Planning commission approves industrial zoning for two tracts
- Roger Sims
- 6 minutes ago
- 4 min read
By Charlene Sims
MOUND CITY – On Tuesday, Jan. 13, the Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended two rezoning applications for approval and had a brief workshop on policies for year-round camping, feedlots and continued an ongoing discussion on battery energy storage systems, data centers and bitcoin. Applications for a rezoning and conditional use permit for Eric and Emily Thies to operate a recreational motocross track was tabled until the next meeting. (See separate story)
An application was recommended for approval of rezoning nearly 600 acres of land owned by Evergy Kansas Metro Inc. from Agricultural to Light Industrial for the purpose of public utility and public service uses, specifically a substation.
This application was presented by Melissa Vancrum with the law firm of Rouse,
Frets, White, Goss, Gentile, Rhodes. Vancrum pointed out that the rezoning being requested was in order to provide for future electrical infrastructure next the existing power station to support unprecedented demand for electrical generation and distribution capacity.
Vancrum told the planning commissioners that this will help to ensure a more stable, reliable power and grid resilience. The proposed substation would only cover about 1.5% of the parcel of land or about 10 acres, including the fenced-in area.
After questions about the exact location of the substation, which has not been determined yet, the planning commission recommended approval of the rezoning.
The second application for rezoning was for Youthfront Camp to rezone about 260 acres from Agricultural to Heavy Industrial for the purpose of selling or leasing the property for future industrial use. No specific development plan has been submitted at this time.
The application was presented by Topher Philgreen, the executive vice president of Youthfront. Philgreen gave a brief history of the Youthfront organization, originally Kansas City Youth for Christ, which started in 1943.
Philgreen said that the Youthfront Camp at the proposed rezoning location had 22 cabins, a dining room, a snack shop and a chapel, a game room, a 530-foot water slide, and Olympic-size swimming pool on 630 acres.
Philgreen said that the board of directors of Youthfront were asking the planning commission to rezone the 260 acre tract so that it could be either sold or leased to raise funds for their organization to make improvements to the camping areas. He 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.
He also said 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, and the land directly to the south of 2400 Road across the road and contiguous to Youthfront is owned by Mulberry Limestone. On the border to the west is a very tall berm that was built by happenstance when U.S. Highway 69 was expanded, and on the north is Youthfront Camp.
The staff report, which recommended approval of the application, was read by Public Works Administrator Jesse Walton. The planning commission recommended approval of the application.
The planning and zoning commission then adjourned their regular meeting and began a brief workshop to discuss other items. Year round camping was on the agenda but Planning commission Chair David Fisher skipped over that because he said they had already had some discussion on it at a previous meeting. They went on to briefly discuss feedlots.
Walton told the planning commission that Planning and Zoning Director Jenny Cummings asked if they could just table the feedlot discussion until she was there to participate in the discussion. Fisher agreed to wait.
Planning commissioner Michael McVicker asked if there was a person getting ready to put in a feedlot or one already existing?
Walton said, “No , there’s a discussion about existing feed lots is what it is.”
Fisher added, “And I think it’s our existing regulations. I think we need to look at that.”
Planning commissioner Hal Aggers said that the existing regulations are a copy of what was in the regulations in 1997.
“I looked the up today,” said Aggers. “So they changed nothing other than what they are calling it now. It’s confined feeding operations where in the old regulations it was called feed lots. OK. But the rest of the wordage in it is exactly the same as it was in 1997. It’s in our book.”
Aggers said that McVicker, and planning commissioner Connie Gore and Daniel Black also needed books.
Walton said that the feedlots were also controlled by Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and commissioners should keep that in mind.
Fisher then brought up technology centers, battery storage and cryptocurrency mining.
“We’ve worked on combining,” Fisher said. “We agreed to the battery storage regulations. Then we started working on cryptocurrency and data centers. And so we had to combine all those. That’s what we’ve done in this. Hal and I worked on it and come up with a draft that’s pretty comprehensive. And I think at some point, we’re going to have to go through it page by page.
“But just like the conditions for the for the conditional use permit that we talked about earlier, what I’d like for you to do, this is a printed copy of it, is to take this home, go through it, jot your questions down or your suggestions down so when we do get into it next time, we can do it in an organized fashion.”
Aggers added, “The only thing we did not get through on that was domestic. I mean there’s domestic Bitcoin mining, domestic battery energy storage, and I don’t know if there’s domestic data center. There is some domestic stuff, but we did not get into that.
“All the industrial stuff and I think we are going to encourage them to come to our industrial sites. I mean that’s in our comprehensive plan. So if there’s any place in the county that we do want something like that, that is the industrial.”