By Robert Williams

Editor

The Becker County Board of Commissioners approved the new Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the Cannabis and Animal Feedlot zoning ordinances at a special meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 31.

The animal feedlot ordinance dominated conversation between the public and the board.

During the open forum, Bill Henke, of the Isaak Walton League, requested two studies on feedlots and wake boat usage be included in the final version of the county’s plan.

“I realize that may or may not be included today but there is critical content in there,” he said. “Your constituency acted in good faith to provide information that is well-sourced and has science to back it, so I respectfully submit that it should be incorporated into the comp plan and made available to the public, as the comprehensive plan is,” Henke said.

Henke did not mince words in his opinion of the feedlot amendment to the zoning ordinance.

“It is lacking in specificity as it is written and at this point in time it should not be accepted,” he said. “It is deficient for multiple reasons. It really smacks of cookie cutter. It’s lacking in specificity, particularly in regards to site selection and it really doesn’t account for such items as slope, soil composition, the connectivity of the adjacent waterways that are present and many of our adjacent fields are pattern-tile drained and certainly that needs to be taken into account.”

Henke also expressed concerns about wording and language used: 

Shoreland to Shore Impact zones lack definition based on discussions of the last planning and zoning meeting. 

Distances appear arbitrary – 300-feet for 1,500 or less animal units. 500-feet for animal units greater than 1,500.

“1,499 animal units 300-feet away, several thousand hogs in a unit like that – it really has no basis other than being arbitrary; that’s another key area I’m concerned about,” said Henke.

Well monitoring lacked definition.

“If you’re going to consider an ordinance there should be definition with it,” Henke said. “For instance, are you going to obtain baseline data so you can make a comparison? How may wells get sunk around a site? What about the landowner who lives a quarter mile away and several years down the road comes in with concerns that my well is contaminated by nitrates? Do we have a base line so that individual has a foot to stand on?”

Henke also spoke on reparations.

“Manure spillage, tile drainage that fouls surface water with nitrates, adjacent wells that are a problem? Who is responsible for that?” he said. “Reparations need to be a significant aspect of this.”

Henke clarified he was not speaking about local farmers, but large corporations.

“How do we seek out reparations for repair and for protection of the county?” he said.

Henke called the ordinance a “work in progress” and “needs to factor more in at this point and time,” and asked that it be brought back to the drawing board.

Rick Muff, of Callaway, who raises hogs in Becker and Clay Counties gave his support of animal agriculture. 

“We’re not big corporate farms out here, we’re just trying to make a living,” he said.

Muff stated he has a location with 2,000 hogs on it and stated it really isn’t that big, refuting Henke’s claim.

“We are not out there trying to pollute; we’re doing the best job we can to protect the environment and we want to protect the environment,” he said. “I like the plan and I hope you can pass this and we can move on and get more animal agriculture in Becker County.”

Matthew Davis of Lakeview Township also spoke on the matter discussing public involvement and active citizen involvement.

“It’s almost like – it just went silent and it got even more silent the closer we got to the finish line,” he said. “We had to pay attention to the legal notices in the paper. That does not seem like a very good way to run an operation. Seems like you should be amping up opportunities for the public to be more involved in this process which is going to guide our county for the next 20 years.”

Davis, a fellow Ike with Henke in the Prairie Woods Chapter, also brought up the two Walton League reports and asked if the reports were considered in regards to the comp plan and ordinance.

“What message does this send to Becker County residents if they want to be active in helping you accomplish finding solutions for problems that we identify but the work that we put in goes unlistened to?” said Davis. “Are citizens going to step up and be active in helping to address these concerns that we’re all going to face together in the future? I would say the citizenry is going to say, ‘The commissioners don’t care; why should we waste our time and we’ll just move on to something else.”

Davis expressed the growing difficulties and encouraged commissioners to take up citizens who want to be active in finding solutions.

Biologis Willis Mattson spoke on both the comp plan and the animal feedlot ordinance.

He reiterated the work cited by the prior two speakers.

Mattson reiterated points in the report he has made in prior meetings, along with Henke, on the negative influences of feedlots on the economy, jobs, property values and for water quality. 

“The setbacks that are in the proposed ordinance are not supported by any facts,” Mattson said. “Nowhere have they shown to be effective. So, the end factor is only window dressing that should be discarded and substituted by real differences and soil conditions and slopes that are protective of the water. Water quality monitoring should be done by design by a licensed hydrogeologist that is familiar with where impacts would occur from a particular site.”

Steve Lindow of Ponsford, a District 1 Planning Commission member, spoke on behalf of the commission regarding feedlots.

Lindow noted the technical committee is imperative to addressing feedlots and the committee should be required to meet at least once to discuss and figure out things like manure application prior to it getting to planning and zoning.

“That’s where we can get at this stuff and we can get the technical stuff out of the way before we have our meeting so we have an understanding of what is real and what’s not real,” he said. “Oftentimes, all we hear is what someone’s opinion is on something. That doesn’t lead to good decisions and recommendations.”

Lindow called the ordinances being proposed as an “open door to abuse the ordinance.”

“It’s not specific enough,” he said.

Lindow also cited issues with feedlot applications being incomplete when submitted.

“With a complete application, if there is something that comes up that’s not there we should be able to send that application back,” said Lindow.

Jake Hein from Audubon Township and President of the Becker County Farm Bureau thanked the board for the work done and said changes made on the feedlot side have been common sense.

“That’s what we really need to take into consideration is the common sense idea that farmers already deal with a pretty overly burdensome regulatory system in the state,” he said. “It’s very thorough and we already have a lot of hoops to jump through.”

Hein also noted most farmers are conservationists.

“We have to take care of our land in order to have it produce for us and be healthy for our families that we raise on our own land,” he said. “We have a vested stake in the continuation of agriculture over years and years to come. We won’t be able to do that if we’re being irresponsible.”

Hein noted it’s easy to point at farming as a pollution problem when the same regulations are not put on excessive lakeshore development and large applications of fertilizers on lawns.

“In all reality, the water quality issue is a very large issue that needs to be addressed and talked about in all forms, not just pushed on the side of commercial agriculture,” he said.

Commissioner Barry Nelson asked Hein if he, as the President of the Becker County Farm Bureau, would like to have documents included into the comp plan, as requested by the Walton League members. Nelson went on to call the League’s request to have those documents included “silly.”

Hein responded with appreciation of the open forum for discussion at the county level while acknowledging if the county requested more information from him he would include it.

“Farming is evolving at a rapid rate,” said Nelson. “You’re looking at cover crops, strip tilling and strip seeding, applying fertilizers without turning the soils. It’s going there and I think we’re going in the right direction. Farmers’ best interest is keeping that soil healthy and on the field. Those nutrients are key to that.”

Hein followed up with the benefits of commercial animal agriculture in the rural areas of the county and how better it will be for other farmers.

“The use of organic animal manure is so much healthier for the soil than commercial fertilizers that are full of salt,” he said. “There is an extreme amount of benefit to having organic animal agriculture and a healthy system for that in the county.”

Some language modifications were made regarding light pollution, developing a nuisance ordinance and surface water ordinances. In regards to light pollution, the changes were to encourage less light pollution rather than mandate it in any way.

The land use plan and feedlot ordinance passed unanimously.

The latest draft of the ordinance is available on the county’s website

Cannabis

Recommendations from planning and zoning to double the setbacks between cannabis businesses are not allowed, according to County Administrator Carrie Smith.

The board approved the original setbacks prior to the commission’s recommendations, which are 1,000-feet from a school, and 500-feet from a church, daycare, library, residence on an adjacent property, residential treatment facility, park, playground or athletic field.

State law does not allow the county to extend the setback distances regarding sales of cannabis.

The county is going along with the state’s recommendations on size in regards to businesses growing cannabis. The state will be the regulatory agency in regards to growing. The county level is to issue a conditional use permit.

Counties in Minnesota are in somewhat of a conundrum in regards to governing cannabis use and business with the delays at the state level. Licenses for businesses were scheduled to be issued in 2025 but there has been no concrete date set on when that will happen.

Cannabis licensing in Minnesota has progressed more slowly than initially anticipated. According to the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), the review process is taking longer than expected, resulting in delays to the rollout of licenses. As the first round of licensing is still in progress, the timeline for the general licensing phase remains on hold but is expected to be announced by early 2025. Applicants from the first round, initially set to receive license approvals by fall of this year, are now anticipated to receive the lottery results and approval by year’s end.

There will be 10 different state licenses available: retailer, wholesaler, manufacturer, cultivator, microbusiness, mezzo-business, cannabis testing facility, delivery service, event organizer and transporter.

The county approved the cannabis ordinance while acknowledging it is going to be amended over time with regards to future actions from the state.