About 50 property owners attended a public hearing of the Cook County Planning Commission Wednesday, November 18, 2009 to discuss a draft of a county septic ordinance created by committee over the last year.
The State of Minnesota has required each county to enact a subsurface sewage treatment system ordinance by February 2010, although lenience will be granted counties still working on the ordinance at that time.
Numerous citizens expressed concerns over certain portions of the proposed ordinance that are more stringent than state law requires.
After a two-and-a-half-hour meeting, the Planning Commission directed Planning & Zoning staff to revise the draft ordinance to reflect the concerns that had been expressed.
“We’ve got to really pay close attention to what the people are saying here,” said Planning Commissioner John Barton. “The environment is important, but people are important, too.”
The staff will work on changing portions of the proposed ordinance requiring septic systems to be pumped every three years no matter how much they have been used and portions requiring systems to be inspected whenever properties change hands, even within families. They will define terms in the ordinance that were not clear and acknowledge the various types of acceptable waste and water treatment systems being used throughout the county.
The Planning Commission will discuss the possible changes to the draft at its January meeting.
A more detailed article about this meeting will follow in the November 28 edition of the Cook
County News-Herald.
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