Zelienople Borough Council is giving residents adequate time and means for learning details of proposed changes to the community's zoning ordinance.

If they don't take advantage of those opportunities, they shouldn't complain once changes are implemented.

At a council meeting Monday, Chris Rearick, a certified public planner hired to review the borough's ordinances, reported on the zoning-change proposals. It was the council's first glimpse at what is being suggested.

One of the important aims behind the changes is to make issuance of conditional uses and ordinance exceptions infrequent. The borough's zoning hearing board and council had wrestled with such requests for changes on a number of occasions in the past.

It is good that what is being proposed would more clearly spell out the rules so that residents — or whoever else might be planning a residence, groups of homes, business, or virtually any other enterprise — will know what can be established in each sector of the borough.

Presumably that would save considerable time for the council and hearing board over the long run.

But it's important for residents of the town, business people, as well as officials, to have input in the zoning changes' final product. Commendably, that is what the council is trying to achieve by deciding that a meeting to receive public comments regarding the changes won't be held until 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at the borough building.

In the meantime, the council said it would post the proposals at the borough building and at the Zelienople/Harmony Chamber of Commerce and Zelienople Public Library, and on the borough's Web site at www.boro.zelienople.pa.us.

Regarding the proposed changes, David Foreman, a zoning hearing board member, said, "Generally, I think we're going in the right direction."

Time will tell, based on residents' interest and comments over the next five weeks.

The council will leave the option for receiving comment in a public forum open even after Feb. 26, since an official public hearing on the proposals also will be required as part of the approval process.

Communities that do things correctly the first time have fewer problems later. No doubt that is the kind of scenario Zelienople officials are trying to achieve.

At this time, they are on a correct path that they should try to maintain.