Smith Center ? The Smith County Commission has backed off a plan to keep the Global Country of World Peace from building a dozen marble “peace palaces” on prime farmland near the geographic center of the lower 48 states.

The organization, affiliated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his Transcendental Meditation movement, bought large tracts of land in Smith County earlier this year, causing some concern for area residents.

The three-member commission on Monday repealed a measure that had prevented the change in land use from agricultural until the county zoning regulations were completed. The moratorium passed this summer was designed to “preserve the status quo while it could be determined whether zoning regulations could be used to prevent the Global Country of World Peace from using land for the purposes announced by such organization,” according to Monday’s resolution repealing it.

There are no zoning regulations in the rural county area, although a planning commission is studying the idea. Most of rural Smith County is used for wheat and corn farming or as livestock pastures.

County Atty. Allen Shelton said Thursday the commission “passed the moratorium to see if zoning could be used to keep the TMers out.”

He said the repeal came after the commission was told the peace group planned to file a federal lawsuit, claiming violation of its civil rights. Shelton said the group likely would have prevailed.