Government : Benton County Board of Supervisor Denies Destructable Construction Land Use

At 9:00 a.m. the weekly Benton County Board of Supervisor meeting was called to order with all supervisors present: Bruce Volz, Tracy Seeman and Ron Tippett.

The meeting was called to order with the agenda, minutes and claims approved.

Mark Erickson presented for approval an order to authorize the chairman to sign the East Central Iowa Council of Government (ECICOG) purchase of service contract for FY 26 for Benton County Transportation.

The FY 24 Cost Advisory Plan was presented by Auditor Hayley Rippel. It's a breakdown of costs through the year.

The City of Keystone Law Contract was approved for $16,900.

Reports

Volz had none from last week but has one meeting via Zoom.

Tippett reported that there will be a HACAP meeting tomorrow.

Seeman reported on a Conservation meeting 332 miles of roads have been sprayed for weeds of the 9,500 miles.

In unfinished business, Raecom was discussed and how to proceed with paying the bill, a quarterly payment was suggested.

Volz reported that there was a postal truck in the ditch in the southern part of the county, he said that this part of the road is bad.

There was standing room more than 60 residents gathering to hear Matt Even present the Land Use Hearing for Destructable Inc. located on a part of the SE ¼, of the NE ¼, of Sec 12, T86N, R11W, this would be a wind turbine recycling business near Mt. Auburn.

Located two miles northeast of Mt. Auburn in Cedar Township on three parcels of land totalling 28.17 acres that are owned by Farmtastic Three LLC. The land is not considered high quality farm land with only 45% of the area has as corn suitability of 70 or greater. It is currently being used for storage.

The property is surrounded by row crops on all sides, and houses located NE and SE of the property. Evens said that notices were placed in the official newspapers (it was also posted here an "unofficial newspaper") and the office had been contacted multiple times by residents in opposition to the proposal with no one contacting them in favor of the project beyond the applicants.

Evens said that the Department of Natural Resources was also contacted to discuss environmental hazards. They indicated that if the blades were to be cut up in an outdoor processing area, a NPDS General Permit 1 would need to be obtained to allow the discharge of stormwater from the area. The grinding process is typically covered by an air quality construction permit. "The primary risk from these facilitis is from airborn particles mainly composed of fiberglass dust, carbon fiber dust and epoxy resin particles. Other potential issues include micro plastic polution and potential fre hazards," Evens said.

He said that the goals of the land use plan is "to protect agricultural land in Benton County. Other goals include providing for the orderly growth of urban industrial and agricutlural lands so that they develop in harmony with each other and encourage the development of commercial industrial businesses in defined areas of the county."

Because this is located in the "general rural use area of the rural service area as defined by our land use plan, the majority of urban activities are discouraged from being located in the rural service area. This is essential to preserve the underlying economy of Benton County which is agriculture," Evens continued. "The general rule use area is intended to be open space and agricultural land with the exception of farm residences, appropriate rural residences and other low impact development. This proposal is not included as one of those intended uses within this area," he said.

Evens listed four criteria that must be met to approve such construction for non-agricultural uses. It may be permitted if the following is true.

-Use is not inconsistent with purposes set forth in section 352.1 of the Code of Iowa 1993

-The use does not interfere seriously with farm operations within the area

-The use does not materially alter the stability of the overall land use pattern in the area

-The proposed use is consistent with the specific policies of the Benton County Land Preservation Use for the existing or requested land uses.

Evens said that the project is not consistent with the last item and that there are concerns about its affect on local farming operations. Therefore, the office requested that it not be approved for this area.

Seeman requested to hear from the company. A spokesperson for the company spoke sharing their plans for the end of life of turbine blades handling them responsibly. He said that the company works with a business out of Cedar Rapids owned by Alliant Energy. He emphasized that they try to contain all of the dust inside a building and have done that almost completely.

Residents had an opportunity to ask questions. Several were concerned about potential health hazards and environmental hazards and the fear of potential health issues for our children and grandchildren in the area.

After a lengthy discussion, Barb Fetzer clarified that the supervisors are charged with following the ordinance which she said had been taken to the Iowa Supreme Court.

In the end, the Tippett made a motion to deny the land use change with Volz also voting to deny with Seeman voting against this decision, citing that he wanted more time.