Everybody agrees, Timothy J.

Wednesday, April 25, 2001

Everybody agrees, Timothy J. Flynn has a great idea.

Nobody wants it in their Lansing Township back yard.

Flynn’s request to operate a tire recycling business in Lansing Township didn’t receive the Mower County Planning Commission’s recommendation Tuesday night.

The request will be forwarded to the Mower County Board of Commissioners to do what the county Planning Commission was unable to do: make a decision.

Flynn’s proposal was doomed from the start.

Lance and Snow Pogones mounted a protest of the proposal and the county commissioners’ meeting room was packed with the opposition Tuesday night.

Only Flynn and Gary Harrington, owner of the former solid waste disposal facility where the petitioner wants to locate a tire recycling business, spoke for the conditional use permit request.

Flynn stalwartly made his presentation to five members of the county Planning Commission: Myles Bendtsen, Bev Weness, Sheldon Lukes, Harold Boverhuis and Brian McAlister, plus non-voting commission Chairman Ray Tucker, the Fourth District county commissioner.

He detailed how he wanted to shred tires for recycling inside a building on the Harrington property in Section 31, Lansing Township.

When he finished, the opposition took over.

The Lansing Township Board registered its opposition with a letter citing to allow the tire recycling business would be a case of spot zoning or mixing commercial-industrial with otherwise residential and agriculture.

Before more testimony was taken, Daryl W. Franklin, county planner and zoning administrator, read into the record a letter from Zachary S. Klaus, who works with the regional facilities unit of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency at Rochester.

Klaus attempted to clarify statements attributed to him by Lance Pogones in an e-mail solicitation for opposition to the tire recycling permit request among Lansing Township residents.

In the letter, Klaus noted, the MPCA does have rules and regulations in place to assure such operations are managed properly.

The first to speak was Katherine Burke, who told the commission she and her husband bought a residence in the township and then bought 74 acres around it (the former Seven Springs area) to "have sole control over our dream home."

With 10 new residences in the area and two more being built there this year, Burke said a tire recycling business was a threat to the environment and property values.

Lance Pogones read a letter into the record opposing the request and then Dwight Ault, a township farmer, registered his opposition to the proposal. Ault said Lansing Township, already home of two demolition landfills, was being made a "victim of convenience" for dumping and recycling needs.

When all testimony was heard, the commission asked Glen Jacobsen, legal counsel to the commission, to speak. Jacobsen reminded them, "The fact that neighbors alone object to a proposal is not sufficient reason, under the law, to deny the request."

At last, commission member Brian McAlister, an Austin representative, made a motion to approve the permit request with the strict conditions attached by staff.

The motion died for lack of a second.

While the audience waited in silence, the commission members pondered their options until Bev Weness of rural LeRoy made a motion to deny the request.

However, this motion also died for lack of a second.

That left commission chair Tucker no choice, but to announce Flynn’s request will go before the county board for a public hearing beginning at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com.