The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday at the Polk Government Center.
REZONE REQUEST AND CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT FOR CANNABIS
The commissioners had a rezone request from Cody Parr to switch an agricultural zone to a commercial zone to put a Cannabis growing facility on the land. “It was just about a half mile north of the Maple Lake area, specifically smack dab in between Mentor City limits there and basically the pavilion on Maple Lake,” said Jacob Snyder, Polk County Planning and Zoning Coordinator. “So the request came, it was going to be a growing facility. And that is only allowed in Polk County in the commercial or industrial zoning districts.”
The County had two public meetings, one on September 26 and another on October 24. “We wanted more information about some of the efforts that the applicant was looking at doing, some of the odor-reducing efforts, water usage, some of those questions our board had a lot of kind of question marks on,” said Snyder. “We went over a lot of materials during the public hearings, and had a lot of comments. A petition with over 100 signatures was presented to our office. And many of those signatures or all those signatures had an address associated with them, and or they recreate in that area.”
The commissioners unanimously turned down the rezoning request. Shortly after the unanimous vote, they held another vote to unanimously reject a conditional use permit for K.P.B. Cultivation LLC for the operation of a microbusiness cannabis growing facility. “I guess the long and the short of it is the rezone and the conditional use request. It just wasn’t a fit for the area. And that area just so happens to be cited in our comprehensive plan as one of the major areas of our county,” said Snyder. “So it’s a tourist destination. It is a recreational area. It is the definition of a recreational development lake. It is to a T. If you look at the definition, Maple Lake fits every character of that. The county has invested huge dollars in East Shore and is making it very user-friendly. We have piers in two locations. There are boat accesses all over. It’s just a major spot in our county. And it just didn’t seem to fit. And it didn’t check all the boxes.”
Parr picked the property because it was family land. “It was property that the family owned, and they own a couple of tracks of land there. Is it more of a convenience than a, hey, this is the spot and it really fits all the usage around it,” said Snyder, “To me, we told the tale by denying it that it really was more of a convenience for the applicant and would have possibly been very burdensome on people who like to use that area.”
Snyder added that public input at the public hearings was a big factor in the decision. “You know, there’s a process, and sometimes it takes multiple meetings. Sometimes it takes that, but that process is important,” said Snyder. “You listen to feedback and then you make informed decisions.”
CONDITIONAL USE PERMITS APPROVED
The commissioners approved two conditional use permits for Samuel Halley of Halley Properties LLC for hooking a New Septic System to an Existing Accessory Structure at Maple Lake. “We had one for tying an existing shed to a new septic holding tank on Maple Lake. Really, the intent of that was to give them a functional and compliant septic system on that site,” said Snyder. “It is a very tight spot on Maple Lake. As for the functional failure, we always aim to upgrade those systems. And the biggest standard in there is not functioning as a guest house. The shed’s 8 by 10, so I don’t have any fear that they’re going to have a bunch of bedrooms and a bathroom facility in it.”
The second conditional use permit was for David Hershberger to operate a home-based business out of an accessory structure. “It is a woodworking, furniture, construction business, and so really more of a small-scale business and an existing shop,” said Snyder. “He approached our office this spring and said I’m looking at acquiring this property, looking at setting up a cabinetry business on it. I need to add a shed to make that happen. Given its size, which is over 1800 square feet, we had to go through the conditional use. It was approved today with some conditions, basically that he’s not going to display goods along County Highway 8 and doing some things where the business is in the accessory structure and not laid all over the site.”
