County board delays vote on popular permit
By LUTHER DORR
Mille Lacs County Times
Grant VanWyngeeren’s plans for a metal recycling center about three and a half miles north of Milaca took a detour at the Feb. 7 meeting of the Mille Lacs County Board.
Commissioners, after a half-hour discussion, decided to send his request for a conditional use permit (CUP) back to the county’s planning commission, meanwhile extending the review period for VanWyngereen’s request by 60 days.
VanWyngereen made his request for the CUP at the Jan. 9 meeting of the Mille Lacs County Planning Commission.
He told commission members that he intended to purchase material from within a 30-mile radius and then process the items at his Brainerd facility, with no shredding, torching or crushing taking place on site. He said also there would be no draining of fluids at the Milaca Township site.
A number of people spoke at the public hearing on Jan. 9, most expressing concerns.
For example, neighbor Carla Bruggeman said she didn’t think the permit process was fair. She said the applicant had already made substantial improvements at the site because he was sure he would get the permit.
Dennis Nelson, chair of the Milaca Township Board and speaking on behalf of the board, said the board felt granting the request would be good for economic development.
Discussion continued at the planning commission meeting, one member noting that he thought the property was zoned commercial in the early 1990s. (It turned out to be 1988.)
The commission passed a motion to recommend approval of the request, with 16 conditions to meet. The vote was 4-2, Randy Murrah and Robert Hoefert voting against.
Luther Door has some innacuracies in this article, but in all fairness it is mostly due to the inacuracies in the Minutes of the Planning Commission, Jan 9, 2012. While I understand that we can all make mistakes, I truly believe that there was much more conversation that took place at the planning commission, but was not recorded in the minutes of that meeting. Minutes, in my opinion, were very vague as to a good deal of the discussion that was actually held, so therefore I and others have requested a recording copy of the Planning Commission on that date, so as to be able to share those sentiments with the County Commissioners and the public that was not in attendance at either the Planning Commission meeting or the Commisioner’s Board meeting. I have spoken to the County Commisioner that includes Milaca Township-the township that is home to the site where the Conditional Use Permit for a Junkyard has been requested, and my home township as well. Mr Phil Peterson, Commissioner, has assured me that the request of the audio tape for the referenced Planning Commission Meeting, is a matter of public knowledge, within the scope of the rights of a citizen to ask for. So far, the recording has not been produced, and the request was made almost 2 weeks ago. Included in the recording that is being requested, if completely clear, I believe the Commisioner’s Board will be surprised to hear the actual conversations that took place. The answer I have been given is that the IT personnel are working on retrieving the data recorded from that meeting. If an issue is important enough to clarify, and it is a reasonable request as a public taxpayer, I strongly feel that my request is being ignored after the period of the time that has gone by. I would sincerely like a response from SOMEONE at the County Level in authority, to explain why this issue continues to be unresolved.