New setbacks recommended

A recommendation for buffer zones around two local municipalities will go to public hearing next month.
Jay County Plan Commission Thursday approved recommending to Jay County Commissioners half-mile setback buffer areas around Redkey and Salamonia for confined feeding operations. But before commissioners can approve it, residents will have a chance to voice their opinions at a public hearing to be held in November.
Plan commission members looked at three different range options for buffers around the towns’ corporate limits, including a half-mile, 1 mile and 2 miles. The creation of the setback would prevent construction of new operations in the area, and CFOs currently in the buffer zone would have to go to Jay County Board of Zoning Appeals to request a variance if they wished to expand.
“I think we need to protect our incorporated areas,” said member Jim Zimmerman.
The commission compared the towns to others that already have buffer areas put in place — Pennville with a one-mile setback and Dunkirk with half a mile — and debated which route was more reasonable.
Commission member Paula Confer made a motion to place a one-mile buffer around Redkey, to stay in line with what Pennville was granted, but others on the board weren’t so inclined.
“Redkey doesn’t have any reason to go a mile,” said member Eric Pursiful. “It takes up too much land.”
“Why would we give them more than Dunkirk?” asked Mike Rockwell.
With no one at the meeting to represent Redkey’s interests, the commission voted to approve a recommendation for a half-mile buffer, knowing that if residents come to the public hearing to voice their opinions it would be able to reconsider.
As for Salamonia, which already has a setback of 1,550 feet around the part of town zoned rural residential, it was a matter of considering the town’s request of a one-mile buffer.
Residents told commission members that the town has a smell at different times throughout the year because of the CFOs already in place and doesn’t want to see that get worse. There are currently seven CFOs, which total 16 barns, within a mile of Salamonia’s corporate limits.
The board took into account wind patterns, and ultimately decided a half-mile would be sufficient for the town and voted unanimously for that recommendation.
Both issues will go to a public hearing set for Nov. 13.
In other business, commission members Steve Ritchie, Brad Daniels, Ron Laux, Zimmerman, Confer, Rockwell and Pursiful, absent Scott Hilfiker, Larry Temple and Shane Houck:
•Announced the first meeting of the Advisory Study Group for the Plan Commission, which will review the county’s confined feeding operation ordinance to make change recommendations. The study commission will meet at 5 p.m. Oct. 21 in the auditorium of Jay County Courthouse for a preliminary informational discussion.