After losing three that I loved this last week, this morning I got to go before the county planning and zoning commissioners to address appeals to the conditional use permit we received for building our Black Hills Raptor Center facility. The two persons appealing the permits had four points to discuss and I was utterly prepared to answer all four. The one deferred to the regulations regarding wastewater treatment when it was made clear to her by the commissioners that "conditional" use means we meet conditions...and proper waste water treatment is one of those conditions.
The other guy was a NIMBY. Not In My Back Yard! His three points were exaggerated to the point of being ridiculous. We answered those three points, but he got up and began speaking at length, ballooning his claims to cartoonish levels. His claims were that we were opening a tourist attraction that would accommodate tens of thousands of visitors and a never ending train of traffic around the clock, 24/7. We again addressed answers to his claims. Thank God for smart phones, I pulled up the federal regulations that our organization works under explaining that there are absolutely no commercial uses of these birds that are acceptable under their guidelines and that revocation of permits is in the cards for anyone that forgets that! He leapt to his feet and began shouting over me until the commissioners advised he sit or be escorted out.
Further discussion was pretty brief and to the point between the five commissioners with a few questions to me for clarification. The vote came in 3/2 in our favor.
At this point, the highly emotionally charged future neighbor has one choice left and that is to hire an attorney and pay him to look for legal grounds to sue the commissioners. Not us, we don't enforce the regs, the commissioners do. We make the next step with filing for water rights and the perc tests for the septic system. That will be the real hurdle, making sure we there is a septic system that will properly protect the ground water in the area.
But it is forward momentum and I am glad to see it happening again. So. Yeah. Life is good.