Commission rejects Youthfront rezoning on split zone

By Charlene Sims, Journal staff

LCJeditor@icloud.com

MOUND CITY – On Monday, April 20, the Linn County Commissioners turned down a rezoning request that had been approved twice by the county’s planning commission and had to be postponed twice for final approval by the commission due to staff error and staff rearranging the planning commission’s schedule. The vote for the denial of the rezoning was 2 to 1 with Commissioner Jason Hightower voting against denying the application,.

Topher Philgreen the executive vice president of Youthfront, a youth camp sponsored by Kansas City, Kan.-based Youth for Christ, first came to the zoning commission with his application for rezoning for 258 acres of the 630 acres of the land owned by the organization. The request was to change the zoning from Agricultural to Heavy Industrial on January 13, 2026. The Youthfront board of directors was looking at options to either lease or sell the land in order raise funds to remodel the current camp and add other camps in the area.

At the January meeting, Philgreen pointed out that this parcel is not farmable for row crops; the land to the north and east and contiguous to Youthfront is owned by Evergy and is currently zoned Heavy Industrial; the land directly to the east on the south end and next to 2400 Road and also contiguous to Youthfront and on Youthfront’s land is in a long-term lease owned by Hamm Quarries; the land directly to the south of 2400 Road across the street and contiguous to Youthfront is owned by Mulberry Limestone; the border to the west is a very tall berm that his organization got by happenstance when they expanded 69 Highway; and on the north is Youthfront Camp.

At the January planning and zoning meeting the rezoning was recommended for approval by the planning commission.

However, when the application came in front of the Linn County Commission on Feb. 2 for the final approval of, Commission Chair Alison Hamilton brought up a concern that notification letters of the rezoning were not sent out to all landowners within 1,000 feet of the border of this property.

After a recess where this mistake was confirmed, Youthfront’s application was sent back to the planning and zoning commission so that all landowners in the 1,000 foot distance could be notified and have the ability express their concerns by recommendation of the County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta.

The regular planning and zoning commission meeting was postponed from March 13 to March 31 because a workshop was held on March 13. So, Youthfront’s application did not come before the planning commission meeting until March 31. A public hearing was once again conducted for the rezoning and it nearly did not pass due to lack of second to approve it. It ended up passing on a 4 to 2 vote.

When the application finally arrived at the Linn County Commission meeting on April 20, Planning and Zoning Director Jennifer Cummings gave her staff report for the Youthfront rezoning at 22724 East 2400 Road, La Cygne, recommending approval of the application citing compliance with the county’s comprehensive plan.

Hamilton attempted to hold another public hearing with members of the audience but Commissioner Jason Hightower pointed out that a public hearing had already been held.

Paletta said that the public hearing was heard at the zoning commission meeting and this meeting was just for the commissioners to vote. However, Paletta also said case law said that it was ultimately up to the chairman to decided if any comments would be allowed.

Hamilton decided to not allow the public hearing but gave her thoughts on the rezoning application. Hamilton read the definitions for a heavy industrial district, part of which read,

“Many of these industries store bulk quantities of raw or scrap materials for processing to semi-finished products. Commercial uses permitted in this district are generally those which serve the convenience of those serving industrial establishments and their employees.Certain intensive, and obnoxious or hazardous uses are allowed upon the issuance of a conditional use permit (CUP).”

She then read permitted uses that do not require any sort of CUP would be agriculture, animal hospitals, veterinarian clinics, kennels, bottling works, carpentry, cabinet, plumbing, metal shops, contractor’s offices, storage yards, dry cleaning, laundry plants, feed and seed, grain elevators, frozen food lockers, greenhouses, nurseries, retail or wholesale, machine shops, tool and die shops, similar establishments, manufacturing, processing or fabrication establishments which are not noxious or offensive by reason of vibration, noise, dust and fumes, gas and odor.

“Manufactured home production, storage and sales of units produced on site,” she said “Motor vehicle repair, offices, yards for the Kansas Department of Transportation. Other uses may be noxious or offensive by reason of emission odor, dust, smoke, gas, noise or vibration.”

Hamilton repeated that these were all allowed without continual use permits. She continued:

“Public utility, public service, including municipal power plants, substations, lift stations, railroads, telephone exchanges, microwave towers, radio towers, television towers, television transmission buildings, electric generating systems, and power plants and public utility storage yards.”

“Again, without a conditional use permit,” said Hamilton.

She continued:

“Service stations, storage yards, providing the storage yard is completely enclosed with six-foot fence or wall, truck and rail terminals, warehouses, storage houses, welding shops.”

“So, my opinion, with their application and where I’m at on this would be that we are opening a door to our citizens, our countryside, residents to leverage uses in that area at 257 acres for something that does not conform with our comprehensive plan,” Hamilton added.

Hamilton said to Cummings, “I feel that you did say it conformed in the staff writings because that’s your job to do that when the planning and zoning votes a certain way. This could be leveraged either way. But we have no chance as a county to fight up against battery storage, a data center, anything when we are saying as the commission we approve this type of development within just approving heavy industrial. We have no control over that.

“I know you say that we do, but we don’t and we wouldn’t. And I do not think that it aligns with the use of protecting and enhancing rural character, managing and minimizing adverse effects of intrusive developments of land uses. Encourage the efficient use of land and focus development in areas already served by utilities. Reform the local development process so it’s clear, concise, and easy to follow. Those are the objectives of land use and development for Linn County according to our comprehensive plan.

“And I absolutely do not agree with changing 257 acres to heavy industrial without a plan and the unknown and ultimately giving up a conditional use permit according to our regulations which would be number 23 in the industrial zone Table 12-1. I am not in favor of approving this parcel to be heavy industrial.”

Commissioner Jim Johnson said, “I have the same concerns myself because, you know, we don’t know what the game plan is.”

Hamilton said, “I think as a county we are working on right now going through where we stand as a county with battery storage, data centers, bitcoin mining. We haven’t finished that process. I don’t think we know where we stand as a county.

“We haven’t had the public hearings, the public forums and we’re still working through that. And by us approving this, that basically says, well, this area is going to be exempt from that. But maybe the entire county doesn’t want it. And then, we’re saying but we already approved this area to have that.

“I think that our regulations for permanent and conditional uses that needs to be maybe looked at again because I am not OK with approving this when it clearly states public utility and public service uses including municipal power plants, substations, lift stations, railroads, telephone exchanges, microwave towers, radio towers, television towers, telephone transmission buildings, electric generating systems and power plants, public utility storage yards, I’m just, I feel like we are putting all of our residents in that area at a huge risk.”

Commissioner Hightower asked, “Don’t they already have those risks?”

“Yes, I do. I do think and I do believe that our county has been at risk for a lot of issues with the power plant,” said Hamilton. “Yes, I’ve done my research on that. There are two lawsuits currently being seen at the Supreme Court level over water contamination in the aquifer under the land where I actually live. So, yes, I absolutely believe that’s there’s issues with our power plant. They dug too deep and they put ash in areas that were too deep and hit our aquifer.

“So, yes. And people that live out there, the fly ash, everything. Yeah. No, there’s huge issues. But again, as a county, once you accept that infrastructure, you don’t have any control over it.  It’s not on us anymore to protect the citizens. It’s up to big government.”

“And what to you say to our citizens that are complaining about the higher taxes that they’re seeing and things of that nature,” asked Hightower.   

“Well, if we want to get into property taxes, that’s an issue that I believe that comes directly from the state of Kansas. You can look at the 91% increase however you want, but the 91% increase did not come from the commission at all,” said Hamilton. “And your state of Kansas Property Valuation Division (PVD) officer they all regulate what we have to do, quote unquote. And like I've said multiple times at other meetings, the citizens need to come together and they need to come to us or don’t come to us and have a petition signed that puts a cap on a 3% increase or a ballot question that eliminates it.

“The people have opportunity to do that. They’re just uneducated. If you don’t want your taxes to increase, the state of Kansas didn’t do it for you. Governor Kelly vetoed it. And so you can write a petition for the same language that she used and have a thousand people sign it and you can have exactly what she brought to the table. It’s a charter ordinance, Johnson County has done it. That’s what I say to the people. You have control. They can override what we vote on. The people have control. It’s just the knowledge.”

Hamilton made a motion to deny the Youthfront application for rezoning 257 acres from agricultural to industrial use.

Paletta said that Hamilton needed to articulate the findings or the rationale. She told Hamilton that she could mention as she previously stated on the record. The rezoning factors are in section 20-108.

“So in your motion you need to articulate the findings or the reasons for overriding the planning and zoning vote,” said Paletta.

Hamilton started over, “All right, I’ll make a motion that we deny the Youthfront Heavy Industrial zoning because it is incompatible with surrounding agricultural and rural residential uses. The intensity and potential impacts of heavy industrial uses exceed what is appropriate for this location given the existing infrastructure access and the rural character of the area.

“The rezoning is not consistent with the Linn County Comprehensive Plan which designates this area for agricultural preservation in low intensity rural areas. The rezoning may negatively affect nearby property values and general welfare of surrounding area. The applicant to did not demonstrate the public necessity or community benefit sufficient to justify the transition from Agriculture to Heavy Industrial zoning.”

Johnson seconded the motion. It passed 2 to 1 with Hightower voting against it.