Porter County’s Land Use Planning on CAFO’s
Porter County’s planning process has produced a unified development ordinance which would replace its existing zoning and subdivision code. There will be community forums to discuss the proposed plan before it is put before the commissioners for approval. (Story Northwest Indiana Times). This plan was developed in the context of the recent CAFO fights.
You can read the entire thing here: Unified Development Ordinance (PDF). Not much in the way of detail for CAFO’s. The ordinance creates a separate zoning classification for “intense agriculture,” and makes it clear that proposed CAFO’s would have to apply for a special exception. generally, the ordinance requires:
Recognize the need for quality time, place and manner development standards to minimize impacts on adjacent residential properties while encouraging economic vitality.Should use this zoning district for existing intense agricultural operations and cautiously for new intense agricultural operations.
[The] Board of Zoning Appeals [shall] require significant buffering and separation from adjacent uses and environmental features, and be very sensitive to the potential for water pollution and impacts to nearby residential and commercial uses.
