The Mower County Board of Adjustment denied a variance request Wednesday.

Friday, December 01, 2000

The Mower County Board of Adjustment denied a variance request Wednesday.

The vote to deny the request was unanimous, according to Daryl F. Franklin, Mower County planner and zoning administrator.

Scott Hammond had sought the variance from the county zoning ordinance to construct an additional dwelling per 160 acres and more than two dwellings per mile length on a single side of a public road.

The adjustment board visited the site in Section 14, Grand Meadow Township, and then held a hearing on the request before deciding it did not meet the spirit and intent of the county’s zoning laws nor did it comply with the county’s comprehensive plan.

Hammond’s proposed building site was along a township gravel road near the Deer Creek Speedway off U.S. Highway 63.

Earlier this year, Bernard Howard and developer Randy Queensland unsuccessfully sought a conditional use permit to develop residential housing in a wooded lot also near the racetrack. The permit was withdrawn by the petitioners after the county Planning Commission ruled it could interfere with the operations of the racetrack on the east side of U.S. Highway 63.

The area approaches the west Fillmore County line bordering Mower County, where the picturesque hills and valleys, as well as wooded lots, are coveted by non-farming residential developers.

Deer Creek Speedway has become a successful stock car racing attraction near the site of a campgrounds where the Root River Antique Power and Steam Engine Association Inc. is developing an agricultural heritage center.