MARSHALL - There was plenty of opposition to a proposed hog barn expansion outside Marshall voiced at a hearing Tuesday morning, including concerns from neighbors and Lyon County commissioners. However, commissioners said they couldn't deny a permit for the barn, as it met the requirements of county ordinances.
Lyon County Planning and Zoning Administrator John Biren said the county Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the approval of a conditional use permit for a finishing barn to be built on Dean Noyes' property in Fairview Township. The barn would hold 1,200 head of hogs being raised for market. Noyes already has three existing barns with a total capacity for 2,200 head of swine. The barn would be located a little more than a mile from the Marshall city limits, Biren said.
At a Planning Commission hearing last Tuesday, Biren said, there was a lot of opposition to the CUP, from both neighboring residents and the city of Marshall.
"Odor was the overwhelming concern," Biren said. Members of the Planning Commission drafted a total of 16 conditions for the CUP, including conditions meant to help control odor and manure application from the feedlot.
Several neighbors of Noyes' farm spoke out again at this week's hearing, saying they objected to the smell of the hog barns. Mona DeVries said that while Noyes was a good neighbor, there was still a problem with noise and flies at her rural home. Terry Chlebecek said there were also concerns about the barns' presence lowering neighboring property values.
Noyes was present at the hearing.
"I've tried to do the best I can" with the hog barns, Noyes said. He also said some of the statements made by opponents of the hog barn at last week's planning commission hearing were not true.
Don Buhl of Tyler defended the barn proposal. Buhl said he owns the hogs being raised in Noyes' barns, and he has seen how clean Noyes kept his operation. The barn expansion was also a chance to contribute to the area economy, he said.
"Dean is trying to make an opportunity here," Buhl said. "At some point, we'll have to find a place for those hogs."
Lyon County Board Chairman Bob Fenske said he had "some real problems as far as voting to approve the expansion," because of problems he had heard with the existing barns. However, Biren said the only complaint he had on file for Noyes' barns was from 2005 and had to do with the trees Noyes had planted as a buffer around the barns.
Commissioner Rick Anderson suggested that a third row of trees or bushes be planted around the barns, and Noyes said he wouldn't have a problem with that.
Commissioner Rodney Stensrud asked if the board could deny the CUP if the proposal met setback and other requirements. Lyon County Attorney Rick Maes said commissioners could add conditions to the CUP, but the Planning Commission found the project to meet the requirements of county ordinances.
Anderson moved to approve the CUP with changes, including an additional condition planting a row of large shrubs in the buffer around the hog barns, and permission for Noyes to spread manure closer than 600 feet from a rural residence if he obtains written permission from the residents.
Although Fenske said he was "very reluctant," commissioners voted unanimously to approve the CUP.