex much of the area around Fayette Community Hospital, the officials agreed. And although the county loses taxes for fire service every time a city annexes property, commissioners said annexation in the hospital area could be a good thing.

"Toward the hospital annexation, if it carries sewer, may not be a bad thing," said Commissioner Glen Gosa. As long as the city doesn't allow more intense development than the county would, the availability of sewerage will help protect the environmentally sensitive area from large septic tanks, he said.

"It would be the same density," agreed Councilman Glenn Brewer, "but it would be with sewer rather than septic tanks."

The county needs the city's help in planning a new jail and court complex, commissioners said. "We can't be out there trying to sell the county's jail without the cities' support," said Dunn.

Financing for the planned jail will probably come from sales taxes or a bond issue, commissioners said, adding that a united front is needed to convince voters that the money must be spent.

Commissioners said they are now leaning heavily toward building onto the existing jail rather than starting from scratch, to save on costs.

Fire and police services are cooperating well, both groups agreed.

Councilmen assured commissioners that they have no long-range plans to aggressively annex county lands, although, "We've got certain areas that when people come to us we'd like to annex," admitted Councilman Walt White.

Commissioner Herb Frady asked the city officials to be conservative, because the county's revenue for fire service is reduced by annexation. Mayor Mike Wheat said the most likely areas for annexation are those that fall within drainage basins that can easily be served by city sewerage.

Joint land use planning will prevent property owners from annexing into the city in order to increase density, they added. Frady urged, "Put something in writing and make it difficult for someone in the future to change it."