Plan Commission - Regular Meeting

He's probably dead serious, too. There's still stuff that can

2016. It'll be fine. Okay. We'll call the 20 December 17th plan commission meeting to order. Yes. Yes, it's on. Yep. Ready. Is your mic on? Can we have a roll call, please? Meredith. Jason Conne here. Bill Hartman, yes. Bill Van, yes. Sandy Harrison, yes. Jerry OD here. Frank Palver here. Suzanne Davis here. Angie Holt here. Tyra Lanning here. Chris Galmer here. Alicia Rogers here. Mike Mccerowitch, Andrew Cruz here, Meredith Wright here.

We'll stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. To the flag of the United States of America to the stands, one nation, indivisible, justice for all. Uh Jerry, would you be so kind as to lead us in a word of prayer, please? Bow our heads. Father, uh here we are. We made it through one more year, Lord, and we're at the end of the year, and we can't thank you enough for the blessings you give to us and u the blessings you give to this county. Father, we just want to invite you in and um give us uh guidance, Lord, that we can make decisions for you and your kingdom and make decisions for this great county we have in Jesus name. Amen. Your packets, we had the minutes from the November 19th meeting. Unless there's any additions or corrections, would entertain a motion to approve. Make a motion to approve.

Second. Have a motion and a second to approve the previous meeting minutes. All those in favor say I. Oppos. Same. Minutes are approved. Uh claims were also in your packet for November. Unless there's additions or corrections. We take a motion to approve those as well. I'll move to approve those. I'll second that. Have a motion and a couple seconds to approve the claims. Uh, all those in favor say I. I oppose. Same. Claims are approved. Chris, no. Old business, sir.

New business, our 2026 attorney fee agreement with Mr. Cruz. Um, do this every year. Um, we do this every year. the attorney fee agreement for next year for 2026 um with uh Andrew um proposed this year. Uh slight increase um for the retainer fee um from last year and um just a slight increase as well for the per meeting um for any extra meetings or um for the plan commission. And then um so slight increase as well um on number four for the plan commission u for any zoning enforcement work that that we do or for the plan commission or the BZA. Um do need a motion to approve this agreement for 2026. Um Andrew, if you have anything you want to add, please go ahead.

I would like to continue to be able to do this if you'll have me. I enjoy being able to represent the plan commission and BCA and help out and follow the tradition of my father in that too. Yeah. And we do work really well together. Yeah. I enjoy working with Chris. And uh Yeah. I mean, I made him say that. Thought he wanted a job. [laughter] I make the move that we renew his contract for the year of 2026. Second. Two seconds. Have a motion and second to retain Andrew Cruz for the 2026 year as our attorney for plan commission and BCA. All those in favor say I.

Post same. Congratulations, Mr. Cruz. Thank you very much. Thank you much. And the packet was a calendar of is this plat committee or plan commission? Both front and back. Oh yeah. Okay. Or however you printed your pages. Yes. Yes. Both plan commissioning and plaque committee. Yes. That's kind of just for your information only. Correct. Um obviously plaque committee we have that most every month. Um plan commission we have as needed. So we had pl committee meetings on election days before. I was just curious why we're not

Yeah. So, the uh commissioners um elected to have election day off this year for county employees mostly because the issue was clerk's office and courts are closed um because of the new state law that requires the clerk's office to be fully closed on election day. Um, so everything Yeah, you're right because you had to get to Yeah, I had to be here then and come back again. So those are just for your acknowledgement.

Okay, moving on to our petition for this evening 25-38. Uh Leroy and Shila Draber requesting a development plan for a confined feeding operation for approximately 82,000 chicken and associated uses. Property is located at 7735 County Road 28 Butler and is zoned A2 Agricultural. Um so for this uh project um Mr. and Mrs. Greyber are working with um and I'm going to but butcher your name and I'm sorry. Monich

Munch Munch. Okay. Munch engineering um out of playing field to uh do this site and um working with IDMem to get their confined feed approved uh through through IDM. But um as you guys are aware with uh these type of projects does have to go through a development plan approval. Um I'll go through the site plan and the uh staff report. Um, most things as you see within there are not applicable mostly because either they um aren't having them or they're just not uh not not applicable for the uh type of use and the surrounding um the surrounding uh uses of of the property. So with that, um it's a permitted use as a confined feed operation in the A2 zoning district. Um in the uh development standards, uh they're meeting all the setbacks as proposed with the um requirements um of 50 ft, 30 feet side, 30 feet rear. uh the impervious surface obviously not uh with the size of the site that they have not even close to where they they are supposed to be and then um the average height as well um under that they're utilizing the existing driveway uh the storm pollution prevention plan um he just sent out a revised set to Cameron with soil water district to get that um approved so there is is a condition of approval um that before any permits are issued that it does receive the full uh swip uh approval from the soil water district. Uh fence and wall standards are not applicable. Uh the height standards that meets uh what's required. Uh there are no landscaping requirements. Um no

lighting requirements. Um no outdoor storage uh requirements, no parking requirements. Um the setback standards. It meets what uh is proposed and what's required. Um there's no new septic septic system proposed and the water will be supplied through a private well and um as far as I know there's no uh signage plans uh proposed as there were none submitted. Um Mr. Munch is here to uh go through kind of the site plan with you if you um so wish. in your packets um shows the location of the the site and he does have a a blown up board. I have larger site plans too here if you want if anyone needs to see them. Um the overall site plan on page two shows the location of the proposed barn um in relation to the existing um house on the property. Um the driveway will connect to the existing driveway um along County Road 28. So there will be no new driveways proposed and everything is staying out of that um proposed flood zone um or the believe is that a regulated drain down there too? The regulated drain easement as well. So um shouldn't be any issues with that. Um the only other thing that they would have to get approval on which is going tomorrow is the drainage board. Um and the only reason for that was I think the last meeting you guys didn't have because of AIC conference. So um there's two conditions that will be on there um that are from the soil water district and for the drainage board for their um approval requirements. Mr. Munch, you're free to come up and Sorry, I'm taking your job. Free to come back.

And can you make sure the gray button is pushed on that microphone so it's on like

Good evening. My name is Brian Munch. I'm with Munch Engineering. Office is located at 4,000 Clark Creek Road. Uh with me tonight is Leroy and Shiloh Graber, owners of the property and we have a couple quick presentation points that we'd like to facilitate over and above what Chris presented to you. Um kind of give you an orientation of the property itself. This is County Road 28 to our south. The regulated legal drain is what you see coming through the property here. This is the existing homestead of of the Graber family. uh they it is a farming operation so they do have livestock on property as well as uh out building such um for for their for their farming. The proposed building is going in this large open area to the east of the existing homestead. Uh as Chris mentioned, there is an existing driveway off Caner Road 28 that we will be utilizing for for the new operation. um mounted railroad tracks to our north, tree lines to our to our east, additional farm fields to the to the west, and farm fields to the south. Specifically for the site itself, if I may, and you know, I'll try to be brief. The building is for a confined feeding operation for chickens. Uh approximately 81,000 to 82,000 chickens in in where it'll be for egg production. Uh it is a free range type operation where the chickens do have free range within the facility. Facility itself as I mentioned is 700 feet in length from north to south. 128 ft wide. The southern 47 ft will be an office area uh for for the operations. The northern portion I'm sorry yeah the northern portion uh approximately 59 ft would be a recess manure pit. Uh the property has been designed by a local uh agro scientist type type company. It has been submitted to highen for their approval as a confined feeding operation. The u the

site itself as mentioned driveway coming in. One thing that you may have not seen on your drawings and this is a result of of plan development talking to the soil water conservation group. We do have ditches on either side of the building itself. So the high point is in the center of the building with drainage flowing to the east and drainage flowing to the west collected in ditches. And at the southern end of those ditches, we have installed a sediment basin with a rock check dam. So any water that's collected coming from the building itself or from the outdoor pasture area, we collecting those ditches ran through a sediment basin um basically a rock check dam which allow the water to filter through sediments to be left behind. Then ultimately the drainage into the regulated drain to our south. Um, the other addition that we have made, there is a driveway that goes along the western side of the property now on the outside of the ditch that allows for vehicles, primarily over the road trucks, to come down, turn around. Then we have a ramp out of the recessed manure pit so we can load into uh an over the road truck and that's taken to a third party for for use. Uh but in general terms um 81's to 82,000 chickens that have free range inside. It is for egg collection. There is outdoor pasture on each side as as required by IDM. Then there is a buffard beside that outdoor pasture for the chicken itself. It is for private use. Obviously that's part of their farming operations. The necessary procedures have been going through. Uh, as Chris mentioned, we're meeting with the drainage board in the morning uh to present the drainage in a little bit more depth, but tonight we're here looking for your approval.

How far are you from? Uh, my understanding is it should be before the end of the year. I know they just had 33 days, correct? Yeah, the the public hearing portion is over, I believe. So, um, that is above my pay grade. I'm here to present to you guys and there's other people taking care of that be fairly quick after. So So you're going to have fences all the way around it. These chickens can go outside the building. Is that what I'm hearing correctly?

That is correct. They they do have the ability to go outside and be in the in the patch areas that are that are basically the light patch areas on each side of the building. And that is a fenced in area. Um, and also inside the building they are so they can manu move freely. They're not in the pins or anything. They have areas where they can lay the eggs and stuff. Yeah, there's areas where they can roost and lay the eggs, but they it is a free range operation of it. How much increase coming in there as the track truck traffic they project?

Uh, it's very minimal. I mean, maybe a truck a week, I believe, in in the in the removal of manure. Um, the egg production. I mean, I'm not in a position that's going to be a function of how well the chickens are producing. There is a small area to the south, a stone area that the eggs could be be sold accordingly. And is that an open ditch or is that a closed ditch? It's open. That is correct. And how how far back is the this stone wall that he is that they have put as a catch basin from the ditch?

Not a stone wall. It would just be like rip wrap and just rip wrap. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you're talking just water flows through. Um that is located Yeah, that is located here. approximately 150 ft. Yeah. From the reg is the chickens I mean in this outside deal. Are they all them allowed to go out or is this a percentage of them?

I believe it is any I mean you can come and go as you as they please. because you know I seen one had range chickens and all it had was a 5x5 pin and that was classified as range chickens. [snorts] That's what I'm curious about with this with this number of chickens. Uh obviously this is under IDM jurisdiction ID approval. Uh so there is as Chris mentioned a a permit being issued by IDM specifically for that for that chicken operation. And that comes to the next question. I don't manure hauling. Have they you have presented a a uh yeah there there is a

program or the way you're doing it two item ID and so they have a way they're going to remove the manure and stuff. That is correct. There is a contractual arrangement for the disposal of that manure. Okay. Yeah, I I can't see it, but maybe you can tell me how many how many acres does that whole system take up, you know? No, I mean where your fences are. Is that a whole 40 acres? That a whole 40? I won't know. Absolutely. No. I mean, you're uh so you're 150 by 700. Yeah, I know that. Then you got So, you're about two two and a half acres out of the 48. That includes the pastors, too. That's correct.

Okay. And and that's I mean that's very rudimentary doing I'm trying to go through my mind too. It's it's two and a half three acres. Is this going to be a deal that be scraped at certain times to keep the smell and everything down? Yeah. If that's free range, you're going to have more water spilled than what are cage pins and stuff. Yeah. There there is an automated collection system within the facility itself

that's been designed to move the manure from the from the interior free range to the north end of the building to where it can be collected and loaded out for you. And this be all sawdust straw underneath. That's correct. It'll be proper bedding.

So free range then is basically organic or they are not. Are they going to be certified organic or they're just going to be free range? I don't know. probably just be cage free. Yeah, I don't know what the proper terminology would be necessarily as far as marketing and product. Organic corn didn't feed that many chickens. Be hard to keep a a a good supply year round to it. I mean, yeah, they'd have to they'd have to be fed organic corn

supplement and that would be for that many chickens. I I would say that'd be kind of hard to to uh supply it. So you can always ask the gravers. They're here. So if you've got you use 80,000 as a ballpark figure roughly, what would be the egg production on a weekly basis? A

chicken or an egg a day? 94% manure removed once a week. Uh a prediction once every 3 months. So the the manure is in a pit of some sort, correct? Okay. So the egg production is at a is that a weekly, daily, twice a day? So, how are we how do you where's the storage? So, there is an automatic collection system internally to the building, right?

That collects the eggs and then they're packaged for for sale. That's part of the operations in the upper the southern portion of building. Okay. So, that's where the storage is. Is that cold storage? No. No. The I do not believe it's cold storage. Oh yeah, I'm sorry. cooler storage for the egg.

75,000 eggs today. pretty cool though. I went to the see the one that they did over like County Road 52 or 54 or whatever it was and they had like 28,000 chickens and the egg collection system could collect 28,000 an hour. I used to

pack them. One of my customers used to be Midwest Poultry. Yeah. They had, [clears throat] the last I knew, they had six million layers. 6 million. That's a lot. So, this is the storage building. I just wondered about, you know, once once the eggs are collected. I mean, they have a they have a lifespan.

So, I just wondered how they were stored. Do they go through a spraying process, a cleaning process? Sure. Sure. Okay.

Say that everything's there till they're waiting on items response. That was the only thing I saw on the site was just that I saw that drainage ditch there and I thought, well, you know, that's beyond my understanding of exactly how the drainage would work. But long as I know that's what's going on. Are we waiting for more permits? Is there permits that haven't been issued yet or just the one from IDM? But they've gone through the application process, the public hearing process and believe just it's going to be done by the end of the year. That's

two weeks. 18 days away. Two weeks away. So should have that no problem. Drainage off the roof. Yes. Is that go do they have that? So it's bypassed everything and right into it. It actually gets collected by the ditches that we have closed on each side of the building, then ran through the sediment control basin, then onto the regulated drain. That's a long building and a wide building to be water run. That water will go straight to this ditch. Is that correct? After it goes through a water control device, then straight to the ditch.

Okay. So there's nothing that that water can be used for in the process. It it's uh not necessarily in the process.

Okay. More questions for our petitioners. Thank you. There anyone in the audience that would wish to speak on this petition for or against? Seeing none, we'll close the public portion of the meeting and move on to our findings. All right. [clears throat] So, I'm going to go through some proposed findings. Uh, and these are all going to be uh just proposed. They're not final or voted on until we kind of go through them and discuss them. Uh, but we'll start with the jurisdictional findings. Uh, and Meredith, I'll ask you about these application completed and filed on November 20th, 2025.

Yes. Legal notice published in the STAR on December 5th and affidavit given to staff. Yes. Certificate of of mailing notices sent and receipts given to staff. Yes. Letter from the county board of health dated December 8th. Yes. Letter from the county highway department dated December 2nd. Yes. uh letter from the Dec County Soil and Water Conservation District. Uh doesn't say the date, but did they give some conditions for that when they sent their letter? Yes, the conditions are okay. And then what about the letter from the drainage board? Same thing. Correct.

Airport board report was not applicable here with where the real estate's located. And then the real estate being developed is in zoning district 82 agriculture, which permits a requested development. Now the proposed findings of fact there are three three questions and um per our practice I will ask the three questions and anyone can jump in with uh with some answers on it um as you wish. Number one, does the development plan meet the minimum design standards listed in section 9.08 in the development plan? Yes. All minimum design Z standards are met.

Um all right. And is the number two is the development plan consistent with the comprehensive plan? Yes, commercial agricultural development is encouraged in areas zoned appropriately. All right. And uh then in number three, does the development plan comply with the standards of this unified development ordinance?

Yes, all development standards of the UDO are in compliance with the development plan. We want to reference the staff report and letters from the Decap County Highway Department and Health Department and the storm water pollution prevention pollution prevention plan approval by the soil water conservation district and drainage plan approval by the drainage board are required prior to the issuance and of any permits.

All right. Um then we go back here to planning staff recommendations and comments. Staff is recommending the approval of this development [clears throat] plan and recommends the following conditions. So here are the proposed conditions of approval. Number one, the plan commission retains continuing jurisdiction of this development plan to asssure compliance with all terms and conditions and or impose additional conditions deemed necessary for health and safety. Number two, this development plan is approved for a confined feeding operation for approximately 82,000 chicken and associated accessory uses. Number three, development to commence within three years and be completed within seven years be the UDO section 9.08h. Number four, no certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion shall be issued until the applicant files written evidence of compliance with any conditions of the DGO county board of health, highway department, drainage board, surveyor, airport, or county soil and water conservation district or other agency as applicable. Uh and here I would say add that IDM would be one of the main applicable agencies of course and further where applicable file written evidence of compliance with federal or state agencies were identified in the findings or conditions. The zoning administrator to determine when conditions have been met. And then number five the storm water pollution prevention plan approved by the soil water conservation district and drainage plan approval by the drainage board are required to uh prior to the issuance of any permits. Um, I guess I would suggest an additional condition being approval by item. Does that make sense, Chris, to add that?

I think that makes sense to have that in there. So, we would add a proposed condition of uh that item permit would be or that item would approve the permit just to make that explicit. All right, that's it. Okay, there any more discussion amongst the board on this petition?

I just have a correction on page 13 of States County Road 8. It should be 28 property location. Any more discussion? Not we would entertain a motion for approval or denial of this petition. I move to approve petition 25-38 with the six conditions of approval as listed.

Have a motion and a second for approval of this petition. We have a roll call vote, please. Yes. Bill Hartman. Yes. Bill Van. Yes. Sandy Harrison. Yes. Jerry Yoder. Yes. Frank Palver. Yes. Suzanne Davis. Yes. Angie Holt. Yes. Lanning. Yes. Jason Carneahan. Yes.

Next on our agenda is an update from Mr. Gomemer on our comprehensive plan rewrite.

Yeah. So, all I'm looking for tonight is um we have on our January plan commission meeting, I believe it's the 21st, um the plan presentation to the plan commission, provided there's no hiccups along the way from um HWC or the or the steering committee. um looking to have that presentation um around 5:30 p.m. and then have about a 45 minute to an hour um kind of open house style like we did for the um for a couple of the key features of the of the land use map that we had out here in the courthouse lawn. Um, so have I I'm just want to make sure you guys are okay with having the meeting on January 21st um start at 5:00 PM and we would have kind of our yearly plan commission meeting or not yearly but um first of the year plan commission meeting where we do appointments and committees get that out of the way and then um start the plan presentation around 5:30 and then um that would probably be about a 20ish minute presentation I would assume and then leave it to the plan commission to have meetings or sorry to have questions and then close the public meeting and then move down to the rotunda and allow the public to have kind of an openhouse style question and answers with the staff of HWC and the steering committee. Um, but I just wanted to make sure that time was okay with the plan commission first before we get that to um, HWC for them to start advertising that meeting. Um, having it at 7 p.m. I just don't think makes sense. I think it's having a presentation for 20 minutes and then trying to have a 45 minute to an hour open house afterward means we're going

to be here till 9:30, 10 o'clock. And I think if we can get people here right after work, people can, it's openhouse style, so they can kind of come and go as they please, but if they want to be here for the presentation, um they can come here right after work. So um the meeting would be up here in the in the commissioner's court so we can get the recording of the um presentation and hopefully use that on the on the website and our um Facebook pages. But uh then move down to the rotunda and have more space to um have that open house with boards and graphics and discussion with other with the whole committee. So um if that's okay with you guys um mark that on your calendars for January 21st. Um the plan is for the public draft to be on the website by January 12th and then the plan presentation here at the plan commission on the 21st. Um, and then try to have this as a adoption presentation by the plan commission on the 18th and then to the county commissioners um a month later on March 16th. So, we're leaving a little bit of time in there um if there needs to be any sort of special meetings or anything, but really between that January 12th and February 18th will be the time for public comment on the entire plan. um allowing it to allowing there to be edits and that sort of thing prior to the February 18th meeting or if the plan commission has comments after the February 18th meeting, those can get done before the county commissioner um adoption presentation. But um we're looking at a good plan. Um the we're we're hitting some some very good things that we've discussed over the course of the last year or so. Um the land use map

looks good. Um the future land use map looks good. Um we have some um initial initiatives that we want to um start on kind of those those lowhanging fruit um ideas that that can kick off um the comprehensive plan and get us get us moving in the right direction. But um those are kind of where we are right now with getting [snorts] this um hopefully adopted um mid-Marchch. So you don't have any questions or comments. I will email HWC and let them know that that works for everybody. Um, or if you want to check your calendars and get back with me or if anyone has their phones and wants to check, um, that's fine as well. But like I said, we'll probably start the meeting at 5, get our kind of, um, first of the year committees and appointments done, and then move on to the presentation about 5:30. Well, the presentation would be at 5:30, but I think we'd start the plan commission meeting before that to get committees and appointments done. I don't think we need that much time, but it usually takes us 10ish minutes to get through that round table of appointments.

It's good with me. Okay, great. We'll plan that on the 21st. Um, that's all I got. I think we have uh city and town meeting reports. None for Butler or Hamilton. I think Auburn had I know Auburn had a meeting, but I couldn't go. I had a conflict that I couldn't.

That's Waterlue had a meeting this week. Uh they had a draft of the strategic plan. It had already been reviewed with the representatives of the the committee that's in charge of that. Working through some minor changes, but it's pretty much in place. Remember that can get the OKR funding to do the full comprehensive plan. So instead doing a strategic plan to provide a guideline for the city or the town going forward. Um and then they're going to at the council meeting in January and expect that to be adopted by resolution. What did we decide on St. Joe? Are we going to start do that next year? Can we talk about sending a representative?

Um, so they I think that'd be especially appointment important because of the ETJ discussion and I want to say controversy but stuff that came. [snorts] Okay. Is there any comments from the public in attendance this evening? Seeing none, I we will be ajourned.