Final passage of a Webster County zoning ordinance two years in the making was deferred another week on Tuesday.

A public hearing conducted by the Webster County Board of Supervisors drew a standing room only crowd, with several people expressing their views about various provisions of the new ordinance.

A proposed expansion of the North Central Agricultural Industrial Park drew comments from land owners in the vicinity of the facility, located west of Fort Dodge near Barnum.

Currently home to the Valero ethanol plant and the idle Tate & Lyle starch and ethanol plant, future plans call for the park to grow in a southeasterly direction. As such, the approximately 650 acres of land that would facilitate such growth would be zoned an Agriculture/Industrial District, which would permit light and heavy industrial uses related to the processing of agricultural products and co-products.

That zoning change is opposed by many property owners near the park, said Margo Knippel, who owns land in the area.

Knippel urged supervisors to hold off on rezoning the area until further discussions and public meetings can be conducted.

"The ag park does not need to be rezoned at this time," said Knippel, citing the recent economic downturn. She pointed out that of the ag park's two current occupants, the Valero plant came to be following the bankruptcy of VeraSun, while the Tate & Lyle plant remains shuttered indefinitely.

"I'm not against economic development, but let's take our time and do it correctly," she said.

Other property owners expressed concerns about the light, noise and smell that an ag industrial park may generate.

Supervisors Keith Dencklau, Kim Motl and Phil Condon said that the county needs to be proactive in pursuing industry and high-paying jobs - and that the ag industrial park is a means to that end.

Dencklau, who lives northeast of Fort Dodge, said he experiences the noise and traffic generated by gypsum plants on a daily basis.

But those plants employ hundreds of people, he said.

"If the mills weren't here, where would we be?" said Dencklau, who decried 20 years of "doing nothing" to develop the economy after the area meat packing industry collapsed in the 1980s.

According to John Kramer, president of the Development Corporation of Fort Dodge and Webster County, the added ag park space could eventually pump $165 million in increased property tax values into the county.

Some of the tenets of the zoning ordinance itself were also questioned.

Bill Thatcher, who owns 102 acres of timber land north of Fort Dodge, questioned a provision of the code that increases minimum lot size from two to 10 acres for agriculturally zoned land to be sold for residential development.

Such a move would decrease his land values by $100,000, Thatcher said.

"Two-acre lots are salable," he said. "Ten-acre lots vastly change the market."

Thatcher predicted that few people will be able to afford 10 acres, which would be detrimental to land owners and to people who wish to live in the country.

Thatcher said the county provided only the "bare minimum" of notification about public meetings pertaining to the proposed zoning ordinance.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Sheilah Schroder said that several such meetings had been held over the past two years and that the process had drawn publicity.

According to Schroder, the 10-acre rule was proposed to create greater separation of land uses between agricultural and residential areas.

However, the supervisors could amend the ordinance prior to final passage, said Auditor Carol Messerly.

Motl called for a one-week delay of final consideration so that supervisors can consider issues raised Tuesday. The motion was unanimously approved by the supervisors save for Bob Singer, who was absent.

Another public hearing will be held during the July 28 supervisors meeting.

A full copy of the proposed zoning ordinance is available for review in Messerly's office.

Contact Jesse Helling at (515) 573-2141 or jhelling@messengernews.net