A zoning application will be receiving additional attention from the Lyon County Planning and Zoning Board following the Lyon County Commission’s weekly action session Thursday morning.
Commissioners voted 2-1 to send an application for a zoning change of property — located in the 1500 block of Road 200 — from agriculture to heavy industrial back to the zoning board for more information. The application will be reviewed during the board’s Sept. 11 meeting. The application was approved by the zoning board 4-0 during their Aug. 14 meeting.
The proposed zoning change would allow the property to be developed and make use of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad’s certified railroad program. This would provide an opportunity for significant economic development within Lyon County.
However, commissioners took issue with the fact that the heavy industrial designation would provide the county with extremely limited oversight on any development erected in the area. According to Lyon County Planning, Zoning and Floodplain Management Director Sam Seeley, under the heavy industrial designation, there is a list of 49 uses of the property. Of those 49 uses, Seeley says the commission would only have input on six.
Seeley feels a major concern of the county with the lack of regulatory power is what impacts could certain developments have on neighboring landowners?
This is not the first time significant development has been sought on the property in question. In 2015, the Regional Development Association of East Central Kansas and Emporia Enterprises tried to bring a Menards distribution facility to the property, and in 2017 the development groups then tried to bring in a Nucor Steel plant which ultimately went to Sedalia
RDA President Kent Heerman says he understands the commission’s hesitancy to approve the application as currently presented.
Of the three commissioners, only two — Commission Chair Rollie Martin and Dan Slater — approved the motion to send back the application. Commissioner Scott Briggs, however, voted in opposition of the motion and explains he wants the commission to have additional input on any development matters, but he does not want the process to be slowed.
The application will be brought back before the commission by the end of September.
Additionally Thursday, commissioners certified the republication of the current year budget. The republication will see funds added to both the multi-year fund to cover the initial cost of infrastructure work for the county’s half of the city-county radio project and the road and bridge department for repairs to the county road network due to the high volume of rainfall and flooding this year.
In other business, commissioners received a quarterly update from Emporia State University President Allison Garret and approved a quote from Foley Equipment for repairs to the county’s Cat 928G Loader D-129 for an estimated $43,661. Commissioners will reconvene inside the Lyon County Courthouse for their weekly action session next Thursday at 8 am.
