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Cows face eviction from Burton residence
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - November 29, 2010)
Cows face eviction from Burton residence
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
Livestock may have its place in Burton Village, but not in residential areas.
Burton Village Council agreed Monday to deliver that message to a resident of Huff Avenue who is keeping two cows on an approximately two-acre parcel.
Village officials addressed the issue last week at a planning commission meeting and during council's meeting Monday.
Council placed an ordinance on first reading to regulate where and what types of electrical fences can be used in the village and agreed to meet with the resident to ask him to remove the cows.
"It's a situation," Mayor Thomas Blair Sr. said. Part of the problem is the runoff from the property, he said.
Village Law Director Todd Hicks said the property lies within an R-2 residential district, where agriculture is not a permitted use. He said a variance would be needed to allow livestock, and no variance has been granted.
He said the resident is in violation of the village's zoning code, as well as the codified ordinances, because of an electric fence used to contain the animals.
Agricultural uses are only permitted in specific districts within the village, such as special and two industrial districts. The horses kept at Century Village are permitted, because it lies in a special district, Mr. Hicks said.
Cady Hutchinson, the village's zoning inspector, said during last week's planning commission meeting that the resident maintains that he was given permission to keep livestock on the property by a previous zoning inspector.
Ms. Hutchinson said Monday that she and deputy administrative assistant Jennell Dahlhausen had reviewed all the records and could find no reference to permission given to the land owner for such a use. "It's just a cut-and-dry zoning issue," she said.
Mr. Blair and Ms. Hutchinson agreed to meet with the resident to inform him that the cows would have to be removed. The meeting will be followed by a letter from the village.
Mr. Hicks said the village should give the resident "reasonable time" to make arrangements for moving the cows.
The ordinance, also intended to address the issue, spells out that electrified-pet-containment systems will be permitted and restricts the use of above-ground electric fences to areas where agricultural uses are permitted and an agricultural use is planned.
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