After a contentious public hearing that involved patrons shouting down each other and members of the board, the Marshall County Board of Zoning Appeals denied a variance of use for a Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) on 18th Road in Argos.
Ivan and Julia Martin came before the BZA with a request for a variance of use to allow the building of a barn to house 2,200 “ween to finish” pigs in a CAFO on their property on 18th Road in Argos. The variance involved the requirement of a setback of 1,320 feet from the closest residence. The owners of the only property within that setback, Irvin and Susan Ramer, had filed a letter of no objection with the Marshall County Plan office.
The operation as outlined for the board would involve 2,200 pigs with trucks arriving to unload and/or offload animals twice a year. The offload would require more than one truck to complete the process.
Feed trucks would arrive at the barn every two weeks in the early stages and twice a week in the later stages before harvest. Trucks would follow a route of U.S. 31 to 18th Road and then turn off to the Martin’s property to load and unload.
An Indiana Department of Environmental Management permit was still required for the operation to begin and that had not yet been applied for pending the decision on the variance.
Multiple neighbors of the Martins attended the meeting to contest the variance. The main contention was the groundwater contamination possibility with the addition of the CAFO to the area. Ginger Calhoun told the BZA that area residents had recently had their groundwater tested and found that it already contained a high amount of E. coli.
Part of the neighbor’s objections centered on the existence of three other such operations in the same area: another CAFO and two other confined feeding operations for veal, that fell under the IDEM approval requirement for a CAFO and were therefore allowable in an agricultural area without a permit.
Also in contention for those opposed was the purported lowering of property values if the CAFO was allowed and the lowering of the resident’s value of life due to “…that pig smell.”
Along with the numerous neighbors present at the meeting, a letter against the variance was also read into the record that was signed by 22 people. The letter from the neighbors affected in favor of the variance, the Ramers, was also read into the minutes.
Those against the variance were all outside of the 1,320-foot Marshall County zoning setback which is larger than the IDEM setback requirement of 400 feet. Patrons were also informed by the board that the BZA by state statute only had the power to rule on the variance request on the setback, no other issue, and that the only property that was affected by that setback had stated their approval for the record.
That brought angry exchanges and personal comments directed toward board members that continued after the closing of the public hearing.
After the exchanges, the BZA voted to deny the request by a vote of 3-1.
