Minutes 11-11-2025-Work Session Meeting

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12 Cy Stober said there is a lot of redundancy between the activity nodes. He said that due to lack of build out, changes in state laws, particularly with agricultural industrial uses, and consistency and harmony with the surrounding land uses, the proposed consolidation is largely for commercial uses. He said they are not recommending enabling industrial uses in the rural parts of the county. Her said the specific uses in the industrial activity nodes are not being recommended by staff or the consultant. He said it is consolidating those uses that are permitted. He said the chart in slide #17 is from the land use plan. He said it is the cross reference between zoning districts, which are regulatory and law, and county activity nodes and future land use classes, which are guidance. He said there are not a lot of unique zoning districts that are permitted in activity nodes except for the master plan development, which is only permitted in the rural community activity node, and industrial 1, which could be omitted in the new plan. He said industrial uses are generally not compatible with a lot of rural uses. He said if they are agricultural in nature, they would generally be allowed by right without zoning regulation due to the state law as a form of bonafide farm use. Commissioner Greene said the sense she got from the development of the 1981 land use plan was that the rural activity nodes were to acknowledge the stores that existed at the time in order not to grandfather them out of existence. Cy Stober said they reflect the land use at the time. He said the adopted plan should guide the county in the future. Commissioner Greene said she agreed. Commissioner McKee said that they are deciding for 2050 and they should they not limit the possibilities. He said if you are going to have commercial activity, they need to be sited on major transportation routes. He said if they want to have things easily accessible, we need to put in place something that will allow it. Chair Bedford clarified that Commissioner McKee was ok with combining nodes, but did not want to eliminate those three or four industrial uses. Commissioner McKee said yes, because they don't know what industry will look like in 2040 or 2050. Chair Bedford asked if the Treeist application from a few years earlier was light industrial. Cy Stober said it was agricultural support enterprise. Commissioner Greene said that was a qualified use in the rural buffer. Chair Bedford said she could see a similar business working elsewhere in the county. Commissioner Fowler asked for clarification if Commissioner McKee's preference was to keep the industrial nodes as industrial. Commissioner McKee said he would like to keep the option for industrial. He said it is only three nodes. Cy Stober said there are three plus the mine. Commissioner McKee said it allows something in a specific area that could open a door in the future. Chair Bedford said if two are combined and one left alone, then there wouldn't be industrial in all nodes. Cy Stober said yes, and he did not see the value in keeping community and neighborhood nodes separate.