By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – With only three members present, and a short agenda, this week’s Minnehaha County Commission meeting only lasted 40 minutes.
However, chief among the items discussed was to give the go-ahead to Tyler Klatt, assistant commission administrator, to start putting together a memorandum to set a moratorium on any pipelines in Minnehaha County.
The three present, Commissioners Jean Bender, Gerald Beninga and Dean Karsky, all expressed interested in discussing a moratorium while they looked at any necessary changes to the county’s zoning ordinance.
Karsky and Bender both thought any moratorium should be limited to one year, which they felt was enough time to look at depth, pipe integrity, setbacks, etc.
Karsky said he thought the one-year timeframe was enough to “truly dig into the issues of hazardous pipelines.”
Benigna emphasized that he believed they should look at the training concerns of the rural fire departments.
Under the commission’s direction, Klatt will move forward drafting a moratorium which commissioners can then discuss at a later date.
And the commission did set a “later date” for the second reading of an ordinance to re-zone 15 acres of land from A1 Agricultural to C Commercial.
The land in question is located at the northwest corner of what is referred to as the Renner Corner along SD Highway 115.
Mason Steffen of the county planning and zoning department explained that this area already has other commercial development in place, and at their April meeting, the Minnehaha County Planning and Zoning Board voted unanimously to recommend the re-zoning, but the matter now must go before the entire county commission.
The second reading of the ordinance, along with any public comment will take place on Tuesday, May 24 at 9 a.m.
The next meeting of the commission will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, on the second floor of the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
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