(Spirit Lake)– Action taken by the Dickinson County Planning and Zoning Commission since May of 2003 could be contested. That’s because the commission’s make-up has been out of compliance with state law since then.
The county’s Zoning Administrator, David Kolhaase, told the board of supervisors about the problem Tuesday.
Iowa Code states that the majority of members on a county’s Zoning Commission must reside in the unincorporated area.
Kolhaase says the problem stems from when commission member Bill Eich moved into a town, resulting in three of the commission’s five members living in cities.
It’s the second time this has happened.
Kolhaase told the supervisors there are two options to solving the problem. He says one is to kick off one of the members who lives in a city and replace that member; or to add two additional seats to the commission, expanding it to seven members.
The supervisors seemed to be in favor of the latter option. Fellow supervisors were instructed by Chairman David Gottsche to come up with some names for consideration at next Tuesday’s meeting.
Once the commission is back in compliance, Kolhaase says they’ll have to review the action that was taken in the past year or so and re-approve it. Anything that isn’t reapproved would have to be considered all over again.
One person who was at Tuesday’s meeting expressed concern over a potential for a conflict of interest on the commission. He said he’s learned several members of the existing Planning and Zoning Commission reportedly have ties to contractors or construction firms. That hasn’t been confirmed, though.
