This from the Kokomo Tribune:
PERU, IN – A study committee is recommending changes to Miami County’s ordinance regulating large-scale animal farms that discourages neighbors from objecting to nearby farming operations, but also encourages animal farmers to block the site and smell of their operations.
The Miami County Plan Commission last year formed the study committee following push-back on the construction of a hog barn near the intersection of 100 East and 500 North that will house over 4,600 pigs.
According to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the facility has the capacity to store over 1.8 million gallons of manure and wastewater.
The committee met last month to hear public comment on the ordinance regulating confined animal feeding operations (CAFO), which requires farms be built at least 1,000 feet away from the nearest residence and be located on at least 10 acres of land that are zoned as agriculture. Miami County currently has 54 CAFOs.
On Tuesday, the committee voted to recommend adding language to the ordinance that would clamp down on rural residents objecting to CAFOs, saying “non-agricultural uses that are located in (agricultural) zoning districts should not object to any permitted agricultural use, whether such uses currently exist, are enlarged, or change in the future.”
The ordinance also currently says only farm dwellings, which are defined as houses built on at least 10 acres of land, are allowed in areas zoned as “prime farmland.”The committee also recommended language that “strongly suggested” operators of new CAFOs plant a hedge or tree screen around the perimeter of the lot on which the structure is located.
The committee clarified the recommendation by adding language saying “the desire would be that the hedge would grow tall enough to block some of the view of the structure, as well as reduce some of the odor.”
The recommendations by the study committee now head to the county plan commission, which must hold two hearings before voting whether to approve them. The first hearing will be during its regular meeting on Feb. 12.
Any changes approved by the plan commission would then go to the Miami County Board of Commissioners, which would make the final vote on whether to change the ordinance.