Hearing set on CFO proposals

Local officials have been discussing potential changes to the county’s confined feeding ordinance for a year and a half. On Thursday, members of the public will have a chance to voice their opinions.
Jay County Plan Commission’s meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium at Jay County Courthouse will include a public hearing on proposed changes to the confined feeding ordinance.
A confined feeding study commission formed by Jay County Commissioners presented its recommendations for changes to the confined feeding ordinance in October.
The group’s ideas included new requirements for repairs to roads damaged during the construction of CFOs, setbacks from residences, minimum acreage, contacting neighbors of proposed operations, site selection and permit requirements, length and cost. It also recommended an annual review of the Jay County water table by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
The plan commission has spent several months reviewing and discussing the proposals, with setbacks as its main focus.
“I know some have said we’ve not listened to the study commission. I think overall we have, because … I think we’ve given a pretty good explanation of why we’ve not done some of the things that they recommended,” plan commission president Jim Zimmerman said Tuesday. “Some of it doesn’t really apply to what the plan commission can do.
“But I think overall we’ve tried to listen pretty well to the recommendations that they made.”
The setback proposal the plan commission settled on in January matches the recommendation made by the study commission.
It calls for two levels, with 750 feet from residences required for operations with fewer than 500 cattle, 24,000 ducks, 30,000 turkeys, 8,800 hogs or 1 million chickens. Operations that exceed those numbers would require a setback of a quarter mile.
The plan commission — Scott Hilfiker, Mike Rockwell, Jim Zimmerman, Eric Pursifull, Larry Temple, Matt Minnich, Shane Houck, Brad Daniels and Ron Laux — also decided last month on a 1,500-foot setback for open manure storage areas.
During its discussions, the group talked about the possibility of as many as four setback levels, but decided that idea was too complicated.
“We were wanting to try to keep it as simple as we can for building and planning to be able to administer what we’re doing,” said Zimmerman.
He added that he hopes following the public hearing the plan commission will be ready to vote on the recommendations. If approved, they would then move to the county commissioners.
The current ordinance includes the following setbacks: 750 feet from any residence not owned by the confined feeding operator; 1,250 feet from any existing church, school, business, public building or area zoned commercial; 1,550 feet from any area zoned rural residential, 100 feet from any property line or road or highway right-of-way.
There are also setbacks of 2 miles from Portland, 1 mile each from Redkey and Pennville and a half-mile each from Dunkirk and Salamonia.
The discussion about changes started during summer 2014 after J Star Farms began construction of a chicken confined feeding operation without the proper permits. The commissioners formed the study commission that September, and the group spent about six months reviewing rules, meeting with experts and talking about potential new rules.
The group’s recommendations were finalized last summer and presented to the plan commission in October.
The county has already changed its fine structure for operations that do not follow the required permit process. Fines are $2,500 for the first violation and $7,500 for subsequent violations, which are the state maximum. Previously, the county had a fine of $2,500 for the first violation and between $10 and $300 a day for subsequent violations.