Farm animal permits discussion dominates August city council meeting

     By Nicki Lock
The Bedford city council held a lengthy, at times heated, discussion with residents about the removal of medium to large farm animal permits next year during their meeting on August 12.
Chad and Andrea Schrodt and Jaime and Del Rae Key were on the agenda for the farm animal permit removal. Trisha Moore and Kyle Terry, Kalob Matheny, and Shelly Longfellow were also in attendance for the discussion.
Chad’s first question was, why get rid of the permits? Councilmember Wyckoff asked if they were questioning their permit being denied for this year or the removal of permits for next year. In late March new regulations regarding lot size in ratio to number of animals allowed were sent out to all permit holders. Schrodt’s were over the number of animals allotted per lot size, so their permit was denied. As far as removal of issuing permits next year, Councilmember Spencer said, “This council has spent thousands of dollars trying to clean up this town because like it or not we are a bedroom community and we need people to come live in Bedford and build houses in Bedford. And quite frankly if I were going to build a house next door to your place, I would not.”
Mayor Hardee said he sees both sides of the issue. Councilmember Wyckoff said that it either has to be all or none and compared it to getting rid of people living in their campers in city limits. Councilmember Tanner Peterman said, “We spend so much time on this issue, so like that’s why it is. It’s getting to where we spend so much time spinning our wheels on this issue. That’s where it’s like you know what, personally for me I’m not going to spin my wheels on this issue and continue to argue with property owners on this issue. I’m not saying who’s doing it right and who’s doing it wrong.”
Andrea asked if there could be a 4-H permit because their animals are 4-H projects. Councilmember Wyckoff said no because there would be other people who would abuse the permit. Councilmember Spencer said the ordinance says that farm animals can only be had in areas zoned Agriculture II.
Del Rae Key said she bought her property because the property was set up for farm animals. Jaime Key said without being able to have farm animals on his property it will decrease the value of his property if or when he decides to sell.
Andrea asked if there was somewhere outside of city limits that people could keep their animals? Councilmember Wyckoff asked if those who have animal permits currently have anyone they know where they could keep their animals? Chad responded, “How is my 11-year-old going to get there?”
Chad told the council that when he first started applying for a farm animal permit, he had to have consent from all the neighbors that bordered his property. Sometime that requirement was removed from the application process.
Jaime asked what the process was to get re-zoned. Someone must petition or request an area or property to be rezoned to the Planning and Zoning Board. The Planning and Zoning Board makes a recommendation to the city council. Then the council will vote. If the council votes no, the person can appeal the decision to the court. Jaime then asked what the difference between Ag 1 and Ag 2 zones is. Ag 1 is an open recreation area, such as a park. Ag 2 must have 10 acres to be considered. The current ordinance says that permits may be issued for those in an Ag 2 zone, but that doesn’t mean the council has to issue a permit.
Kalob Matheny and Shelly Longfellow were in attendance about a denied permit. Kalob rents ground from Shelly and they were told the property, that has cows on it, was 11 acres. But then they were told there was only just shy of 10 acres. So that put Kalob out of compliance.
The council agreed that Kalob could reapply and it would be considered at the September meeting. Mayor Hardee asked if those who were denied could come into compliance and reapply to also be considered at the September meeting. This will give permit holders a little under a year to adjust for next summer when they remove any medium to large farm animal permits. The council agreed. Several of those at the meeting said they will be back to discuss the farm animal permits again.
Trisha Moore asked about her property having an alley between her lots. That makes it so the properties are not contiguous.