An ordinance updating nearly 50-year-old regulations governing large livestock operations continues to undergo revisions.
The proposed concentrated animal feeding operation rules received its latest changes earlier this week when the Jackson County Plan Commission reworded and revised parts of it.
Most of the changes involve the distance that operations must be from roads, the amount of acreage needed to build barns and how odors are controlled.
The county’s original ordinance defined a confined feeding operation as any farm with more than 100 head of livestock or 5,000 fowl indoors or outdoors.
In Indiana, an operation with more than 2,500 swine weighing more than 55 pounds is considered a confined animal feeding operation and subject to more regulations than most farm operations.
The plan commission plans to put the finishing touches on the proposed ordinance during a meeting at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the courthouse annex at 220 E. Walnut St., Brownstown.
Jackson County commissioners, however, will review any proposed changes before considering final passage of the ordinance.
They initiated discussions about the process a year ago in response to a growing number of requests from farmers wanting to build large-scale hog operations. Those requests have created concerns from neighbors.
The three-person board of commissioners approved the first reading of the ordinance in July and sent it onto the nine-member plan commission for review and input.
The public also had a chance to voice their opinions in favor of or against some of the proposed changes. The commission listened and took that information into account before making their own revisions to the ordinance.
Building Commissioner Mike Weir said the plan commission’s discussion Tuesday focused mostly around the setback changes for residences and platted lots. The meeting was open to the public but no comment was allowed.
The ordinance initially called for 1,000-foot setbacks, a number the plan commission felt should be reduced to 500 feet.
Weir said the commission felt 1,000 feet would push the borderline of completely zoning CAFOs out of existence in the county, which is illegal because of property owner rights.
Setbacks for CAFOs near a public-use area such as a state or national forest, educational institution or religious institution, also were reduced from 1,500 feet to 1,000 feet.
The board also plans to recommend that the number of acres needed to build a CAFO be expanded from 10 acres to 20.
Weir said the thought behind that change was it could limit having a concentration of CAFOs in one area and might also push owners of the land to live on it while running their operation.
As for biofilters, Weir said the commission nixed the percentage of efficiencies for particulate matter and odorous gases, mostly because there’s no way to measure it.
Originally, the ordinance asked for 80 percent reduction of particulate matter and 40 percent reduction of odorous gases.
The section under odor control also was rewritten and expanded. The section now says:
“All new or expanded swine finisher CFOs or CAFOs shall include a vertical bio-filtration system, or other technologies or designs as approved by the plan commission, which will protect or enhance the use or value or area properties to an equal or higher standard.”
This also recommends those technologies be installed on all pit exhaust fans or any fans that move air across liquid manure.
Other plan commission recommendations included:
Expanding and redefining the site plan recom-mendations given to the building commissioner; Adding protection to areas zoned lake residential and; Requiring a CAFO to be a half-mile from an unincorporated city or town.
In the midst of discussions about the proposed ordinance, a Seymour couple has applied for special exception for a 4,000-head feeder-to-finish hog operation.
The proposed operation for Robert “Kyle” and Leah Broshears would be set on 10 acres northwest of county roads 1050E and 200S between Dudleytown and Uniontown.
A public hearing on their request is set for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in front of the county board of zoning appeals at the courthouse.
The proposed ordinance would not have any effect on their request.