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EAST GULL LAKE -- Cass County commissioners unanimously adopted the new Mississippi Headwaters Board Comprehensive Plan at their regular meeting at East Gull Lake City Hall Tuesday, July 16.

The MHB Board adopted the plan at their May 24 meeting. Now, each MHB member county will consider also adopting it.

MHB oversees zoning and development for unincorporated land in the first 400 miles of the river corridor from Lake Itasca to the southern Morrison County boundary. It gets its authority from state statutes.

Member counties include Clearwater, Hubbard, Beltrami, Cass, Itasca, Aitkin, Crow Wing and Morrison. MHB was formed in 1980. The plan was last updated in 2002.

The 2019 updated plan eliminated 120 pages and tried to use more plain language, making easier to read, Tim Terrill, MHB executive director, told Cass commissioners in his presentation. Zoning maps have been imbedded in the new document, he said.

Statutory changes since 2002 in the new version. There are links to additional information on MHB's website.

Readers can use word search to find sections which interest them. If someone plans to build a garage, they can search "garage" to get an index list of all references in the document related to building garages in the Mississippi corridor.

To check out the website, go to mississippiheadwaters.org/comprehensiveManagementPlan.asp.

Cass County also is in the process of rewriting its own land use zoning regulations, again to make it more reader-friendly. The county expects to contract to have someone consolidate their in-county zoning regulations to make those easier to search online.

Environmental Services Department employees currently are researching rewriting costs.

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