After issues recently were raised about a Pine River area salvage operation , Cass County Board voted July 15 to ask Cass County Attorney Christopher Strandlie to draft an ordinance to enable the county to license salvage yards.
The salvage yard sparking the discussion is located on Highway 371 north of Pine River on the east side of the highway.
A committee of the board consisting of Commissioners Bob Kangas and Jeff Peterson recently reviewed a variety of methods other counties use to regulate salvage yards before recommending this action to the board, including Crow Wing County's salvage yard ordinance.
Licensing salvage yards appeared to be a more effective tool than using Cass's existing land use ordinance or other solid waste control methods, the committee concluded.
By licensing salvage yards, counties also may collect a license fee to cover monitoring costs.
The same commissioner committee also recommended and the board approved July 15 referring two zoning issues to the planning commission for their recommendations to the county board.
A recent consulting attorney opinion indicated county boards have been challenged for allowing their planning commissions to make final decisions on land reclassifications for zoning maps. Cass County has assigned final land reclassification decisions to the planning commission since countywide zoning took effect in 1988.
The board asked the planning commission also to consider any local ordinance changes needed to respond to a recent court of appeals decision relating to "practical difficulties" as they relate to consideration of variance requests. The court case involved a zoning issue in Ottertail County.
