Neighbors divided over White Cloud zoning proposal

GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM
Tim Lance, White Cloud Township trustee, speaks during a community meeting on Tuesday evening in Graham. Lance provided information on a zoning proposal for White Cloud Township that will appear on the November ballot.

GRAHAM, Mo. — Much of the discussion during a community meeting Tuesday evening concerning data center issues focused largely on a proposal to add zoning laws to White Cloud Township that will appear on the November ballot.

The informational meeting — hosted jointly by Nodaway Says No, Nina Wiederholt and presiding commissioner candidate Scott Wilson — featured similar information as many previous community meetings about the proposed data center, but was intended to help bring up to speed anyone who hasn’t been following the White Cloud Acres project closely. South District Commissioner Scott Walk answered questions as necessary and so did officials from Public Water Supply District No. 1.

But the event was also the first relatively large forum in which residents could discuss the proposal to add zoning to White Cloud Township. At times, that discussion teetered on the edge of contentious, highlighting divisions among neighbors who, on both sides of the issue, said they fear losing the right to live how they want on their own property.

COUNTY ZONING

The White Cloud Township zoning proposal is separate from an effort to zone Nodaway County as a whole. A similar measure would be needed to implement zoning countywide. Facing continued interest from data center projects, the Nodaway County Commission is forming an advisory committee of residents from across the county to explore the idea of countywide zoning. Anyone interested in being a part of the committee should contact the commission.

The proposal that will appear on November’s ballot will ask voters in White Cloud Township whether they will authorize the township board to implement zoning ordinances.

Tim Lance, township trustee, said that if the measure on November’s ballot passes, the township board would appoint a five-person committee to study and implement zoning laws in the township. He said his preference would be to zone the entire township for agriculture, and require all other uses to apply for variances. But how to implement the zoning rules would be up to the committee.

Because data center developers appear to be targeting areas with no zoning laws, even making no changes at all could be beneficial as long as the township can say it has a zoning law on the books, Lance said.

“Which sounds idiotic,” he said. “… When these people call and they ask if I’ve got zoning or permitting or anything to stop them, and I say no, it’s like talking to a kid in a candy shop — you can hear their voice jump up and down. They’re giddy about the whole project then. I don’t know if I woulda said, ‘We have zoning,’ and stopped at that point, if they woulda turned and went to another township that didn’t. I don’t know.”

Zoning the township would also not stop the White Cloud Acres project, Lance said, but would give residents at least some say in potential future projects.

However, several area residents were strongly against any zoning laws, expressing concern about the fact that what’s on the ballot doesn’t include any framework for how zoning will actually be implemented beyond a committee appointed by the township board.

“The government overreach on this is exactly what our fathers and grandfathers voted against for years,” said Mike Rosenbohm, who lives near Graham.

Bruce Skoglund added that even if a zoning board follows the plan for minimal intervention laid out by Lance, there would be no guarantee that future boards would do the same.

“You’re taking my rights away,” Skoglund added. “You’re protecting the farm rights, I agree with that — that doesn’t mean the next guy will — but you’re not protecting my rights as far as if I wanted to do something. If I wanted to do something on our farm ground, like a solar farm, you’re basically gonna try to tell me I can’t do that.”

Skoglund said he was “not comfortable” with trusting property decisions to a township zoning board.

“Well, right now I’m not real comfortable trusting my neighbors, neither,” Lance responded. “I didn’t buy my farm by an industrial park. I don’t want an industrial park next to me. I don’t think anybody else does either. If they did, they’d go to town and buy it next to an industrial park. I don’t think we’re gonna take nobody’s rights away.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mike Rosenbohm is a member of The Forum’s Editorial Board, which advises on editorial topics that appear in the Opinion section.

GEOFFREY WOEHLK/THE FORUM
Community members held an informational meeting on Tuesday evening at the Graham Community Building to discuss issues related to data centers and a zoning proposal in White Cloud Township. Pictured, Tim Schafer speaks about his concerns that a data center could affect his livestock and wreck his livelihood.