The Seward County Planning Commission on April 20 voted to seek a two-month extension of its review of poultry and other livestock requirements before the Seward County Board of Commissioners ends its moratorium on conditional use permits for such farms.
The board of commissioners in February extended its August six-month moratorium on conditional use permits for livestock operations until May 31 to give the planning commission more time for its review. A subcommittee of the planning commission was tasked with that review.
However, Seward Commissioners Board Chair Misty Ahmic said commissioners have been advised that such moratoriums cannot exceed six months, which would have ended at the original deadline of February. The county may have to adopt a new moratorium to extend this review.
Ahmic told the planning commission their request would be placed on a future agenda for the county board, and a member of the commission would need to attend that meeting to discuss it.
The original moratorium cited “observable impacts on local infrastructure and communities” as well as increased truck traffic, potential health concerns related to air quality, odor and dust, environmental concerns and the proximity of neighbors when it was adopted in August.
Ahmic also said the planning commissioners have been asked to review the entire updated and revised-format zoning regulations separate from any specific regulations, including the livestock rules.
While no committee report or recommendation on the moratorium or livestock regulations was presented at the April 20 meeting, some planning commission members offered specific changes that might be considered.
After several ideas were suggested and a few motions died for lack of seconds, Planning Commission Vice Chair Aaron Shropshire, who was chairing the meeting, noted that the committee had discussed the regulations two or three times since August.
“We have worked on it and we are not ready,” he said.
Commissioner Jack Daniel then made a motion to extend the moratorium, which the Seward County Board of Commissioners would have to accept or deny.
The six planning commissioners at the meeting voted in favor of that extension request – Jack Daniel, Sue Medinger, Phil Hargis, Aaron Shropshire, Katie Schweitzer and Curt Eberspacher. Commission Chair Dale Niemann, Brent Schluckebier and Ryan Krenk were absent.
Draft regulations updated,
reformatted
The updated and reformatted Seward County zoning regulations are now available to the public only in the zoning office at the courthouse, but an open house had been offered earlier in the evening for people to ask questions about it. There was no presentation.
The planning commission must schedule a public hearing on the proposed regulations prior to making recommendations on them to the board of commissioners.
While the Seward County Board of Commissioners has not yet taken action on any changes in the regulations or their format, the proposal does include changes in the livestock setback regulations based on the size of the operation.
The regulations refer to the number of animals on site, which for poultry operations counts 100 chickens as one animal. Most of the existing poultry operations in Seward County have 212,000 to 228,000 chickens, or 2,120 to 2,280 “animals.”
Under the proposed regulations, such operations would be categorized as a Class II operation, requiring setbacks between the barns and any non-participant house or other entity of 3,960 feet or three-quarters of a mile for environmentally controlled housing (ECH) or 5,280 feet or one mile for open lot operations structures.
Existing regulations put those operations in the small category and require 1,320-foot or quarter-mile setbacks. There is no distinction between open or ECH operations.
The existing range of setbacks for Small to Large IV operations is 1,320 feet to 5,280 feet. Under the proposed regulations, that range would be 2,640 feet to 9,240 feet, which is a mile and three quarters.
The setback information or other zoning details were not presented at the meeting.
Eberspacher told commissioners the setbacks may be adjusted at a later time.
Schweitzer offered the commission nine areas she said should be reviewed related to poultry operations, including making regulations more restrictive, clarifying requirements for public hearings, reviewing setbacks related to residences, looking at a buffer zone around barns, looking at other counties for comparable size standards, identifying the matrix of livestock operations as requirements and not guidelines, requiring state permits be obtained within 30-days of a use permit, reviewing national policies on permits, and comparing the cost of livestock operations to the taxes they pay in.
On the last item she said livestock operations create “measurable annual costs” for the county, which includes a materials cost of $2,915 per mile for road rock and gravel on an average road.
If a poultry operation is four miles from a paved road, the annual cost “generated” would be $11,660, she said, and the livestock operation may pay $5,589 in annual property taxes.
“That means the county is not gaining revenue from that facility when the road impacts are considered,” she said.
Schweitzer said livestock feeding operations would have to be located no more than about two miles from a paved road for the county to break even.
“I was very kind in how I did this,” Schweitzer said. “I understand the importance of expanding the tax base.”
Another planning commissioner suggested increasing the minimum number of animals allowed before a conditional use permit is required from 300 animals to 500, while another questioned grouping all livestock into the same zoning model.
The county’s August moratorium decision followed an eight-month period in which the county approved three conditional use permits for additional poultry operations. A fourth was approved but withdrawn.
Eight such operations had been approved between 2018 and 2020.
Based on a minimum count of 212,000 birds per operation, having 11 poultry farms in the county means at least 2.3 million chickens are in 88 barns around the county on a given day.
