BLUE EARTH– Faribault County Planning and Zoning administrator Sara Hauskins brought two Conditional Use Permit (CUP) applications to the Faribault County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.

The first one, for the construction of a Solar Monitoring System tower on land owned by John and Georgiann Pfaffinger, passed with little discussion.

“This is a testing tower for the Invenergy Solar Development project,” Hauskins explained. “It is a temporary tower which will be in place for 14-18 months.”

The board approved the CUP on a 4-0 vote with commissioner Tom Loveall abstaining because he is an investor in the project.

A CUP for a swine operation in Clark Township garnered more discussion before it finally passed on a 3-2 vote. The Planning and Zoning Board had split on the matter in a 3-3 vote.

The application came from Allen Miller, owner of Prairieview Swine, LLC.

His site was originally permitted for 1,200 animal units. The changes he is making to his operation would necessitate bumping the animal unit number up to 1,380. No new buildings are being added.

The site was originally permitted in 1995. In 1997, an update to the Faribault County Feedlot Ordinance added a requirement that all new sites be built on lots that are at least 10 acres in size if they exceed 1,000 animal units.

“I have reviewed the ordinance and my conclusion is the 10-acre rule does not apply in this situation, which is an existing permitted feedlot,” county attorney Cameron Davis commented. “The 10-acre requirement applies only to new feedlots. I believe this can be allowed as long as it is under 2,000 animal units and a CUP is obtained.”

The first motion came from commissioner Tom Loveall to keep the allowed animal units at 1,200, to remove a maintenance fee which is no longer required and to change the name of the operation on the permit.

That motion failed on a 3-2 vote with Loveall and commissioner Greg Young voting in favor of the motion and commissioners Bill Groskreutz and John Roper along with chairperson Bruce Anderson voting against the motion.

Groskreutz then made a motion to approve the CUP for up to 1,380 animal units along with removing the maintenance fee and changing the name. Groskreutz, Roper and Anderson voted in favor of the motion while Loveall and Young voted against it, so the motion passed.

The board also:

— Approved the request of Barb Ziegler of the Faribault County Attorney’s Office to attend a training conference on Intimate Partner Violence.

— Voted to approve the request of Lisa Frommie of the Faribault County Sheriff’s Department to attend the Association of Minnesota Emergency Managers Conference.