The Fillmore County Planning Commission held their first meeting of 2018 on March 15. The last meeting of 2017 was held on October 26. Zoning administrator Cristal Adkins opened the meeting and welcomed new member Trinity Johnson. Johnson will replace Brad Erickson who retired from the committee after 12 years of service.
Gary Ruskell was elected chairman and Steve Duxbury was elected vice-chairman. The commission will continue to meet on the third Thursday of the month at 7 pm, when there is business to be addressed.
Ruskell opened the public hearing on the conditional use permit application submitted by Joe Miessen, PCi Roads, LLC for a temporary concrete batch plant. The plant is to be placed in a farm field owned by James and Elaine Teske, Section 21, Sumner Township.
Miessen said he is the contractor on the Fillmore County CSAH 1 project. He explained the plant will be set up on about four acres rented from Teske. Driveway entrances will need to be widened. Building the plant will start when weather permits. Ideally, paving will begin late in June. Rochester Sand and Gravel will fix soft spots prior to paving.
During paving, which is expected to take about 15-16 days, trucks will run 12 hours per day Monday through Friday at a rate of about 65 per hour. Saturday will be an eight hour work day and there will be no Sunday work. Miessen said the plant will come down within a day after paving is completed.
There was no comment from township officials or the public. Ruskell asked about the condition of CR 2, which is the road the plant will be located on and used for a relatively short distance to CSAH 1. He said it currently is not in the best of shape. Miessen said CR 2 will be designated as a haul road. Observation of the road’s condition will be documented before and after. Miessen noted, if there are significant changes to the condition of the road, they will remediate it to get it back to where it was.
The CUP application was unanimously recommended for approval. The county board will consider the CUP at its March 27 meeting.
Other business in brief
• Adkins passed out a copy of a proposed new ordinance to cover both wind and solar energy systems (language from Martin County ordinance). The county currently has a Wind Energy Conversion System ordinance, but nothing to regulate large solar systems. Adkins noted there have been some inquiries about solar systems.
Currently, if an individual roof mounted solar system is to be installed, a permit is not required. A ground mounted system does require a permit. Adkins asked commission members to look over the proposed ordinance, adding it will be on the next meeting’s agenda.
• Five of the 23 townships in the county have their own zoning ordinance (Chatfield, Forestville, Jordan, Spring Valley, and Sumner). Commissioner Duane Bakke explained anything that isn’t in the township ordinance falls to the county ordinance. This discussion was the result of an ongoing disagreement with Chatfield Township that began with two rezoning applications, which were approved by the planning commission in February 2017.
Bakke said the county has always sent notice to a township when the county approves a permit. Bakke maintained he believes we have to acknowledge a township ordinance. Some county attorneys say it is all or nothing. But, he likes the piecemeal approach. He insisted we have to work together and have to help the township by acknowledging the restriction that the township has in place.
Adkins said she had asked Sumner Township if there was anything in their ordinance concerning the temporary cement batch plant CUP. They responded they were comfortable with the county permitting the plant.
Ruskell questioned whether it makes sense for all of a township to be in just one zone. He continued one township does it one way and another does it another way. Bakke concluded we need to find a way to work with all of them, adding he has offered to meet with Chatfield Township to go through their ordinance with them.