Billings County Commission - Regular Meeting

Just turn it off. Turn it off. Yeah. Okay.

Well, we'll call this meeting to order. And the only thing on the agenda for this is a um I guess a purchase agreement has in has been offered to by a section track of land 10 acres up at Fairfield right right north of our county shop and our fire department. Right. Okay. So, um, was this the price that was originally or was something changed? It originally I thought it was well and you negotiated.

Yeah. Yeah. We had room I had negotiations and this is where we're at. This is where we're at. Okay. And I guess the biggest thing is from the first proposed purchase agreement that we sent to them is that they may or may not take what's on the property. They may come get the trucks. They may not. They may come get the conics. They may not. It's So we don't know that yet. Well, as soon as we assume Well, I mean, just assume that we could get we may need to get rid of that. They couldn't take it. They could not. It's kind of left that way. It's kind of vague because it does say it's a disclaimer that I want right. Yeah.

Cuz to me, I read it as once it's signed, whatever's there is ours, right? Well, you could and whatever is there isn't like worth it. I mean, I looked it over. To me, it's a cleanup mint. Well, there there is some. Yes. So I want that to be known if you guys are accepting to the what the number is otherwise you know it's doesn't have to go for go forward.

Patrick, have you seen the amount of stuff that's out there? Is it a lot of stuff that you have any idea what it would take to clean up? I haven't put any numbers together now. Um, from what I've seen, it won't be terrible. Is that truck worth anything? No, we I went and looked at them close. They're old and hunt viruses got them pretty bad. So, yeah, that's what I said. Anything with you, Kyle, on it? Nothing. Nothing you can use in the fire hall. You only develop vehicles out of there.

I just haul everything to town for scrap. I looked over the trucks with um a win a guy that has a winch truck company just to see if it would be worthwhile utilizing any of the winches in the future um to move around tanks, but they're all manual winches. And he said if you don't have a operator knowing what they're doing, they're going to tear stuff up. certain best. Yeah, cuz we could have used one or two of them, huh? Moving them frack tanks around here and there.

Cuz in the first proposal to them was, you know, they had to clean it up. Well, after a year of whatever, this is where we're at. So, I'm not necessarily excited about it, but this is where we're at.

So, it's Yeah. Let's say is it going to cost $10,000? I don't know, $5,000. And you'll recoup some of your cost in the scrap sales. You know, maybe some garbage to haul away some tires to get rid of, but what's left there is terrible. Do you know if the well works or don't work?

So the way it is set up there when we looked at it, there's a conx there. The wells there. The pressure tank is sitting in the conx right now to where they must have had it. I don't know how they had it set up. I guess far as when they had those camper hookups and all that. I mean, I did look up the well. It says it's 8 gallon a minute well, but it's not very deep. um from the I think Gregory did and that well ran them campers. That's how it was supposed to be. Yeah. Yep. And the well you think it's working.

Well, I I don't know if we could say that because of the way I mean maybe the well's fine, but I don't know how their pressure tank setup was. And so I mean yeah, maybe you could fill water out of there for a frack tank or something. That's I was wondering if you could set some tanks there, you know, just to utilize to test it or something. But I guess, you know, it comes down to the property, the easement that goes past the fire hall into that, you know, do you want someone see that was might be moving in there? Another operation back there. Well, then traffic through now that the firehouse on the other side of the easement. Yeah. You know, that was kind of part of the discussion earlier was to pursue this,

right? But I guess if nothing else, we could send something back to him and say, "Hey, know this." But it may take some time. Well, I'm fine with um acquiring it. So, and the price is with what we first established, wasn't it? Up to It was higher than Yes, there was a little bit. Yep. So, okay. We don't have to go into any executive or anything to buy this. Correct. I think so. Okay.

No, since you have a purchase agreement in front of you, if if you wanted to negotiate more, then you would

then you would. Yeah. Okay. I suppose the only thing with negotiating is they have now I gather they have they could probably go and sell it being it's all been through the thing. So if you negotiate we could end up losing it unless we're if we're serious about it. I think we either act on it now or I I don't know if I would want to take the chance of negotiating on it and losing it because they could quick advertise it was what if they were but and how much cheaper would you get it for? I'll make the motion that we move forward purchasing.

I'll second it. Don't get to ask. Okay, we have a motion and a second purching it as is price is everything. Correct. I understand. Understand? Correct. Okay. Any more discussion? Is it okay if I say move forward with the purchase agreement? Okay. Do we want printed up there? We'll see it.

Steve second. Sorry. Okay. Anyone? If there isn't any more discussion, all those in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries. Okay. Someone want to make a motion to uh adjourn this meeting? I'll make you don't you don't have to adjourn it if you just move into because the way that Stacy had written the the next one is it would just follow the the special meeting. That's fine. Okay. Then we'll just roll into that thing cuz it was two separate things in the paper though. Right. Right. Yeah. Cuz she had to do a public hearing for this.

Okay. So it had more information than what Okay.

All right. Just take Okay. So, some of this you have seen. This is a copy of today's PowerPoint. In case some of the stuff is easier to read on the screen, some of it's be easier to read here, but I've seen before

that's once you get in touch with him then we can bring them here and do a closing or whatever. Okay. Did you Let's see. Dean, you have your copy.

I have my I just coming. And so I'm going to do we'll only go we have two um updates on the ordinance. We'll go through the flood planes management first and then part two would be going through um some campground ordinances. So I'll hand that out later. Okay. So, today there's two amendments for public hearing. Um, this is the final review. The zoning board reviewed um the updates at the February 19th meeting and recommended approval. And so there's a two week notice requirement. And so we um that'll be on the March agenda. we put it as um at the special

meeting cuz there is a time um constraint with the flood plane management ordinance. The state back in November, they sent us a letter um outlining the new requirements for flood plane management in North Dakota based on Senate Bill 2027 in the session. And so the state sent us the letter saying that there was a deadline of June 1st, which then it was like, "No, it's not June 1st, it's March 31st." Um, and so the state had information out there for um participating in the NFIP and so they had a website that information that they gave us. And because we are not the rural areas aren't mapped by FEMA, we would have go off of the model A ordinance as recommended by the state and the state developed the model and we and in January we had a uh kind of a a review of the requirements and then February is when uh amendment was recommended um by approval from the zoning board. And so yeah, so at the January 15th meeting, we had a review final draft was reviewed on February 19th and recommended for approval for the pain management ordinance and the ordinance meets the requirements as um stated in the Senate bill 2025 session. the for communities that are not that and the draft was given to the North Dakota water commission or water

department water resources and and both the water um resource commission FEMA has reviewed the draft and the draft um came back with no comment. So everything is um okay and the the copies that I have for um the extra copies don't have the changes highlighted but just so that you guys can see um what was changed what was kept as um just the standard language in the ordinance. Anything that was filled in the blank is highlighted in green and then anything that was added by me just for a further clarification is in yellow. So there wasn't wasn't um a whole lot of changes to the model 8 ordinance provided by the state. Um there's a table of contents that is the same. page. Next page is just, you know, filling the blank for board of county commissioners in Billings County. Page four, there was no changes to the draft. Page five has um just an extra um information since section two is for definitions that I put a note that says you know see section 2.3 of the Billings County ordinance for additional definitions cuz they kind of go hand in hand like the flood plane management ordinance is is

in addition to the Billings County zoning ordinance page six. Um, since we aren't mapped by FEMA, I do have a couple of extra resources for like at least a preliminary review of like is this area prone to flooding? Like there's um all the soil maps like you know the soil types will be rated um limitation for flooding. And so that's kind of a a layer that I use. And then there's also the ND risk assessment map that the state water commission um oversees and that does give what may look like 100year and 500year flood planes, but they're not regulatory. But their tools for even like best available old data is like do we need an extra level of review on zoning applications on is the structure prone to flooding and if it is then we have to make sure that it's relisting flooding. And then the other definition I put in there was national flood insurance program which is what this is all for. That's just a standard federal program for prevention. Okay. So, the only mapped area that we have in the county is in the city of Madora. The city of Madora was first mapped by FEMA in like the early 80s, 1986 is what I think it was. And this is really the only regular format that we have in the whole county. It's just within the city. And so even in the ETV area that isn't mapped by FEMA. Um and the ETV area would be handled by this the city flood

plan administrator which is which is Bros Engineering Champs or San. And then the other example for the the flood hazard maps, um, if you zoom in on this ND risk assessment map, there'll be light blue areas that'll show like what looks like a flood plane, but there's rocks that are colored in blue where it's like, okay, yeah, like we know that it may not flood. I mean, it's not a guarantee that it's within the flood plane, but it's possible, but it's just a layer of it. we do get a project and if it if it's within that boundary um the the property owner would have to show that they're reasonably safe on flooding and if there's a history of no flood events even though they're shown in blue then they take that as like local knowledge local knowledge always comes first and foremost like we had a project like right after the ND risk assessment map came out like for George Boyce and and when he looked on the map of where Joyce wanted to put this new mobile home on his property, it was in the blue area, but it's like he said, "No, we've never flooded there." So, guess what? That's that's reasonable and local knowledge trumps what the blue says. And then this is just a study that I did. It's not and neither one of these maps is regulatory. So it's so there's no there's no base flood elevation and there's no you have to build 2 ft above this point of any of this. It's just you have to use your best judgment for making sure that what you want to build is safe.

And then special flood hazard area. That's the 1% chance or what we always call the 100red-year flood plane. And I just wanted to highlight that, you know, Billings County, like rural areas in Billings County do not have any flood insurance rate maps showing special flood hazard areas. page eight. Page 10, the only change was um making sure that you know like since Madora has their own flood plan administration and the ETC area would follow like most cities um the counties have talked about like you know the counties don't regulate flood plane administration within the ATC if the city exercises. you have the joint powers. So, both kind of look at it like both the county and the city look at the um oh for the for the new hotel right outside of town. Like I went and did my kind of informal review of like well here's a picture that we had in the 2011 flood and this spot didn't seem to flood. So, but they the engineering looked at it and they raised it up so that they're so that they are safe. It comes down to the land owners first and foremost on protecting their assets. But in that case, it was the city recommendations were what were guiding on that project. The rest I think are just fill in the blanks for the board of county commissioners and administrator

and the rest. And my key words are always this. local knowledge or the draft was given to the state water commission like I said before and they did a preliminary review and right now we are okay there's no comments um basically because we are the NSF H which is nonsp specialcial flooding hazard area so and then once the ordinance is signed, then it gets sent to the to the state for the final stamp of approval. But all the counties across Northakota are dealing with this right now. And the March 31st deadline because of Senate and process wise, it's not going to change. It just looks more questions. Then since it's a public hearing, you'd allow for any public to speak if they have any.

All right. Thank you for spelling it out for us, but is there any public comment? phone did rain a couple times this morning, but only meetings were 9th and five. So, it was kind of just don't know. Well, then we have to make a motion to accept. How do you want to word that motion? To adopt plane management program.

Okay. I'd move to approve the flood plane management ordinance for Billings County. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. Second. Any more discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

I. Motion carries then. Thank you for that. And I know I quit sharing because I didn't know if you needed. Okay. And then part two for today is on campground. And then both of these will have to be sewn. So don't Okay. So, with the activity coming around Madora, we took a look at our campground regulations. And right now like our entire campground regulations fits on one slide. And so they're fairly minimal. Um they're pretty self-explanatory for or um the basic requirements for RV parks and campgrounds. And right now like we have um the minimum density for a camp ground or minimum area for a campground is 5 acres and recreational vehicles per acre is 15 units which is fairly dense. And anytime you have three or more RV spots in a on a site, you have to be licensed by the state at the campground. And so that was always a trigger. So most of the time, like if something's three or more, as long as they're meeting their their state regulations, they come to us for the campground and and it's kind of a dual process

and and basic information for what you need for your application. And so when we we have a new land use that is um popular in areas near national parks and remote areas. It's called glamping, which is a fancy word for like fancy camping. And these are a it's still a campground, but it's a little bit different than a campground. It's mostly like you have tents. A lot of these tents have their own um bathrooms in them or they have tents that have food or lobby areas or event spaces and they're very trendy right now. And these are two examples that I just looked at it for case studies. And what prompted it is that we have a proposal from the TR library to have a temporary glamping campground between the Madora campground and the little Missouri River on the west side of the river over here. But those are just basic tents. They'll have, you know, temporary water, temporary um porties and but it still prompts like could I see one of these coming down, you know, in the Madora area? Maybe, maybe not. You know, Mount Rushmore has them. This is Yellowstone Park has two on both ends of the park. A lot of them in Utah, Grand Canyon. You know, we could see a proposal like this. So, there really isn't any major changes for the campground ordinance,

but the one thing that's always good with your zoning ordinance is, you know, you start with your definition. And so we didn't really have a we didn't really have any definition for campground, but everybody kind of knows what a campground is, but it's always like, okay, best to put it in in um the ordinance so that you can um have the subcategories. And so I have a new definition for campground. Primitive campground was added, glamping campground was added, and RV park was updated. And then also just updating the RV parking and campground regulations. So, we go over I don't have these colorcoded, but the page number two is pretty much all new language in the ordinance except for at the bottom where the definition of RV park was just um edited to say C definition for campground. ground, an RV apartment campground. And then glamping campgrounds are your fancy non-traditional lodgings. They're offering like your your yurts, your domes, your some are teps, some are wagons, and really like we already kind of in in some ways have glamping campground indoor like Mary's had her wagons, bully, you know, bully wagons. That's kind of, you know, she was on trend 15 years ago for camping campgrounds, you know, but this would be for for more

more people. And so the only changes like the RV um and campground ordinance is still pretty much the same length. It's just I divided it up. Um minimum area would still remain at 5 acres. The maximum um density for for permittive campgrounds and RV campgrounds would be the same at 15 units per acre. And then the maximum density for the glamping campground would be slightly less like you know because they're if you look at the air photo from before they're they're intended to be spaced out and so the and so we did a five five ac 5 five units per acre on that which is basically five five units if you think of like in a half block which is still fairly dense but not like 15 acres or very and the application requirements are the same. I added um a stipulation for parking because that wasn't mentioned before. And then a reminder that campgrounds with three or more camping spaces have to be licensed by the state. And then in our old it has North Dakota Department of Health and now it's North Department of Health and Human Services public health vision and then that was the same. So really it's not a whole lot different but it's just addressing that planned use in case we were to get more formal proposals down the line or we could

Is there a time limit? Like just say I have four campers come in for a month. Do I have to go and do all this? I mean, is there a difference from a campground to just coming in and Yeah, you depending on how often. I mean, if you're just having family come out for the weekend, okay, that's just people that stay. But if you're charging people to stay on your property for for a length of time, for a length of time, yeah, you're getting into campground zone. It have to be three or more. Correct.

Yeah, three or more. And like we have a we have a twounit campground being proposed by Bill Pollen. That'll come to you guys on two or two. Yeah.

For the next month. Yeah. And so three is the trigger that's in that's in code right now. Three or more has to go to the health department which makes sense. you're dealing with or just amenities that campgrounds have to have. So when it comes to the glamping, I mean they can pick kind of any but if someone else wanted to do this, they can kind of pick any agricultural district or does it have to be recreation or

Well, we have it as it's campgrounds are a conditionally permitted use in recreational zoning districts. So glamping has to be in a campground.

Recreational. Yep. All campgrounds all under recreational. So somebody wants to come to us like like Bill Pollock situation even for the two two unit one. I mean campgrounds only fall into recreational. So we just did his you know 40 acres as just a blanket um reszone to recreational from agricultural and all of his existing permitted uses are within the recreational zoning district. But you that's campgrounds only fall under this. So if somebody was to come in, it would be a res to recreational. Okay. Gotcha.

Yeah. So we had to do that first and then do the Yeah. And we've done that in other spaces like um CC's had a campground during the oil boom time. Bolts had a campground during the oil boom time. And so it's the same process. Yeah. I was just thinking the glamping. They can't just say, "I want to clamp over on this piece of land or that piece." There's one other step before that. No, they have. Yeah. But they do. Well, except for Well, that's thing was for That's what made me think of it.

First camping at the whole We have That's I told Missy that too. She's not here right now, but I told her it's like we have to get after people whenever there's spots with like three or more. They have to be licensed by the state. and they didn't even realize that was a regulation for the state of North Dakota. And so, yeah, it's kind of one of those things. Private landlords, we have to get after them, but they can go park wherever they want. Forest service, it's not really not fair in my opinion, but in the glamping there's you have to have your water, sewer, and electricity. Yeah. if they do a fullblown true glamping campground.

Yeah, cuz a lot of those those tents are plumbed in just like at RV and stuff. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, fancy camping like real beds, real pillows and linens and bathrooms and TV. Yes, the wind blow air conditioning and it's like but you're in a tent. That's what I haven't done my research on like staying in one, but you know. Okay. Is there any uh public comment concerning this? Anita, you're not going to start one. You could knock down by the river outside.

You would have to be babysitting people. But you do have that enough. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Any more questions? So, we have to make a motion to uh accept this. Is that right? Or put it into policy. Is that what this one is? approved motion to approve the amendments to the buildings and I can like for the full for the full minutes like we can put like the whole like these things in there.

Yeah, it'll go in minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So, it' be just the motion doesn't have to be the whole No, no, not the whole thing. No. And then once this is approved, then it gets another notice in the paper um saying that we adopted these ordinances and that will go in effect 30 days from now or from the first publication in the news. Okay, everyone understands that. So do we have someone make a motion? I'll make that motion to approve zone.

I'll second it. Motion to second. Is there any more discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries. Okay, we'll do right here. So then I think we now we're done, aren't we? Yeah. We'll make a motion that we um adjourn. Second. Meeting is adjourned.