House State Affairs Approves Noem's County Zoning Bill, Heads To House Floor

A House committee is passing Governor Kristi Noem’s county zoning and appeals process bill--moving along to it’s last step before reaching her desk.
 
Noem says the bill will aid in developing rural South Dakota. Critics call it an attack on local control.
 
Among several things, the bill standardizes the vote threshold for counties when approving projects that require conditional use permits--like wind farms, hog barns and utility projects.
 
If signed by the governor, it’ll require a simple majority of members present. Some counties require two-thirds of the members elected to a board. However, the bill affirms a higher threshold for county boards to overturn a permit decision.
 
Noem says local control stays intact, because counties can still decide setbacks, odor control, noise control levels.
 
“Every county gets to do that,” Noem says. “This bill does not touch any of those decisions. What it says is if somebody wants to apply for a conditional use permit, there’s a time frame for when that decision has to be made. If somebody wants to appeal that, it defines who can be aggrieved and the time frame for when that appeal needs to be issued and determined. That’s the beauty of this legislation. It still lets that community and county decide exactly what kind of projects they want to have, what they would look like and what their setbacks would be.”
 
But not everyone sees the beauty the governor sees.
 
Reuben Parks is a third generation farmer from Day County. He opposes the bill and says more scrutiny is needed at the permitting level so counties make the right decision.
 
“Not everyone, but there’s enough, that violate those permits knowing that there’s no price to be paid,” Parks says. “Zoning permits become even more important because they need to be scrutinized when they’re issued. Because, after they’re issued you have a real problem with enforcement once they’re issued.”
 
The bill now heads to the House floor.