Upon recommendation of the Cook County Planning Commission, the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved a conditional use permit to Jeremy Keeble to establish a hostel/bunkhouse in the FAR-3 zone district on a property adjacent to County Road 14 if he meets certain state septic guidelines, and other criteria that will be established by county Environmental Health and Septic Supervisor Mitch Everson.
The vote was 3-2 with
Commissioners Garry Gamble, Heidi Doo-Kirk and Jan Hall voting for, and Commissioners Sue Hakes and Bruce Martinson voting against issuing the
permit.
Keeble plans to convert an existing 32’ by 26’ barn, which he describes as newer and well built, into a facility that can accommodate overnight guests.
He provided the planning commission with two options for the conversion.
Option 1 includes four private rooms (two people per room) and conversion of the hayloft to accommodate an additional 12 people.
Option 2 includes three private rooms (two people per room) and bunk accommodations for six additional guests. Under option 2, showers
and pressurized water delivery are excluded; but a composting toilet is retained.
Commissioners had concerns about the lack of a septic system for the bunkhouse, but Planning & Zoning Administrator Bill Lane said that either option for the septic system must be reviewed and then approved by Everson prior to any work done on the building site.
“This permit can’t go forward without Mitch’s approval,” said Lane, adding that ground assessments can’t be made until the ground was free from snow.
Martinson and Hakes said they didn’t see enough oversight in the conditional use permit and voted against issuing it. Commissioner Gamble also had some questions, but he asked Commissioner Doo-Kirk, who represents the county board on the Planning Commission, if she was comfortable with the document as written and the stipulations as imposed, and she said she was.
Temporary housing receives conditional use permit
Next Lane brought forward a conditional use permit for temporary use
of a house trailer requested by Greg Lindgren that had also been approved
by the planning commission.
Lindgren owns 120 acres of property adjacent to the Sugarloaf Road in the Township of Schroeder. He currently has a 660-square-foot house
trailer on the property, which he said he uses approximately 20-25 days a year.
In asking for an interim use permit Lindgren wrote, “The desired plan is
to begin construction on a permanent structure within five years. Our intent is to build a retirement home on our property and make a permanent move to Cook County.”
Lane recommended approving the request by Lindgren and the board voted unanimously to do so.
Gravel pits reviewed, some renewed
Lane recommended 11 gravel-mining sites for renewal for 2014. Gravel
pit permits were issued to Isak Hansen & Sons, Schroeder Township, Clarence Kamp, Judith Twiest, Steve and Sharon Watson, Dean Berglund, Cook County
Highway Department, Greg Thompson, John S. Mathisen, George and Cheryl Humphrey and Rick and Randi Nelson.
The board gave unanimous approval for these permits.
Two mining operations were found to have some problems, said Lane. The first was KGM Contractors and Snow Creek Inc., Gravel Mining, an asphalt
mix plant. While no gravel or hot mix was produced at the Waverly (Snow Creek) pit in 2013, Lane did a site review and found that “at least” 15 acres
of the site were open, although the permit only allowed for only 10 acres.
KGM had used the extra acreage to stockpile significant volumes of recycled asphalt product and concrete debris gathered from county-based
projects. Lane said that KGM had agreed to restore the area in question, including removal of stockpiles and would restore the vegetation to bring the pit back to its 10-acre allowance.
The board agreed to reissue the 2014 permit to KGM as long as they follow
through on their promise to restore the site to 10 acres.
The Stan Bautch Gravel Mine, located about five miles out of town on County Road 6, was also found to be out of compliance, said Lane. “It increased (over 2012) significantly above the 10-acre allowance,” said Lane.
“Even with conservative GPS estimates, well over 20 acres of the Bautch
pits are open,” Lane said. Other problems include a lack of topsoil stockpiled—which is used to integrate into mined over areas—and some possible problems with sediment and erosion control measures along the property’s southern border.
There was also an issue of an unpermitted sawmill in the northeast corner of the property, said Lane. Bautch attended the planning commission meeting and addressed Lane’s concerns. His reply was recorded in the meeting minutes.
As to the complaint that his operation contained well over 20 acres of open area, Bautch responded by suggesting he couldn’t determine what “open area means.”
He also stated that the aerial photo didn’t accurately represent the vegetation on the property.
Finally, he suggested that the stockpiles were not representative of open areas in the pit, and he suggested the planning commission visit the site to evaluate
Lane’s observations as they applied to his permit.
Bautch also stated that there was little topsoil on the site and because of it, it was impossible to replace topsoil that was never there. He did acknowledge the presence of a sawmill, but said he didn’t know that he needed a permit for that.
Lane said that the planning commission was going to visit the Bautch site in the spring and following that visit they would bring his conditional use permit back to the county board.
The commissioners agreed to revisit the matter in the spring after the planning commission walked the site and came back with its recommendations.
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