(Audubon) Zoning changes were a topic of conversation at the Audubon County Board of Supervisors meeting this week.
Supervisor’s chairman Doug Sorensen explains the city and county have different policies and one is much more efficient than the other. “If you live in the City of Audubon and you want to build a new house in a commercial zone, you can build residential in an area that’s zoned commercial in the City of Audubon. In Audubon County, not within city limits, that’s not the case. If you want to build a home in a commercial zone you have to get it re-zoned. The zoning process by the time you have a public notice, the zoning board meets, it’s approved by the zoning board, and is certified by the Supervisors takes about a month.”
Sorensen says the issue recently popped up due to someone losing their home in a fire. “Decided to build a new house. He owned property right on the edge of Audubon. It’s actually county, not city, and it’s zoned commercial. So he needed to get it re-zoned. It’s a very rare instance where you’d have something like this happen. Since his house burnt and he’s pushed up against winter, he had a contractor lined up and wanted to get started, but the whole process of doing anything-even annexing to the city. He could annex to the city and go ahead and start to build- but that’s still another thing that takes public notice and all kinds of process. They wanted to get it done.”
The Board of Supervisors had varying opinions on the matter, but ultimately made no changes to the current procedure.
