Issuing building permits for confined feeding operations is on a temporary suspension in Jay County.

The Inter-local Board of the Jay/Portland Building and Planning Department approved Tuesday evening a resolution to suspend issuing new permits to confined feeding operations (CFO) and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) until the county’s ordinance is rewritten. It also approved a recommendation to Jay County Plan Commission to increase the maximum fine on second violations of the county’s confined feeding ordinance.

Thursday’s Jay County Plan Commission meeting will decide whether to uphold the resolution or strike it down, or it could possibly enact a recommendation from Jay County Commissioners for a one-year moratorium on new CFOs and CAFOs.

Recent public outcry about J-Star Farms’s proposed CAFO prompted the call for change. The 2.7 million chicken operation, located east of Portland on Ind. 26, began construction in August before receiving a building permit from the county, prompting a civil suit from the county and residents asking for a re-evaluation of the county’s confined feeding ordinance.

Building and planning director Bill Milligan proposed the resolution to the board as a way to give the county time to create committees to analyze and study the current ordinance and make changes as necessary.

Multiple committees could be formed to examine different areas of the ordinance, such as water and health and safety, said Milligan.

"They would … study it hard. Get a lot of people in committees working on different aspects of these things,” said Milligan. “Come up with something suitable for everybody.”

Board president Faron Parr said the committees, including one to look at proposed site locations, will need to be a “representation of everyone in the county,” telling residents at the meeting their recommendations will be needed alongside those of the board and Jay County Plan Commission.

Parr told those at the meeting that the commissioners will be recommending Thursday a moratorium on CFOs and CAFOs for one year to allow these committees to be made and studies to be administered. Though the moratorium would be for 12 months, Parr insisted he wants to get the “ball rolling.”

“I’d like to see it get resolved as quick as it could because I think it sends a bad message for our community to have something like this going on and creating the ruckus it does,” said Parr. “I think it hurts business. … I think we need to get it resolved and get it resolved the right way.”

Those at the meeting questioned how the commission will respond to the resolution — whether it’s likely to strike it or uphold it — and asked how a moratorium could possibly hurt anyone in the county.

Board member Mike Rockwell reminded residents that new construction of such operations is an industry. Without the production of new CFOs and CAFOs because of a moratorium, those in the contracting and construction industry would have less work in the coming year.

“A bunch of people employed in that industry. You’re saying it’s not going to hurt anybody. It’s definitely going to hurt,” said Rockwell. “A year without work is a very long time. I just don’t want us to think we’re not hurting anybody.”
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