Daniel Hodgman’s plan for a new golf course in Section 32, Red Rock Township, did not appeal to residents around the area.

Friday, July 28, 2000

Daniel Hodgman’s plan for a new golf course in Section 32, Red Rock Township, did not appeal to residents around the area.

Neither did the citizens like Hodgman’s plans for a small residential subdivision around the golf course.

Both farming and non-farming residents in an already heavily developed area outside the Austin city limits opposed another example of "urban sprawl," albeit on a smaller scale, into the peaceful countryside of Red Rock Township.

They registered strong opposition to the proposal and the Mower County Planning Commission voted to deny his request for a preliminary plat for a subdivision and golf course.

Hodgman’s proposal called for 11 homes to be constructed on 2-acre lots around the nine-hole golf course.

Despite attempts by commission chair Len Miller, also Fourth District county commissioner, to allay citizens’ concerns by saying Hodgman only sought a preliminary plat and that the proposal still would have to clear several legal hurdles before becoming reality, the citizens held firm in their opposition throughout the discussion.

While Miller also reminded the opponents that Red Rock Township has its own township zoning ordinance that Hodgman also would have to satisfy, the citizens said they didn’t want either residential housing or a golf course on the 240 acres of ag land.

Larry Hansen, a resident with his wife Deanna along Mower County No. 24, asked, "How can the county allow farmland to be developed?"

Hansen said he also was concerned about the anticipated increase in traffic generated by occupants of the proposed new homes as well as golfers.

"I’m really, really very nervous about that," Hansen said.

Tom Finnegan said the proposal would disturb the "peace and quiet" of the area. "I think farmland should stay as farmland," he said.

"This is just a request for a preliminary plat," Hodgman said. "It is a concept plat, a proposal only at this stage."

Finnegan said he holds a Mower County feedlot permit that allows him to raise feeder steers on his land and that he contracts with Hormel Foods Corp. to purchase manure for spreading on his land.

"How soon will it be before these people living in the subdivision are going to object to the smell of manure next to them?" he asked.

Joel Johnson, who also lives along County No. 24 north of the Hansens’ residence said, "We don’t need any more traffic out there. It’s ag land."

Daryl W. Franklin, county planner and zoning administrator, reminded all that every other golf course in Mower County is located off a County State Aid Highway or a state highway.

Franklin also reminded the commission members that neighborhood opposition alone is not enough reason to deny a request.

"Any recommendation to deny a request must address the specific criteria, all five of them, for a conditional use permit," Franklin said.

Glen Jacobsen, Mower County’s chief deputy prosecutor, agreed. Jacobsen, legal counsel to the Planning Commission, said failing to meet one of the five criteria was enough reason for recommending it be denied.

Commission member Diane Benson of rural Grand Meadow made a motion to recommend denial of the request, but the commission members still pecked away at the criteria for such a recommendation.

Then, Benson changed her original motion for failing to meet the first criteria for granting a conditional use permit. That criteria is "that the conditional use will not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity for the purposes already permitted, nor substantially diminish and impair property values within the immediate vicinity."

Benson’s motion received a second from commission member Myles Bendtsen of Rose Creek.

When the vote was taken of the four commission members present – the minimum for a quorum of the seven-member commission, the vote was unanimous and the commission’s recommendation to the Mower County Board of Commissioners will be to deny.

The county board will consider that recommendation and all others made by the Planning Commission at a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The county board can accept the commission’s recommendation or they can overturn it.

In other action Tuesday night, the commission:

n Unanimously approved a recommendation to grant renewal of a conditional use permit for John Grass to operate a feed and agronomic sales business in Section 22, LeRoy Township. The only change made from the staff report was to make the renewal for 10 years in length and not permanent.

n Unanimously approved a recommendation to grant a conditional use permit to Knud Jorgenson to construction an additional dwelling per farm operation in Section 9, Racine Township.

Both the Grass and the Knudsen requests will be considered by the county board at Tuesday’s public hearing.