Posted: 2/14/06
Commissioners table feedlot permit
Decision coming this week
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Scott Sanness will finally get an answer on his feedlot permit this week.
The Houston County board will have to make a decision at its February 14 meeting, because the deadline to vote on the application is February 18.
Commissioners discussed it on February 7 after hearing from Sanness and three other proponents of the project. They then decided they needed more information before making a decision.
They asked zoning administrator Bob Scanlan to get comments from planning commission members. Board members also said they wanted to look at information presented at public hearings.
The Houston County Planning Commission voted 6-1 on January 27 to deny a conditional use permit for the feedlot. The county board has final say on such permits and can overturn planning commission decisions.
Sanness applied in November for the permit to operate an animal feedlot with more than 300 animal units, and to construct a manure storage basin. It was for up to 990 animals units, or 2,475 hogs, in section eight of Wilmington Township. (A hog counts for .4 of an animal unit.)
Any feedlot over 300 animal units requires a conditional use permit, as does a manure storage basin.
The planning commission tabled the permit at its November and December meetings before voting to deny the permit last month. About a dozen people expressed opposition to the feedlot at those meetings. They are concerned about the potential for water pollution and smell.
Four people speak in favor
No one spoke in opposition at the county board meeting. Sanness, his engineer, his attorney, and a feedlot technician from Dodge County spent about half an hour explaining the project as they had done at the previous public hearings.
Commissioner Larry Graf voted against the permit application as a planning commission member. He said last week that the University of Minnesota has new technology that can predict smells and odors, but that there was no updated information on it.
Scanlan said there are questions about dead air pockets and where they go. ìThese valleys kind of hold pockets of air,î he said.
Commissioner Ann Thompson said there is always a potential problem for pollution. She asked Scanlan if the potential was greater at this site than in a normal operation. ìIíd have to say no,î Scanlan answered. The soil borings and engineering plans are all acceptable, he said.
The potential for air pollution was a big concern of citizens., environmental services officer Rick Frank said.
Sanness said that the air from the hog barns would go through the fans and biofilters, so there would be no difference in smell between winter and summer.
Arlo Habben did the engineering work on the project for Southern Minnesota Agronomic & Environmental Services of Chatfield. He told the county board about the high standards that his company uses. He said he has rejected steel and concrete that wasnít up to specifications. ìWeíre not out there to make friends,î he said.
Attorney David Joerg said that Sanness had done everything that was required of him and more. Courts have held that if the applicant has complied with requirements, then the conditional use permit should and must be issued, he said.
Joerg said that Houston County is an agricultural county, and people have to expect some inconvenience if they live in the country. All farmers used to have some hogs in the past, he said. It worked then, but farmers canít make a living that way now.
ìHere youíve got a good young guy whoís willing to take a risk in this era,î Joerg said.
Commissioner Dave Corcoran noted that Sanness can start an operation without board approval if he is under 300 animal unite.
Scanlan said he has an application on his desk from Sanness for such an operation, and there are no odor requirements that go with it.
ìYou live in a rural area and you do have certain rights,î Corcoran said.
Other zoning news
In other zoning business, the board approved an after-the-fact conditional use permit for Earl Kitchen, Mound Prairie Township, to build a house in an agricultural district on less than 40 acres after-the-fact. The planning commission approved it on January 26.
Commissioner Dave Corcoran said it was fortunate that Kitchen built the house on Class 4 soil and not on tillable land. ìHe built in the right spot by luck,î Corcoran said. ìIf heíd have built the house in the wrong place, weíd have had another problem because he would have been in non-compliance.î
Scanlan told commissioners that a permit for Tom and Todd Tollefsrud, Spring Grove Township, was tabled until the planning commission could visit the site on February February 7. The Tollefsruds want to conduct a sawmill operation as a Level II home occupation in an ag district.
Four zoning permits were also approved. They are for:
ï Larry Wiste, Black Hammer Township, lean-to on shed (16' x 20');
ï Gary Fitting, Money Creek Township, build pole shed (40' x 56'), lean-to on north side of (18' x 56');
ï Doug Moen, Caledonia Township, build shed (30' x 45');
ï Tony Miller, Mound Prairie Township, build house (32' x 62'), shed (36' x 64').
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