Bartholomew County’s 11th confined feeding operation has received the green light to proceed.
Twenty-two audience members, among more than 160 people to attend, commented during Monday night’s public hearing at Columbus City Hall. But there was no discussion among the five-member Bartholomew County Board of Zoning Appeals regarding testimony they had just heard.
After more than two hours of presentations and testimony, the board voted unanimously 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, about two miles east of Hope.
When board member David Flohr made a motion, seconded by Eric Scheidt, both men stated only that Templeton’s proposed swine operation met all necessary state and local criteria for approval.
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The CFO will accommodate about 5,000 head of wean-to-finish swine. But at times it would house up to 11,000 nursery pigs weighing 40 to 70 pounds that would be on site for a maximum of 12 to 14 weeks before being moved to other facilities, Templeton’s application stated.
After the meeting, BZA president Roger Glick said he drove out multiple times to look over Templeton’s 137-acre farm in northeastern Bartholomew County, zoned Agricultural Preferred.
Both the farm’s topography and remote location at the Decatur-Bartholomew County line appeared appropriate for the 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 566-feet-long swine confinement building was not appropriate for the location.
Speaking on behalf of two families residing next to the proposed CFO site, David Bense said smell and air contaminants could worsen the well-being of two people with health issues, including one with asthma.
But Bense, a long-time livestock farmer, said if the containment building were moved further from those neighboring homes on the same property, there would not be any foreseeable problems.
A Greensburg couple, Shawn and Sarah Green, said the proposed Templeton CFO has forced them to put their plans of building a small home on a adjoining lot on hold.
“The approval of this (CFO) will, undoubtedly, devalue all residences within a two-mile radius,” Sarah Green said. “Recent studies in Bartholomew County have proven the loss of value to be a direct result of the proximity to a (CFO).”
That statement was contrary to a letter written by David Bonnell of Halderman Real Estate and Farm Management that Templeton’s attorney, Jeff Rocker of Columbus, presented to the BZA.
The letter stated Bonnell had could not find a case among 18 client-properties located near CFOs in Bartholomew and neighboring counties where property values were discounted due to the confined feeding operation.
However, two Bartholomew County residents who reside in the St. Louis Crossing area, Nancy Banta and Rick Hand, both said their properties lost substantial value after a CFO began operating near their homes.
Among the nearly dozen people who voiced support for Templeton, at least two Decatur County residents said the value of their homes actually went up with a large-scale swine operation nearby.
Some opponents shared their concerns, however, that the CFO is close to many water sources, including Duck Creek and Clifty Creek, and about 100 feet from protected wetlands.
They claimed protective measures proposed by Templeton would be insufficient during a flood, and might result in both contamination and shortages of water.
But Rocker emphasized that up-to-date technology has been used to design the concrete basin under the animal storage area that provides 365 days of manure generation, Rocker said.
“Nothing can get in unless you put it in, and nothing can get out unless it’s pumped out,” Rocker told the BZA.
Nearly all of the 11 people who voiced support for Templeton backed up Rocker’s description of the applicant as a responsible steward of the land and a hard-working, fourth-generation farmer.
Most were either the applicant’s friends, family or business acquaintances from Decatur County, where Templeton operates two smaller swine operations.
Templeton recently received the River Friendly Farmer Award for the Clifty Creek Watershed Project, as well as being named 2018 Outstanding Conservation Farmer for Decatur County, Rocker said.
In addition, the knowledge that any manure spill could potentially cost a CFO farmer a $25,000 per-discharge, per-day fine should be considered adequate motivation for Templeton to protect the environment, the attorney said.
To emphasize that point, Rocker told the BZA there has been no farmer or CFO operator in Bartholomew County charged with water quality violation in the past 10 years.
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“The approval of this (CFO) will, undoubtedly, devalue all residences within a two-mile radius.”
— Sarah Green, who with her husband Shawn are reconsidering plans to build a home next to the swine operation
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The proposal by Scott Templeton to build a confined feeding operation met all required local property setbacks and minimum separation distances, according to a report from the City of Columbus-Bartholomew County Planning Department.
The Bartholomew County ordinance created in 2016 calls for quarter-mile setbacks for confined feeding operations from schools, health care facilities and churches and 500 feet from a residential lot in an agricultural zone. The new setbacks also require a 500-foot setback from any well. A 12-member regulation study committee that examined the issue for more than a year.
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Here are 10 confined feeding operations in Bartholomew County that earlier received permits from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, most of them in the Hope area.
- Bob Town, near county roads 150W and 1050S, Columbus
- Dodd Farms Inc., 9696 N. State Road 9, Hope
- Gelfius Farms, 20565 E. County Road 200N, Hartsville
- Innovative Ag Solutions, 20565 E. County Road 200N, Hartsville
- J&A Asset Management, 15480 Stafford Road, Hope
- Jay F. Shoaf, 11550 E. County Road 950N, Hope
- Jeffrey Shoaf (two locations), 11420 E. County Road 800N, Hope and near county roads 800N and 900E, Hope
- Shawvue Farms, near county roads 735N and 900E, Hope
- Stafford Farms, Stafford Road and County Road 900E, Hope
- Trotter Barn, 13185 North County Road 670E, Hope
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