cannot get route to work with "+" character in it.

[eluser]otherjohn[/eluser]
Hi all,
I am trying to get a route for my site where the page would be
http://www.doctyped.net/designs-to-html/...words+here
but I get a 404.

in my routes I have

Code:

$route['design-to-html/([a-z]+)']="basecontroller/landing/$1";

and in my basecontroller file I have

Code:

function landing()
    {
        $page = array();
        $data = array();
        $data['title'] = "Convert PSD to xHTML - doctyped.net";
        $data['description'] = "Doctyped.net converts your designs to valid xhtml and templates for CMS software like wordpress, joomla, blogger, cubecart, and more.";
        $data['keywords'] = "";
        $data['head'] = "";
        $page = array();
        
        
        
        $page['contentLF'] = $this->load->view('homecontent_view',$data,true);
        $page['contentRT'] = $this->load->view('baseside_view',$data,true);
        $this->load->view('base_template', $page, false);
    }

I also have this in my config so that I can use the "+"

Code:

$config['permitted_uri_chars'] = '\+a-z 0-9~%.:_-';

But I do not understand why its giving me a 404