Dave Baumeister | County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – At a lengthy meeting this week, the Minnehaha County Commission upheld an appeal to the Planning Commission’s approval of a 2,500 hog CAFO on the southwestern edge of the county, approximately eight miles south of Humboldt.
The petitioner, Lloyd Stockwell, applied for and was granted a conditional use permit for the facility when the planning commission met on June 28.
Opponents of the hog barn appealed that decision to the county commission which could either approve, deny or add more requirements to the permit.
Due to a conflict of interest, Commissioner Jean Bender recused herself from the discussion and vote.
Stockwell explained that he already has hog operations on different parts of his property located in McCook County, and according to Planning Commission Assistant Kevin Hoekman and Stockwell, the new operation in Minnehaha met all of the counties zoning requirements.
One of the main requirements is that a confined animal feeding operation of that size must not be within one-half a mile of other property.
Four people spoke against the operation, and some of them claimed they were closer than this limit, but there was no specific proof of this.
People against the operation spoke to problems with roads, dead pig carcasses, water use problems, smell, respiratory issues and their general quality of life.
Stockwell and his son Bernard, who would run the hog facility, each answered those issues, citing the trucks on the county and Wellington Township roads would be less than for a grain-crop agricultural operation, they would not be using rural water, as they would be digging their own wells, and while they did not deny odor issues with any hog operations, they did site they would be using methods to reduce those issues.
Also, to mitigate the site lines from the other properties to the west, the planning commission had added a requirement that Stockwell would have to put in a bank of three rows of trees to the west of their facility, with one row having trees of a six-foot height upon planting.
Kahli Bryant of rural Parker, one of the opponents, said she believed that requirement had been dropped by the planning commission, but Hoekman definitely stated that was item No. 8 of the original Conditional Use Permit.
County Commissioner Gerald Beninga made the motion to accept the planning commission’s original action, with a ninth condition that a facility with a concrete pad and opaque-webbed chain link fence be erected to contain any dead animals.
It was said this was covered in the county zoning ordinance, but it was emphasized that all the zoning document says is that dead animals be kept out of site, and there is nothing specific about how that is to be done. Beninga’s addition makes that more definite.
Commissioners Jeff Barth, Cindy Heiberger and Dean Karsky all referred to difficulties with finding perfect locations for anything.
“There’s nothing that brings change which everyone will like,” Barth said.
Heiberger, who is herself a rural Minnehaha County resident, said she supported the permit since “the Stockwells are following every one of the ordinances for hog barns.”
The proposal with Beninga’s ninth condition was passed 4-0.
Do not ‘consume’
The commission also approved a new “consuming and smoking cannabis” ordinance for the county.
According to that ordinance, anyone consuming or smoking medical marijuana in public areas would be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.
While no one spoke in favor of the ordinance, Emmett Reistroffer, a consultant with the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota, did say overall, he was in favor of it, but he questioned the word “consume.”
He said that while no one should have to breathe in second-hand smoke in public places, “much like prescriptions, people may not be at home when they needed to take (medicinal marijuana).”
Medicinal cannabis is not always smoked and is often in edible forms.
Chairman Karsky echoed that he didn’t think the intent was to charge a person “eating a (cannabis) gummy bear” with a Class 2 misdemeanor.
However, it was decided that it was easier to pass the new resolution now as is, and to make changes to it later than to not pass it and go through the entire first reading, second reading and public comment period again.
Commissioners hope to align the new ordinance with anything passed by Sioux Falls and Lincoln County.
Burn ban cancelled
In a non-meeting action, Karsky and Emergency Management Director Jason Gearman decided last week that with all the recent rainfall amounts, they could cancel the previously issued county-wide burn ban.
At the next meeting on Tuesday, July 27, commissioners will look at the final version of the provisional budget for 2022.
As usual that meeting will begin at 9 am on the second floor of the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota Ave. in Sioux Falls.
The meeting is open to the public and time is allotted for general comments