Residents of Yankton County, South Dakota met with County Commissioners in an open forum Monday night, sponsored by “Families Feeding Families” on proposed changes to the county’s zoning ordinance. Commission Chair Cheri Loest says the changes are needed so residents seeking conditional use permits know exactly what is expected to gain approval for a project and due to recent lawsuits opposing projects in the county, the ordinance is unclear….
Most of the discussion focused on re-adding a right to farm clause to protect landowners and the proposed change to the lot size for a permit. Loest says that has been controversial……
John Gunderson, who has hog barns northeast of Yankton, says new ordinances aren’t needed because they met every requirement for their hog facility and were still sued….
Gunderson says a right to farm clause was in the original ordinance and needs to be reinserted, plus the setbacks need to be more reasonable.
There was also concern expressed about the proposal lowering the number of animals that would require a conditional use permit. Loest says the zoning proposal is on the county commission website and input is welcome because they want to reach some common ground for both sides.
