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Thursday, September 13, 2007
Ind. Law - "Zoning rule changed, Henry residents now must petition for protection"
Joy Leiker writes today in the Muncie Star-Press:
NEW CASTLE -- Henry County residents worried that a confined feeding operation might move next door to their rural homes have one protective option -- ask the planning commission to rezone their property.But that request comes with a price -- $145 to pay for a public hearing and notice in the newspaper -- and without a guarantee that the planning commission will approve it.
After the Henry County Board of Commissioners voted to change its zoning law on Wednesday, that public hearing and request process became all the more important for rural residents living in homes built on land zoned for agriculture, rather than zoned for residential use. The public hearing is now the last layer of protection for residents who want to keep at bay confined feeding operations, and any other facility that requires permission to build.
On Wednesday commissioners approved a one-word change to the zoning law that eliminated some security for homeowners. For those with homes built on property zoned for agriculture, the zoning change means confined feeding operations can be 300 feet, instead of 2,000 feet, away.
And it's not just about confined feeding * * *
The zoning change also means less protection for those same rural homeowners from an airport, prison or junk yard.
As just one example, a junk yard could be built 300 feet away from a neighboring agricultural-zoned property, compared to 2,000 feet from residential-zoned land.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 13, 2007 07:50 AM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Law