Less than two weeks before a public hearing concerning the approval of Southwest Regional Development Commission’s proposed Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the plan itself came under fire from the Lyon County Board of Commissioners.
Chris Webb, SRDC transportation director, presented the plan in full to Lyon County Commissioners on Tuesday and got a mostly positive response. But there was one area in particular that met some resistance.
That would be Land Use Goals, one of seven goals that make up the plan. This chapter aims to guide future development, protect valuable natural resources, and enhance the quality of life for all residents.
The County essentially found itself walking the line between preserving agricultural land and working with outside organizations and programs.
Two of the goals of that chapter are to “promote and preserve public resources” and “act to preserve prime agricultural land from fragmentation and encroaching developments.”
Considering all the land that has been — and will be in future — sacrificed for alternative energy projects (wind and solar farms) — those two goals, Lyon County Commissioner Rick Anderson said, contradict each other.
Lyon County Planning & Zoning Administrator John Biren said that goal has attracted the most attention and controversy at recent public leaning sessions.
“When you get into your goals, (those two goals) almost want to tight each other to a certain extent,” Anderson said. “We’re pushing to set all this land aside and wanting to work with different entities, but they don’t want to work with us because they just come in and buy (land) and put it into whatever they want anyway.”
Anderson’s comments were met with silence from Webb and Biren right away, before Webb cited verbiage from the plan that talks about promoting, supporting and maintaining public recreation opportunities including trails, parks and outdoor recreation. The conflict arises, Anderson said, when the plan addresses land restoration.
“That’s where we don’t get along very well with developers or the DNR and BWSR (Minnesota Board of Water & Soil Resources),” said Anderson.
Another short moment of silence followed that comment.
“It does say that Lyon County recognizes agriculture as a foundational element of its economy, culture and rural identity,” Biren said. “It wasn’t the intent to dismiss that, that’s for certain.”
Anderson said the County’s welcoming of an insurgence of alternative energy projects implies it is not looking out for the prime farmland.
“Saving the prime farmground in an important thing; we still build our tax base on that,” Anderson said. “And the more we put into Pheasants Forever, or Fish & Wildlife, we lose that, and everybody else is going to pay.”
Biren responded by saying the County’s ordinances don’t prevent private landowners from doing what they want with their land.
Anderson agrees that the County and its residents will realize some economic benefit from incoming energy projects, but random land purchases by outdoors organizations “really don’t help us,” he said.
According to the Land Management Information Center, 88.1% of Lyon County’s 21,637 acres is considered “transitional agricultural land.”
Ultimately, Webb asked Anderson if he would like to see some change in the language of the land use portion of the plan. Webb said he would put some new language together.
“I think what (the Land Use part of the plan Anderson questioned) is really talking about is preserving opportunities for residents to have outdoor recreation,” said Webb. “Habitat, restoration — does it really fit here? That’s one thing that we could look at.”
Town hall meetings were held in October in Balaton, Marshall and Cottonwood. The board set Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. for a public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan, at which time the final approval will occur.
