Winery’s zoning passes committee

Published 11:29 am Thursday, September 1, 2011

An area winery took another step forward Tuesday and is almost back in the clear.

The Mower County Planning Commission unanimously approved a change to the zoning ordinance to allow Four Daughters Winery to operate as a family farm winery that has a restaurant.

Owners the Vogt family originally planned to open the business this fall. That is until they were ordered to cease advertising as a restaurant after the county board found out the establishment was planning to serve food made at the site.

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The issue was with the winery’s business classification. If the winery sells things like pizza, bread and sandwiches, that could mean the winery is a restaurant under Mower County’s permitting procedure, which wasn’t stipulated in the business’s conditional use permit.

The commission agreed to change the county’s overall ordinance and the CUP to allow Four Daughters and other family farm wineries to pair a restaurant with the business, while still being classified as agricultural.

The zoning change still needs to approved by the county board at a upcoming meeting.