Planning & Zoning - Regular Meeting

It's hard. All right. Good evening and welcome to the July 1st joint Brookings County and City Planning Commission meeting. This meeting is being recorded, televised, and viewable on Swiftell channel 19, ITC channel 168 or the Brookings County YouTube channel. I now call this meeting to order. Uh, approval of joint board of adjustment meetings minutes. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion by Kyle Vanderwall. Second. Second by Kelly Vanderol. All in favor? I. Motion passes. Items to be added to the agenda by commission members or staff. The county staff has nothing to add. City staff has nothing. Invitation for citizens to schedule a time on the commission agenda for an item not listed. Everybody good? Disclosure of conflicts of interest relationships to application to applicant or exparte communication. Seeing none, approval of agenda. Is there a motion? Move to approve. So move Kelly

Vanderwall. Second. Second. Second. Kyle Vanderol. All in favor? I. I. Motion passes. We will now convene as the joint board of adjustment. The point the joint board of adjustment is a five member board which has the power to hear requests for variances of conditional uses appeals for the non-misterial decision as a zoning officer. The concurring vote of twothirds of the full board membership of the board for votes is necessary for approval of a variance or an appeal of the zoning officer. The concurring vote of a simple majority of those board members present in voting is necessary for approval of a conditional use permit. In accordance with Robert's rules of order, we require a motion to approve a request before it can the request can be debated. As a matter of policy, all motions are made in a positive. The board under specific powers granted to it by the state shall authorize variances from the zoning requirements where special conditions existing on the land will result in an unnecessary hardship for the applicant. Financial disadvantage to the property owner shall not constitute proof of an unnecessary hardship. Agenda item 2025 JJ variance 001. Brandon Bach has made an application 2025 JJ V001 to the joint jurisdiction board of adjustment for variance joint zoning ordinance for Brookings County and the city of Brookings article 3 district regulations chapter 3.04A agricultural land district section 3.04.03 03 area regulations/ements 1B non-conforming lots of record minimum rear rear yard. The property is described as outlot one in the southwest 1/4 of the southeast 1/4 of section 3 township 109 North Range 50W Mader Township located at 632 West 32nd Street

Brooking South Dakota 57006. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion by Kyle Vander. Is there a second? Second. Liur. Second by Bmer. Bob, would you read the staff report? Yes, sir. 2025 JJ V001 dated July 1, 2025, prepared by Richard Hogan, who is absent tonight. The applicant owner is Brandon Bach, 632 West 32nd Street South, Brookings, South Dakota, 57006. Legal description, outlot one in the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 3, Township 109 North, Range 50 West, Mader Township. Once again, located at 632 West 32nd Street South, Brooking, South Dakota 57006. The joint zoning ordinance for Brookings County and the city of Brookings, article 3, District Regulations, Chapter 3.04, Agricultural Land District Section 3.04.03, Area Regulations/emmets 1B minimum rear yard 2025 JJV 001. Brandon Bach has applied for a variance once again 2025 JJV00001 to move in a used 14 ftx 20ft storage building to be 1 ft from the rear property line to cover an existing lift station. The existing building that covered a lift station was 3 feet over the rear property line. Both were there when he purchased the property. The property was platted on November 9th, 1972 before the resoning in Brookings County and before the Brookings

City/Brookings County joint jurisdiction ordinance area and ordinance was developed. The original building covering the lift station was in disrepair and was removed by the applicant. The applicant applied for the variance and was waiting for the joint jurisdiction board of adjustments approval when his contractor had an unexpected opening and was able to move the shed prior to the board's approval. Now making an after the fact variance. The applicant has a letter from the adjoining landowner saying they have no objections to the variance request. Public notices were published in the Brookings Register on June 9, 17th and 24th, 2025. Letters were sent to the adjoining landowners, Maderi Township Chairman and Clerk. And that is the end of the report. The the application in writing is attached, signed by the applicant, and the applicant is here tonight. Thank you, Bob. Are there any questions for members of the board for the applicant at this time? Seeing none, I'll move to the public hearing portion. Is there anybody in the audience that is for this? Seeing and hearing none, is there anybody in the audience that is opposed to this? Seeing hearing none, I'll now close the public hearing portion. Move back to the board for additional comments or questions. Mr. Chairman, there was there pictures with that, Bob.

This is the building. Are there any additional questions from members of the board? Pretty simple. Brandon, do you want to come forward? State your name in the mic. Yes, sir. Brandon Bach, you got anything to add to Bob's report? Uh, no. If there's no questions. Okay, that being said, I guess Bob, would you read the findings and facts? You can go back to your seat if you want. No findings in this Brookings County/City of Brookings joint jurisdiction variance 2025 JJV 001 an application for a variance having been filed with the Brookings County Development Officer on behalf of the Brookings County City of Brookings Joint Board of Adjustment Joint Board BOA. A copy of the application being attached here to such application being made by Brandon Bach

regarding the following real property. The legal description of outlot one in southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 3 township 109 north range 50 west Maderry Township located at 632 West 32nd Street South Brookings South Dakota 57006 after due notice of public hearing having been held on the application on the first day of July 2025. Number one, the joint BOA hereby finds that the strict application of the joint zoning ordinance for Brookings County and city of Brookings would produce undue hardship. That such hardship is not shared generally by other properties in the same zoning district in the same vicinity. That the authorization of such variants will not be of substantial detriment to adjacent property and the character of the district will not be changed by the granting of the variance. and that the granting of such variance is based upon reasons of demonstrable and exceptional hardship as distinguished from variations for purposes of convenience, profit, and caprice. Number two, the joint BOA further finds that the condition or situation of the property concerned or the intended use of the property is not of so general or recurring a nature as to make a reasonable practicable formulation of a general regulation to be adopted as an amendment to the zoning ordinance. Number three, the joint BOA further finds that the written application of petitioner demonstrates that special conditions and circumstances exist which are peculiar to the land, structure or buildings in the same district, that literal interpretation of the provisions of the joint zoning ordinance for Brookings County and city of Brookings would def deprive the applicant of rights commonly enjoyed by other properties in the same district under the terms of the ordinance that the special conditions and circumstances do not result from the actions of the

applicant and that granting the variance requested will not confer on the applicant any special privilege that is denied by the ordinance to other lands, structures or buildings in the same district. Number four, the joint BOA further finds that the reasons set forth in the application justify the granting of the variance and that the variance is the minimum variance that will make possible the reasonable use of the land, building or structure. that the granting of the variance will be in harmony with the general purpose and intent of the joint zoning ordinance for Brookings County and city of Brookings and will not be injurous to the neighborhood or otherwise detrimental to the public welfare. Number five, the joint BOA further determines and conditions this variance upon the following special conditions or safeguards. A, the adjoining landowner does not object to the variance request. B property was platted on November 9th, 1972 prior to zoning in Brookings County and prior to the adoption of the Brookings City, Brookings County joint jurisdiction ordinance. In C, the storage shed covered the lift station and was on the property when the applicant purchased the property. The storage shed was 3 feet over the property line. At the time, the applicant kept the proposed building away from the rear property line as much as possible. The joint BOA by at least twothirds vote of its full membership if if approved will grant the above petitioner or variance for the above described real property as follows. Move in a 14t x 20 foot storage shed 1 ft from the rear property line. This variance is specifically conditioned upon initial and continued compliance with all of the conditions and safeguards in number five above and upon compliance with all applicable provisions of the joint zoning ordinance

for Brookings County and the city of Brookings. The Brookings County Zoning Director, if approved, would be authorized to issue any required building permits for construction consistent with the terms of this variance. If this variance is not used within three years of the date granted, it shall be invalid dated this first day of July 2025. If approved, it would be signed July 1st, 2025, and it would be filed on July 2nd, 2025. Are there any additions or corrections to the findings facts? Seeing hearing none, Bob, would you call a vote? Yes, sir. VanDeral Kelly. Hi. VanDeral Kyle. Hi. Avery Wayne. Hi. And Leur Jacob. I and Ford Chad. I. 50. Motion passes. Moving on. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Motion by Kyle Vander. Second. Second. Limer. Second by Lur. All in favor. Meeting journed.

I plugged into a random HDMI, so I don't know if it's plugged in at all or not. Well, it says it's plugged in. There it is. Is that you? Holy cow. I must have fixed it. Good work. My magic. Uhhuh. It's known as Ray. Good evening and welcome to the July 1st, 2025 Brookings County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. This meeting is being recorded, televised, and viewable on Swift Channel 19 ITC channel 168 or the Brookings County YouTube channel. I now call this meeting to order. Approval of minutes. Is there a motion? So move Pson. Motion by Pollson. Second. Second by Jensen. All in favor? I. Motion passes. Items to be added to the agenda by commission members or staff. Just a regular staff report. Thank you. Invitation for citizens to schedule a time on the commission agenda for an item not listed. Seeing none. Disclosure of conflicts of interest, relationships to applicant or exparte communication. Nothing. Approval of agenda. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion by Kyle Vander. Second. Second. Second by Daryl Klein. All in favor? I. Motion passes. We will now convene as the Brookings County Planning and Zoning Commission. The Brookings County Planning Commission is a nine-member commission whose function is to recommend approval or disapproval of land use plans, zoning ordinances, subdivision plans, plans, plats, and amendments thereof to the Brookings County Commission. The commission makes its recommendation

based upon the adopted comprehensive plan for the physical development of the unincorporated areas of Brookings County. As a matter of policy, all motions are made in the positive. After a motion has been moved and seconded, it is open for debate. Those supporting the motion shall in turn give their reasons. Those opposing the motions shall then offer their reasons. After everyone has been given a chance to be heard, the commission shall recommend approval or disapproval based on the testimony and information presented. A simple majority vote of a quorum of members of the planning and zot board in attendance is required to forward a recommendation. Agenda item 2025 plat 016 plat of Waldner edition in a northeast 1/4 of the northwest 1/4 of section 25 township 110 north range 52W of the fifth primary in Brookings County South Dakota. Is there a motion? So move Pollson. Motion by Pollson. Is there a second? Second. Kelly Vanderell. Second by Kelly Vanderell. Bob, would you read the staff report? Yes. 2025 plat 016 dated July 1, 2025. Prepared by Richard Auggan. Applicant owner is Moses Waldner 45927212 [Music] Street, Wolga, South Dakota 57071. Legal description, Plat Waldner edition in the northeast quarter of section 25, Township 110 North Range 52 West Primidium County, South Dakota 2025 Flat 016 Moses Walner flat mouth 5 acres with a pole shed, a few trees and rolling grass land. The property can be used for an agricultural use, machinery, hay storage, personal storage, etc. The

existing building could not be converted to a residence and a residence house cannot be built on here as it is less than 35 acres and there is never a home located on the five acres. The plant meets the planning requirements for the 2016 comprehensive plan uninccorporated rural area land use statement on page 24 for agricultural land use. And the applicant is not here today. Thank you. Since applicant is not here, we'll move to the public hearing portion. Is there anybody in the audiences for this? Seeing and hearing none, is there anybody in the audience opposed to this? Seeing and hearing none, I'll now close the public hearing portion. Is there any additional comments or questions from members of the board? Seeing hearing none, Bob, would you call a vote? I Jensen R. Yes. Uh, the Groot. Oh, is the group I Okay, Storehog. I Vanderwal K I and Ford Chad I motion passes 901. Moving on. Agenda item number nine. Appoint a board member to the joint board of adjustment as an alternate. Is there any volunteers? I'd like to nominate Mr. Paulson.

There a second. I'll second it. You all right with that? I'm good. All in favor? I. Congratulations. Thank you. Agenda item number 10, board training by Luke. Are we not back on yours? Oh, I'll put it back on. I was just pretty proud that I got to that as quickly as I did. Hi everyone. I'm Luke for those that don't know me. For those that do know me, I'm also Luke. I work with First District Association Local Governments in Watertown. I oftentimes you'll hear me on the phone calling in. Sometimes if need be, I'll be here in person. Uh today I'm here to absorb some time for you because it's a snow day outside. So, I figured you'd want to hear me talk about land use planning and zoning for about an hour today. I've got 60 slides that there's no prayer I'm getting through. Uh, I'm going to go hard stop at a certain time. Uh, but for for those that don't know what we do and sometimes for a for an update, our office, we work with 11 counties in the 70ome towns in that area. draw a triangle that starts down in in uh I'd say Ward over to Howard and then draw that line all the way up to Ross Hole and we work with the counties and towns that are in that area. I help out I'm the senior planner there. I help out with land use plans, zoning ordinances, help write them with with communities, try to write what's what's on the minds of the folks and try to help them put that onto paper and and get that there. Then when there's questions, if there's a place that needs help reviewing building permits, I'll review bu building permits for decks in some small towns or if in other places just in cases where they got back down a dark alley and need some help getting out. Help to explain why the heck was

that rule written? Well, I remember I've been here 16 years. I remember in a lot of the cases and if I don't, my boss has been here for 14 years before me, 15 years before me. Between us, we get a pretty good idea as to why the rule was written. or at the very least we can picture the faces in the room when it was done. So from that end, we'll help that out. I also serve as Kenan County zoning officer through that role. That's a contracted gig in our office. Uh it's only one that works because we're in the same town. I can just drive over and do it. I help out help run the zoning meetings in Clark County. Our office also helps out with zoning meetings in Grant County and then serves as zoning officer in Hamlin County where we have uh Jessica Tesh who is from Esttoine originally and by Esine I mean the uh Brookings County version of Esttoine. She's just south of there is where she grew up. So that gives you an idea as to what where we are. We also work with grants. We do GIS work, mapping, that sort of thing and uh plethora of other things. Bob's well aware we helped out with uh pre- disaster mitigation plans and that sort of thing the last year. So there's me. That was fun updating everything. Here's what I've got on the agenda to talk about these three things. Um I had it listed as planning and zoning 101, which is a handy time for you guys to learn about this since you're all on the planning commission. Uh, ideally probably know a little bit about it, but this is just kind of a refresher and hopefully to get your kind of get your bearings sometimes and get yourself centered as far as what your jobs are, both planning commission and board of adjustment. I'm going to go heavy on the planning side first and then back to your day-to-day stuff. What is a variance? What is a cup? Just kind of remind you of why you shouldn't be issuing variances. Um, except for like we saw earlier today where honestly that one made a lot of sense. Um,

but first, this might be your only chance to talk because I talk a lot. So, let's start here. Anything you got questions on, you want to make sure I talk about anything from why the heck are we even doing zoning all the way up to I want to know about our shelter belt rule. You got anything that you specifically want to know about? No war stories you want to tell or anything like that? All right, we'll pick them up there. So, anytime something comes up, you got a question, fire it off, okay? Why are we doing it? Um, what about this situation? Fire it off. I'll happily try and answer it. Uh, but first, we're going to go nerdy. Okay, we're going to start with land use planning and zoning legal issues. And basically this is the beginning of it. The foundation of having why you sit in this room as a board of adjustment. Okay, this is the beginning of it. This comes mostly out of federal law. To be perfectly honest, it's got to balance the needs for orderly, efficient, compatible development, right? our goal of economic development, how we can get water to locations without mass expenditure, electricity, as well as managing uh sewage. In our cases, it's usually septic tanks, but that goes more than that. It goes to uh managing runoff. It goes to managing uh managing feed lots, manure, things like that. Basically, the basis is what the perception of the community is and what's acceptable to that community. And so, that's where these rules come from. It also balances each citizen's private property rights. And so, they're considered acceptable methods. Zoning ordinances and

subdivision ordinances are considered acceptable methods in federal law for handling that sort of a thing. managing the property rights, the ability to use my land as I want in a way that the community is most efficient. Uh, having somebody on the other side of a cliff from the fire department is not a great idea. So, let's say maybe we ought not build houses on the other side of a cliff from a fire department because that's a good way to manage things and to keep us from watching as a house burns down with someone in it. Zoning ordinance must include adequate public involvement. That's due process to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to be heard. That doesn't mean everyone's right. Not everyone gets a medal at these things. Standards that provide equal treatment to all citizens, of course, are what are important. Meaning that equal treatment to all citizens, uh, let me see, do I have that there? Yep. I'll get back to that one. So, let's talk about planning versus zoning for just a minute. Okay. Um, I've used this example before. I don't remember if it's with this same group, but um the planning is intended to assess current practices or helping well, let's go this way. Planning is to identify a goal, set of goals, what we intend, what sort of uh development we want to have. Do we plan on Brookings County just being a um city planet like you'd see on Star Wars or are we going are we expecting Google to build on top of Google to build on top of Enron to build on top of Google or are we expecting that this is an egg country? That's really what the plan is. And how do we achieve that plan? So the plan is more theoretical. How do we get there? And it can boil down to all right, we're cool with houses if they're over here or if they planned this or there's already houses, so we'll do that. We're cool

with uh commercial development as long as it's to help egg. Okay, makes sense. Why would we do that? Well, we'd rather have um commercial development all in towns because they've got law enforcement, they have tax services. is we'd rather dense residential development to be in towns because they've got sewers, they've got water, they've got that location, they can go ahead and do that. Stay out of the way of farming. Sorry to summarize your land use plan, but that's essentially what your land use plan says over years and years. And that's fine. That's what the community uh that's what the uh land use plan goes towards. I use an example though just from a day-to-day standpoint where the plan is that is that uh thing that we want. The zoning is the 9/16 wrench that gets it done. Um, that's that's where your toolbox is. You've got your whole toolbox, your your zoning ordinance is a 9/16 wrench. I I'll use the example of if you go into a doctor and you've got general you go in for annual visit and they say, "Hey, you probably need to lower the blood pressure and maybe you want to um lose a little bit of weight and sleep a little bit better." Okay. Well, you identify what those are. I tell them zoning ordinance. That's how you're going to do it. You're gonna exercise. you're going to eat better. Um, and Bob and Richard and your zoning staff, they're the irritating nutritionists and and uh gym coordinators that make you go do that every day. Their job is to say, "Hey, this was your plan. Go do it. Work out five days a week. Go do that. If you want to change it, change your plan. Work your way down." That's the best example I can give. In doing all of this though, naturally these rules are written ahead of time. These rules, you know, for the sake of the zoning ordinance, they're relatively new. Finally put together coalesed in

2024, but even that those drafts um range from like 2016 to 2024 and where they were things change over that amount of time. We have due process. We have the ability for someone to be heard and to state their case. That comes from the constitution of course. Um we've got procedural due process which ensures that the government is making their decisions in a fundamentally fair system. Meaning that you've got the you've got the same process as everyone else. South of due process is is referencing the fact that the regulations are the same whether it's me or Chad or somebody that none of us have ever seen nor heard of before walking through that door that these rules are the same all the way across. I don't know if you guys have heard it. Um I'm willing to bet anybody that's been on this board for more than two years has heard, "Yeah, but they're not from here." Well, these rules are written not taking into account where they're from. Why? It's that crazy constitution we got. We got to follow the Constitution. So, as it comes down to it, lucky you, you get to defend the Constitution. Maybe not exactly in the way you wanted to, but you get to defend it in the way that you're having to say, "Man, I I know that I've known you person who doesn't want this thing since we're in the third grade." and that this person might be the devil reincarnate. We don't know because they're from somewhere else. But our rules say this. They met the rules. They get the permit. Grandma meet checks all the boxes. Grandma gets to drive the car. She gets her driver's license. So on. No law may unduly favor one group or another. Uh again, uh it's fine to get the permit as long as you're from here. That doesn't work. uh persons under like circumstances get

equal protection. I think you get the point. Uh is that they're to be treated equally. This is all to say that due process is a big deal. Okay? Making sure that we go through everyone gets their chance to be asked. So when oftent times when I'm working with staff, a lot of our conversation comes with trying to figure out effective ways to get an applicant to the board to at least state their case in some way. And there are times where it's just going to be a no, but they've got the opportunity to do so. I have been in rooms before where I've told applicants that you certainly can give me a couple hundred dollars for an application. You have every right. Due process affords you that right. The Constitution does. Our zoning ordinance does. But it was actually several years ago um probably today. But I said, "My recommendation is to go take that $200, go buy fireworks and shoot them off because at least when you're swearing, um, you'll be seeing something pretty because you're going to be swearing either way because you're going to get told no." Now, do I have that authority to guarantee that? No, I don't. But I can tell someone when they walk through the door, you're asking to do something that years and years of zoning and land use plan have said no. So, I don't have any reason to believe you're going to hear something different, but you're welcome to go ahead and try. Sometimes it changes things, sometimes it doesn't. So, anyway, the foundation is the the foundation is the constitution. The foundation of this whole process of setting everything up. It's creating a plan. It's creating a zoning ordinance through a public process. And that's where you come in. Um the

basis of your decision decision making must be substantiated through your plans and your zoning ordinances. You need to have how do I want to tie this in? You've got to have you've got to have the legislative backing in order to make your quasi judicial and your administrative decisions. We throw this slide in here just basically to to understand there are two sides to specifically you as planning commission and board of adjustment. Okay, you're going to make legislative decisions. Legislative decisions are those like the plats and the reasonzonings and the land use plans where you wind up spending time debating and discussing and whether it's internal or through is this the right thing for our community? Does this even follow the rules? It's a legislative act. It doesn't necessarily allow someone tomorrow to go out and grow sugar beats. I don't know. Um whatever. It doesn't fundamentally change that. What it does is it's a it's no different than creating a law and pure. The difference is that you're making recommendations. So, you've even got the um you get paid the big bucks for it's such an easy job. All you do is make recommendations. It is it's legislative. You do the groundwork on this whole thing. You are the sounding board on that legislative thing, but it's making rules. It doesn't directly change things. Whereas the administrative aspect of it, that's when you're I the plat recommendation is to a degree that, but it's mostly your board of adjustment actions. When you're issuing a permit, when you're issuing a variance, when you're deciding whether or not Richard uh made a mistake in his interpretation of an ordinance, that's an administrative act. You're the final authority on that. So, naturally, there are different laws that go along those things. things that are a conflict of

interest in an administrative capacity are not in a legislative capacity. Uh this is a handy time I am probably 20 minutes into this. This is a handy time to point out I'm not an attorney. Um bas any of my decisions any of my points that I'm making here are based off of my experience my 16 years. Our office has combined close to 50 years of experience. Number of times I've done presentations. number of times I've been deposed and involved in lawsuits. These are the things that I've gleaned in speaking with the attorneys that we've worked with in that amount of time and uh oftentimes go through and and hear these. So um without reading to you verbatim what's on there, that's what's going on there. So, the the legislative versus the administrative. I'm going to work up this planning tools pyramid. Depending on how far we get into this, um you'll see this a lot of times, but the land use plan, you have tons of discretion. You're essentially creating policy for your entire community when you do that. And so, that goes from essentially nothing, right? And then you work your way up to what are the what ought the rules be. Then you've got a rule, whether it's zoning or it's the amendment or the subdivision ordinance. Then it's a subdivision plan like you just did today. Not that you've got discretion, but really you've got rules that they've got to follow. You make sure they're following them and decide if there's warrant to vary from those. like when uh there was that case where uh you had last year, I think, where you had that subdivision that was over by Hendricks that you said, you know, our our land use plan says you ought to be connected to sanitary sewer. Everyone else is connected to sanitary sewer. You should be connected to sanitary sewer. That person went they

asked the pe the community that maintains the sanitary sewer and that community said, "We don't have the capacity. You don't no. is not going to work. At that point, you guys made the decision that you know what, that's that's unreasonable to essentially tell this person to upgrade the entire community's sewer system. That's your discretion. Did you have a ton of it? No. You couldn't just willy-nilly do it, but you needed a reason and you had one, so you did it. Conditional uses, you got a little more discretion, and that's just because you got the framework. When you get to the variances, they better have a dogone good reason. Your rules say they ought not unless there's something very specific going on. And then you get up into the building permit stage, which is the lease discretion. And that's on purpose because you're really appointing the zoning office to just follow the rules. Do gone it. Just read the book, issue the permit if it follows it. Let's talk about the land use plan and what it is. I I know that at the last meeting I was here and I talked about the land use plan. some of you. Let's see here. One, two, two. Who was here when we adopted the last land use plan? Do you remember? Randy was. Daryl was. Were you still on it, Chad? Were you on it yet, Chad? When we did the land use plan, it was like 16. Okay. It was right before. So, um, that was the last one. Oh, how time flies. Um, that land use plan we worked on. That was quite a fun endeavor. Worked on for four years, probably spanned several zoning officers. Um had a lot of meetings on it over all those years and then ultimately had public hearings on it. That's how you do it. Ideally, it doesn't take four years, but that's not shocking because you're going to have a lot of things going on and you're talking about a lot. But in Brookings County, we had meetings over four years.

And that was what I was talking about this last meeting is that it wasn't willy-nilly. There wasn't just a well, here are some good words. Let's throw them onto a paper and let's go do it. There were a lot of meetings to talk about that and get to that. And there was back and forth on creating those rules. So, or those policies that were to be the basis of it. And so, that's what went on. And it's handy that we do that because the state law says we have to. In order to have zoning, you have to have a comprehensive land use plan. There's a case out of Pennington County versus Moore in 1984. And I wish that it was more concise, but basically it's one of many that you'll see out there in zoning that says that if you have zoning and you don't have a land use plan, you don't have zoning. And not only do you have to have a land use plan, uh, but that land use plan needs to in some way, shape, or form be the guide for what you're doing. So, essentially there I've been in places that say that, yeah, we've got our zoning ordinance and our land use plan. Where is it? It's here. It's this page. Well, then good luck, guys. It's got to be concise. You've got to have a basis, a firm basis as far as what you're doing in doing so. And and that's where it comes in. In South Dakota, you've got a process you've got to follow statutoily. Uh the planning commission uh needs to prepare the land use plan, hold at least one public hearing, have a public notice of 10 days prior, at least 10 days prior. Your zoning ordinance says a little bit more than that. Um have to have at least one public hearing of the county commission. Same story. Noticed at least 14 days or 10 days prior. Once it's done, you publish notice of the adoption. It's a summary and then it says where it's at. That summary is prepared by the state's attorney with help usually from the zoning office. It is eligible for

referendum. It becomes uh valid 20 days after it's adopted or after it's sorry, after it's published in the paper. If there is no referendum, you've got a public process that you go through. But it's not just that. I mean, this county does a really good job of all of your meetings are done in the public. We did those in the public. Whether it was here, we noticed all of them had agendas, had all of that, whether it was in this room or the room over here or the room downstairs. I can remember a blizzard in which we met in a uh room in the in the zoning office and did that going through. It's got to include goals and policies to follow. Uh it's got to be consistent. uh your subdivision and zoning ordinances need to be consistent to that. And then it is expected that your decisions as a planning commission and as the county commission are going to follow that whether it's a reszoning or whether it's a subdivision or a zoning ordinance. And sometimes you have things come up over that amount of time because we're lying to ourselves if we think that this land use plan is going to be perfect and a home run and we're never going to change the way that we think of things in this county. But there are things that are going to come up that we're going to say, "Holy, we never thought of that." Um, we never thought of that thing going in. So, sometimes you got to update your land use plan and then your zoning ordinance. How are we going to address this sort of a thing? Um, I can tell you over the life of a land use plan in Kingsbury County, they went from having this uh place called Lake Thompson to a lake, Thompson, a huge lake that things changed on. So things change. You've got to adapt to them and you can make changes to that. But you go through the same public process. You create that and then on the back end you create the zoning ordinance afterwards. And I just this slide just says the same thing is it's got to be a living breathing

document. It winds up having to be updated and going through. How do you implement it? Well, these are the things you do whether it's various different plans. oftentimes you'll have a zoning uh Minihaha County is a good example where they've got all sorts of plans and then sub plans. Good example is they've got a they've got a land use plan obviously because they have to but they've got corridor plans. The Arrowhead not arrowhead there was the one when uh casino was created on the other side in Iowa. They didn't have anything they could do about that. It was going to happen but they knew it was going to open up different opportunities and different ways of managing property. So they did a sub study on that specific area. That's not to say you couldn't do that in other in parts of this county as well as things come up um that you go, you know what, we didn't think about this, but Old 77 or Highway 30, maybe there's a unique opportunity there that we didn't think about. You can go ahead and do a study on that and add it to it. Then you change your zoning ordinance. Um Madison Lake County has a corridor uh that they added on to on the Highway 34 corridor back. There was a time where the talk was that was going to be a four-lane road. So they did a study, figure out where it was, talk about different land uses, talk about bigger setbacks, things like that. It came up in the middle of things. Stuff happens. You update your land use plan. You go through that process, have meetings, find out, make sure that you're handling things right. I'm going to stop there for a second. Any questions on what is in your comprehensive land use plan? Can we change it? Why do we have it? Are we about there? Nothing you want to know about yours? How much fun it was drafting it? All right, cool. I see you're thinking, Chad, you wanted to say something

district. Um, it wouldn't be a land use plan thing. Okay. Uh maybe maybe let's talk about that uh from the remember a second ago I showed the pyramid, right? Discretion, not discretion. We'll talk about it from the discretionary standpoint. Right now, what your land use plan says, you don't have to take my word for it. Go ahead and glean through it, right? But there's that section about reszoning lakes and stuff like that that I talked about at the last meeting. Okay, that was very verbatim and it was very specific when we talked about the land use plan. Uh that wasn't by accident that that language was in there. It was talked about in hearings. Um it's really based on like the natural resource district what the initial goal is. So the idea of having campers in the natural resource district uh not a not a bad idea, not a ter not a great idea. It really depends on how you look at it because the ultimate goal is leaving it to be not developed, not changing. Because let's face it, when you reszone that property, when you reszone any property that's egg or natural resource district to Lake Park, your chances to stop someone from changing the shoreline are pretty well over because that changed from being a place that was intended that the county is intending to be vegetation, trees, as natural as possible down to well, it's going to going to be a house, it's going to be a backyard, and it's going to be a place to play. So, it's really up to the county as far as what they want the natural resource district to be. So, to that end, you could say, I want to, and maybe that doesn't clash with the natural resource district, and you have uh say maybe people take things in and out. you have a certain amount of time

that you decide as a board, as a county planning commission in the county that if they bring it in for a couple days, three days, four days, five days, 10 days, 12 days, whatever, it's fine as long as we know about it and they're taking it up back off. Um maybe identify that. But you've really got to weigh how do we meet our goals of limiting changes to that vegetation that we're trying to protect on there versus that. A lot of words, but that's The gist of a comp plan sounds like a discussion for another day. Um, but it does segue into the zoning ordinance and zoning regulations, right? I talked about um the two components there. The land use plan does two things, right? It's uh it's a good I'm going to say a planning fluffy planning document because it helps you to identify um the things that ought happen. It also serves one other purpose and that's because it's got to be there in state law. I tried to cover both of those before you have a zoning ordinance. And so the zoning ordinance, you're aware that you've got one. As planners, I'm going to steal a quote from a professor. As planners and people involved in this, we're really good at people telling people what they ought to do, but not great at telling people why. Well, that's what that's what's in your couple hundred page land use plan. That's what's in your zoning ordinance as to why. And it becomes why can't I do the thing that my neighbor can do? Well, it's might be in a different zoning district. It might be a different circumstances. Zoning is a division of lands into districts, each having different uses. They need to be uniform in pra in exercise and practice. That zoning district needs to be the same all the way across the board.

Meaning that if I can meet the conditions of getting a gravel pit in the northwest corner of your county, I can meet the conditions of getting a gravel pit in the southeast corner of your county. If that is what the zoning ordinance says. If you are zoned agricultural in the northwest corner, sorry I don't have my mental map memorized, otherwise I'd be naming townships. Then if you meet the conditions up there and you meet the conditions down here, in theory, the expectation should be the same all the way across uniform application of rules across the county. You want to change it in zoning district, that's different. you want to say specifically in the ordinance um needs to be on a paved road versus that. You can do that, but it's got to be uniformly adopted. What's required to have it? Let's just bounce into here. You've got to have um you've already got to have a uh planning uh sorry, a comp plan. You got to hold one public hearing of the planning commission noticed public hearing. You got to do the same thing with the county commission. County commission after first reading, second reading adopts it. They then publish it in the paper. Again, it's subject to referendum after 20 days. I reference that as far as needing things to be uniformly applied. The zoning map is a part of that. Um it illustrates the exact location of districts and zones. Uh the process for changing them is outlined in the zoning ordinance and the process is outlined in state law. There is a process to amend obviously one that's in your zoning ordinance. Um and these are outlined in state law. But the question is oftent times let's first talk about how to the process to to amend a zoning ordinance and that means reszoning property as well is the same process as adopting the

zoning ordinance. So, the process to adopt it that I just read flew through here, all of these things, that's the same process you got go through to amend it. So, simply to realize, holy cow, we forgot to add custom harvesting as a use in the egg district. Not to name any names, but I just noticed an ordinance where I forgot to list that sort of a use. It seems easy. Seems like a thing we could do. No, we got to go through that process. Why? Because there's a public process to do it. We're not circumventing that law. We got to go through that process. Doesn't matter if it's easy or hard. Okay? So, who can do it? Planning commission can initiate. The county commission can initiate. They can just go, "Yep, we'll do it." Staff can't. Staff can come to you and go, "Hey guys, um, we just noticed we missed a thing. Are you interested in initiating this change?" One meeting you initiate, the next meeting you hold hearings and you pick up that process. You can do that. How's the public go through that though? And you'll see this from time to time. Staff hears this question more than you do because they answer this question. But here's the deal. If you if you have someone ask you um for step one, tell staff um and have them talk to staff. But step two is it's here for resonings. if they want to change your zoning ordinance like you just went through a month ago, property owner can petition to reszone their property. That's a due process. They can say, "I don't like the restrictions on my property. Um, I want to reszone it." So, that's that's how you go through it. Um, and then you go through, you pick up the process where I left off in here. You go back and you go through the hearings. You start at the uh second bullet there and then you just go down the list. The only difference is there's one step in there. You've got to send letters to adjacent land owners on that. Beyond that, it's the same process.

They can initiate a change in state law, but it's different in zoning, and this has been in the news lately. The initiated process as far as zoning ordinances is in South Dakota law 11-2-28. This doesn't initiate a public vote. It initiates this process on this slide. So it initiates you guys starting the process and going through. So just because you get the petition and there's a number, it's a percentage of voters that you have to have or land owners you have to have in the affected district. They submit a petition and then you go, "Okay, yep, that's enough. We'll hold a public hearing. We'll talk about it and go on." And then you go from there. You're not obl I mean you got 20% of the land owners. Who knows? I mean that might be the only 20% who care about the rule. You don't know. So bottom line is generally the way that I recommend someone walk through the door who wants to make a change and I'm betting sometimes staff has here in this county as well. I say address you on the open. Just go ahead and make the point you have that open item at the beginning of every meeting and then that finishes at the end of the meeting. Go ahead and pitch your case. Say that there ought to be a rule on blank or this rule should change. Planning commission has every right to stare you in the face and say and say thank you for your time. The best hope as I tell most of those people is uh your best hope is that they'll look at you and say um staff would you put that on the agenda for a discussion next meeting? will uh publicly notice that so we can talk about it because you can't take action on something that wasn't on the agenda. So the reason that right away that doesn't that doesn't help

people out. But when I go through and I explain uh step number two in there, the initiated process, if if I can't initiate if I can't convince you or the county commission to initiate that, what what's it going to change? I mean, maybe it'll change if I get 20%. If I can get 70% of the people to sign this document, okay, we might be somewhere, but the point is that we want you to be on that page. And so, that's that's generally it. It's not to say it's insurmountable and things come up, but that's it. Uh, I noted how those changes can happen. So, we're there. We're at nine. You now have a zoning ordinance. We've talked about how you get one, how you change it. You know, generally what's in your zoning ordinance. Now's the point where I can switch gears and and talk to you as board of adjustment members. I want to ask, how long do you want to go tonight? Because this part that I just talked about, I haven't talked to this board in Brookings County about in 15 12 years probably. The rest of this I've bounced in and out of before. So, what do you want? 15 minutes. Sound good? All right. Favorite topic. Do you want to talk about uh uh variances, conditional uses, findings, how to run a meeting, uh war stories or court cases? Variances. Variances. Anything else? Good. Chair says variances. Everyone listens. All right. I do start here always though. Can we go with Lake Park variances? Uh, let's get to it in a second, okay? Because I I do want I want to preface it by how we ought not be issuing them.

Then we'll get there. This is the easy process for getting a building permit right here that's on your screen. These are the simple questions, simple steps that we have to follow in order to do so. Why can't I walk out the door with a building permit when I walked in the door and just suddenly decided I was going to build a deck today? This is why. Yes, nos. This is what it looks like. I'm gonna focus on first with variances. Let's focus on the green dot to the right there. Permitted use. Okay, it's a permitted use. Does it meet setbacks? More discretion, less discretion. The variance, you have less discretion. The building permits, zoning officer figured out. Whoops, we're too close to something. This one here, the first time I did this was here, by the way. Um, but near and far with Grover. I wanted to have the recording from Sesame Street so he could yell near or far. Uh, just to remind me. If you didn't watch it as a kid, that's too bad. I learned all sorts about zoning from Grover. State law says this is what a variance is. Plain English, right? Lots of words. Um, you can authorize variance from the terms of the ordinance if, owing to special conditions, a literal enforcement would result in unnecessary hardship. Something weird's happening to this property that's not happening to the rest of the properties in the district. Therefore, they deserve a variance. This doubles over into um the county zoning authority on defining where and when you can issue a variance. I don't remember. I actually think I took this from Brookings County quite some time ago, but I don't remember. I'm going use this as an example, okay? Because I'll be honest, if you ask me a lot of times, should we grant a variance here or not? My answer is typically going to be uh

change the rule. Here's the example though. I always do the do the point. I want you to take a look at this screen here. Take a look at that picture. Notice specifically the cars on what is First Avenue Southwest. Okay. Um these decisions when you're issuing variances, they're based on the zoning ordinance. Okay. They're based on do they have do they meet your five-step test? Those things Bob read aren't just for the fun of it. They are in your ordinance. are the only time you should be issuing variances. They didn't come out of someone just saying, "Hey, what a good idea if I wrote this BS down." No, it came out of uh state statute. It also came out of court decisions, whether it's in this state or other places, and I've got the examples of them, but let's not talk about that. The standards are based in each community, and equal treatment of each application is essential. My dad taught me no to everyone is easier than yes to some. Whenever someone knocks on the door to ask if they can hunt geese. So similarly, that's kind of how you look at it here. Why did I say yes to that one? Well, you better say yes to everyone when they ask that same question in the same way. The right way to go about it is and I use that example. I I use the example of this location in granting variances. I told someone at a meeting, delicious, tasty pizza is located right in the middle of that uh right by that alley in Watertown. Love it. Our office was Kitty Corner. If you look before, you saw everyone's parked the same direction. I said, I could go to that intersection and I could stop and it is only a half a block. I could go the wrong way. It'd be fine. It's a half a block. Who's going to see me? What's the problem? It's the best pizza in town. You're going to stop me? You going to make me wait five two extra minutes to get delicious pizza? I hope not. But if I get pulled over by the cop, you think he's going to give me

right let me out of that ticket because that pizza's really tasty. I doubt it. So I said, you know what? No. I got to go around the block or I got to convince the city of Watertown to change that into a two-way street. A year later, it's a two-way street. You can see that uh you can park both directions. So apparently uh the public did speak and they did want to go both directions and get their delicious tasty pizza. Do I tell it because pizza's great? No, I tell it because there is a way. Go through the public process. Change the rule. Doesn't mean no forever. It means no for now because we didn't think of it that way. And that's how you go about it. All sorts of rules and language in there about variances. Um the criteria for granting them. special circumstances are peculiar and are not applicable to other properties in the same district. Literal interpretation uh deprivives rights of other properties in the same district under the ordinance. It does not result in the actions of the applicant or previous property owners. Will not confer special privilege denied to other lands in the same district. Uh no permitted or non-conforming uses are used as considered grounds for the issuance of a variance. the minimum that will make possible the reasonable use of land in harmony. It'll be granted in harmony, not injurious and otherwise detrimental. Okay, those are the cases where you do it. Don't think that I just made this up. These are copy pasted out of your ordinance to be perfectly honest because I took that out many years ago. So, in issuing variances, they need to be very, very specific. And when you're issuing a variance, you're not just issuing it. Remember we talked about the due process and equal treatment. You're not just issuing it to that one building or that deck or that garage or whatever. You're issuing it the whole

way across the property. And the reason I say that is not necessarily sometimes in your applications you do say for this one thing but if there's identified remember reading these five things there are these six things that I just read you have to say all those exist on this property they're not unique to the structure they're unique to the property so why in the hell would you say no to the next one if it was if the property was the same way it's the same legal description they walk through the door they want to ask for a variance now to build that already granted them a variance for the garage. Now they want to build their house. They want to replace the house and build it right there. You say no. Well, these you already said that I have my hardship. So how are you going to say no this time? The point is you think about long term variances issued to the land. So one last thing that I want to say before we talk about variances at Lake Park because I think this is from the larger discussion you might want to have this talk. Um, in creating that land use plan and the zoning ordinance, you've got rules and land use plan all established. You may not have been on the board at the time, but you got to trust that whoever was put on that board was put on there for a reason as a planning commission. You also got to trust that the county commissioners were elected for a reason. That's the representative form of government that we have. Okay? these rules that you have, the land use plan, the rules you have were done. You saw all the steps you've got to go through. Heck, you lived them. Okay? You've got to expect that the public expects you as this board to enforce the land use plan and the zoning ordinance the way it's written with the rules that they put up there or to go through the process to change it in the way that the state said

to do it. Okay. So in effect, when you issue a variance to those things, it's different than a conditional use because a conditional use, you already outlined anybody who walks through the door and meets these three conditions, they get to do this thing. A variance is the other way. Nobody gets to do this unless there's something these six things are done. And if you look at it and say, "This isn't a big deal. Why are we talking about this? This isn't a problem to go to seven feet instead of 10 feet on this sideyard in the Lake Park district. It's fine. That's fine. But time out. Maybe we should amend the ordinance and say what we mean on those things. And I that's uh that's my recommendation and any of that. Where would you like to go, Mr. Chair? just in the Lake Park deal and why we do the things we do in there with the the decks, the overhangs. So, I mean, you have been right been issuing them. There was one time I know you guys asked me a question probably hoping that I'd give you a little bit more ammo to say no to. The irony is it was the one ex one example of something that I had going on on my own property that actually seemed like kind of a hardship where they had an e they had a deal running through the middle of it. You can create out of your variances you've issued. I always recommend to do an audit. I should recommend to do an audit of your variances at the end of the year or after a couple of years. How many variances did we issue? And more importantly, what were they? Where were they? Because I'm willing to bet that oftent times, and I'm not going to crucify you guys too much because the

truth is people will say, "Well, they issue variances." And that's not just you, that's other boards, too. They they issue variances every time something comes in. Well, the truth is you're issuing variances to like variances, as in someone came in and asked that question before and you issued the variance, so naturally someone else is going to ask that question and come back in. So, you're not getting the ones where you habitually say no. That's the good news. The bad news is you said yes to a lot of the lake park ones. You can amend your ordinance as you look at it and go, "Okay, this these five were all to decrease the setback by five feet on the lake on the roadside in order to make sure that they weren't in the neighbor's sighteline." Okay, then maybe we talked to the road authority. Road authority didn't care. That's why we did it. Cool. Maybe that should be a standard. Maybe that's a cup. Maybe it's a special permitted use that doesn't come to you anymore. Same thing with, well, our setback's 15 feet, but we keep on granting variances because the building was already there. They're building it in line and the neighbor didn't care. Cool. I mean, that could be an ordinance just as easily. That could be a conditional use or a special permitted use. Decks. In Hamlin County, we have there's a rule that has very specific your house has to be this far from the lake. Actually, ordinary high water mark that's measured on the lake. Ponet the lake. We'll focus on panset. House has to be here. You're allowed a gimme on a deck of this many feet as long as it's not covered. If it becomes covered, you got to rip the cover off. basically issuing the permit you are saying I will not cover this if I do goes away so you can do those things you can give those gimmies where you where you know they're going to be

you you can see yourself issuing those variances when I update a zoning ordinance especially in towns small towns especially I ask do you ever see yourself issuing this variance where it doesn't seem like a big deal it's already in line neighbors got it Um, you know, it's not going to affect the sight line in the case of a lake. They signed off. You going to issue the variance? If you are, quit making them rule breakers. Don't make them go to the judge to ask if they can drive 80 on a 65 mph zone. Just let them. As long as they do that or say, "No, it's a big deal. Knock it off, guys." And you're allowed to say that. You're allowed to say, "You know what? We did issue that variance and we did screw up. Maybe we shouldn't have. We're not going to do that anymore. Our rules say this. You've got that ability. At least according to uh the former chief justice of the Supreme Court in our state. So, I'm not going to tell you what you should do to change things. What I do think is that you really ought to take a look at the variances you've issued on the lake and potentially on the lakes and potentially you look at maybe what's good on oak. Uh maybe what's good on Campbell isn't what's good on Ponet isn't what's good on Oakwood and maybe those need to change in some ways. So those are my two cents. Anything else you want me to ramble about? So you said

well there's two things. Um, one is that one is that you're bound by what's in the ordinance. Okay? You're bound by these things that I've got highlighted in here. They're const what they think is a hardship. It's a pain and it's a pro here. Here's a good example. I was thinking of this on the way down here actually. Um, one of the best examples I had was actually one that we this board you were on it, you were on it at the time. are very well remember because it was in one of my first years. It was in the Swift Health Center. We accidentally uh we we actually were applying the variance standard to a conditional use permit, right? Guy came in. I know you remember when I talk about it. Guy came in wanted to get a conditional use to have a sidewall bigger than I think 12 feet at the time. We're treating as a variance. Technically, it was a conditional use. probably should have issued it, but the guy said, "My hardship," cuz the chairman asked for a hardship. So, my hardship is that my camper won't fit in a 14t sidewall. And aside from one of my favorite quotes, and I don't remember, I think it was one of you two said it. Um, so does does have you ever shaved the top of your camper off because if it's bigger than 14 feet, you're going to hit the bridge decks on the interstate, Daryl, it was you. I thought so. But the point was that's not a hardship. That's a hardship to him, but that's not You've got different standards you got to follow. Financial is not a hardship. Okay. Um, it is. It is, but it's not in the eyes of the law because let's face it, everyone's got a financial hardship on it. And not only is it that I explain it in the way that yeah, I'd love to do that, but the truth is the South Dakota Supreme Court said that finances isn't

the hardship. It's a and it's not important the case, but it was a case in heron back in in the 80s or 90. It was 2000 actually, but it reiterated things. financial hardship is not a hardship that is defined and used as state law. So my point is that betteram another example though is when I when I lived in Kynan County where I had a guy come he had a had his giant toy shed burned down. Um, he had just built his uh house that was plus or minus a million dollars and he needed to rebuild it because he had some folks coming in to hunt and he wanted them to come and not stay in it because you can't do that but party in it. It was too close originally to the setback line. He came in, he demanded I issue him the permit. I said, "Of course no, because I'm a superhero." And then I said I said, "Well, I tell you what. I'm going to burn a planning commissioner at the stake. I know you guys enjoy that." So, I invited a planning commissioner to meet. It's the last time I ever did that. That one planning commissioner came out and I really encourage you to take the view that he did. Maybe not the reason. That's not it. But he looked around. We went out there. I said, "Hey, you can see there's bluffs on this backside because it falls back into a lake in in the span of 12 feet. There's about 8t elevation change." Okay? And he had to move it back six feet. And I looked there. I talked to the planning commission member and I said, "You can see that this is a pain. This is going to be a problem. This is a hardship." And he looked at me and he looked at the guy's house and he said, "Look, what do you see here? Absent the house." And I said, I see he's got a lake and bluffs and 35 acres of what should be pasture, but he's got a house here because this is the county, not where houses are at. He said, exactly. He said, I see 35 acres of dirt. The only thing he does have is dirt. He

could fill that thing today because he's got a wealth of dirt and fill and fill is cheap. It's not a hardship. And and for the bulk of it in the egg district, that's where like the lake park's different, right? They don't have 35 acres. In the egg district, it's it's hard. That's why in the same breath though, that's the same guy who granted a variance to be 25 ft from from the setback on a grain bin because we all know that you're kind of set up by what the setup is on your farm, right? It's different. Don't make that a variance in the egg district. Don't make that a variance. Make that an exception to the setback. Road authorities. cool with it. We already have the site set up in that way. Set that up as a special use instead of that. So, yeah, unfortunately, you got to play the bad guy on those ones and say, "Man, I'm sorry. Those aren't we don't get to look at that." That's all there is to it. On the flip side, conditional use, there may be ones where you want to say no to, but they meet the conditions. And dog gone it, if it came somewhere else, you'd issue it. So, I guess grandma gets her driver's license. Anything else? I'm only on slide 30. I could go to 30 more, but I don't think you want me to. So, this is, like I said, this is one that I'll do at South Dakota County Commissioners Association. I just did this one this year. Uh, you weren't at this one, Kelly. Um, the other one I do is The other one I do this one with Todd. Um, the other one I do is uh how to run a meeting. I figured I've beat you guys over the head with that a little bit. I've got a lot of court cases in here. Um, from a standpoint of I'm I'm sure that you'll have that available, Bob, that if they want it,

they can have it as a how-to. The main thing I want you to take from it though is with regards to if we're going to leave it, the couple of points I made is that don't think this ordinance was written on a whim. Okay? And don't think that you need to because there's nobody here in the audience that that they don't care. The truth is is that I had a planning commission write a letter planning commission chair write a letter to the editor one time and he said he said that if I've got a if I've got a conditional use permit hearing and there are 50 people in the audience all opposed to that application. That tells me that everyone who's not there expects me to do my job. And my job was I was appointed to enforce our ordinance that was adopted through a public process that was established by state law. And so these might be the 50 that really don't care that really do not want the thing. But that doesn't talk about the people that didn't show up because they expect me to do my job. And the truth is on a variance, the opposite is true. There might be people that didn't show up because they're like, "This is stupid. There's no way they're going to grant this variance." And so keep that in mind, too. Unfortunately, you and usually staff and me wearing a red shirt at your meeting uh get to point that out that you know the rules were set this way. The right way to do this is hit timeout and change the rules. Um explain how we can decrease that setback. So that's it. If you can take anything from it. Thanks everyone. Thanks Luke. Moving on. Agenda item 11, department reports. Yeah, the big thing of course we had the weekend storms and it looks like the Big Sue starting to crest now the the township roads along the Big Sue

River starting to go under. We don't think there'll be under very long, but um we're not going to be able to take much more rain. We've had anywhere from 8 in over by Lake Hendricks all the way down to probably five throughout the rest of the county. And um obviously I'm singing to the choir. You guys all know that already. But um that's about all I got. Just be careful out there. Thank you. Any need for an executive session? No. No. Good. Motion to adjurnn. Motion by Jensen. Second. Second. Second by Paulson. All in favor? I meeting.