Commission OKs recommendations

Changes to zoning rules for confined feeding operations in Jay County are one step closer to being finalized.

Jay County Plan Commission OK’d two recommendations Thursday night to modify rules approved last month by Jay County Commissioners.

The recommendations call for changes on mail notification and tier limits.

In September, commissioners approved setbacks of 750 feet from residences for confined feeding operations with 100 to 500 cattle or horses, 300 to 8,800 sheep, 300 to 8,800 swine, 500 to 24,000 ducks, 500 to 48,000 starter turkeys, 500 to 30,000 turkeys, and 5,000 to one million chickens. Operations with more animals than those limits would require a setback of 1,320 feet (a quarter mile). They approved a 1-mile radius and certified mail for notification of proposed construction sites.

The two recommendations plan commission approved Thursday night call for altering the mail notification standards to a half-mile radius and regular mail as well as increasing the number of swine and sheep in first tier to 10,000. They stem from a series of informal recommendations issued by plan commission in July, when it rejected the changes initially approved by commissioners in June.

Thursday’s recommendations highlight the back-and-forth process to alter regulations for confined feeding operations in the county. For instance, the recommendation on mail notification bucks both what the plan commission originally proposed and that of what the commissioners approved.  

Plan commission members Larry Temple, Matt Minnich, Mike Rockwell, Jim Zimmerman, Shane Houck, Paula Confer, Brad Daniels, Scott Hilfiker, absent Ron Laux, unanimously approved the recommendation on mail notification. Confer was the lone vote against changes to the rules’ first-tier.

The two recommendations will now head back to Jay County Commissioners for their approval, which would likely end the two-year process to alter county CFO regulations. The process began in summer 2014 after J Star Farms started construction on a chicken operation without the proper permits.

Thursday’s meeting likely marked the last plan commission meeting for Zimmerman, who serves as its president in his capacity as a county commissioner. He chose not to run for re-election.