Bartholomew County Board of Zoning Appeals members have approved the county’s 11th confined feeding operation.
The motion to approve farmer Scott Templeton’s request for a conditional use permit to construct a 40,246 square foot swine CFO at 20530 E. County Road 700N was unanimous at Monday night’s meeting.
After being addressed by 22 audience members during a Monday night public hearing, there was no discussion among the five-member BZA board regarding the testimony they had just heard.
When board member David Flohr made a motion seconded by Eric Scheidt, both men only stated that Templeton’s proposed swine operation met all necessary state and local criteria for approval.
But after the more than two-hour hearing attended by more than 160 people, BZA president Roger Glick said he drove out multiple times to look over Templeton’s 137 acres farm near the intersection of 700 North and County Road 1150 East.
Both the farm’s topography and remote location at the Decatur-Bartholomew County line appeared more than appropriate for the proposed CFO, said Glick, a member of a long-established Clifty Township farm family.
“If not here, then where?” the BZA president asked.
But the nine people who spoke against the proposal, including many wearing T-shirts stating “Farms, Not Factories”, felt Templeton’s proposed swine confinement building is anything but appropriate for the location.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
