MAURICE - The Village of Maurice’s is moving forward toward zoning and a group of Maurice citizens formed a committee in order to help the aldermen and the mayor.

At Wednesday’s monthly aldermen meeting, the newly created “Planning, Zoning Preservation Advisory Committee” was present.

The committee, which is 11 strong, was created in order to preserve the historical value of Maurice while at the same time, help the aldermen and Mayor Robert Ferguson create zoning laws.

“We are here to provide input to the administration,” said Cheryl Perret, a spokesman for the committee. “Right now, we only want to recommend the next step. They are meeting with professionals to look at zoning. These professionals are going to come here and talk to the citizens and get their input.

“We are helping to guide the process.”

Ever since Ferguson became mayor of Maurice, he has been looking to create zoning laws for the village. However, over the last year, baby steps have been taken.

Things are about to pick up dealing with zoning of Maurice. In the next two weeks, a special town meeting will take place between the aldermen, Ferguson, along with citizens of Maurice. A group of experts from Lafayette will educate the administration and citizens about zoning.

One of the first steps to zoning is for the town to hire a person to map out the actual village. He or she will then make recommendations to the citizens and administration as to which zoning laws should be created in which parts of the village.

“This will be a community process,” said Perret. “This will not be decided on by just an advisory committee or the administration. In the process, there will be input from the public.”

The mayor added that there are businesses moving into Maurice requesting zoning. Zoning is still a few months away, he added.