Developer wants to build homes on 11-acre parcel, neighbors strongly opposed

Several residents who live near an 11-acre field just south of Newton showed up to the Jasper County Board of Supervisors meeting on March 14 to argue against a proposed rezoning to turn the agricultural land into rural residential, which would allow a developer to build five to six houses along the property.

In order for the rezoning to be put to a vote, it must go through three public hearings. The supervisors held the first public hearing last week; the next public hearings will take place March 21 and March 28. About a dozen residents spoke against the rezoning, nearly all of which lived near the property.

Kevin Luetters, director of community development for Jasper County, said the rezoning request was presented to the planning and zoning commission prior to the meeting. But the advisory board recommended the supervisors not approve the request. In order to build houses on the land, it would need to be rezoned.

The parcel is currently zoned agricultural, but developer Brent Vandewall of Firm Foundation, Inc. wants to rezone it to rural residential.

While some neighbors contended the development would be a waste of quality farmland, a great deal more worried about the integrity of their neighborhood.

Vandewall had rebuttals for every argument, except for that one.

“I don’t how to rebut that because basically you’re saying, ‘I don’t want somebody else to have what I already have.’ So I really don’t have an answer for that.”

Residents filled the supervisors chambers to voice their concerns. Progress is fine, said Terry Slifer, who lives north of the property, but “sometimes I see it as greed, and I just don’t agree with that.” Another resident said he’s enjoyed living next to a corn field for 25 years, but now he will get up to six new neighbors.

“I respectfully ask you to follow the zoning board and not rezone it,” he said. “All of the neighbors are all here. Nobody wants it but the one person that’ll profit.”

Others say the developer can build elsewhere and questioned why he would “disturb good farmland.” Bob Lamb argued the dirt road that home owners would have to access on the land — South 52nd Avenue East — cannot stand much more traffic, which they claim gets up to 16 cars daily that travel back and forth.

“It’s going to completely ruin that road,” Lamb said. “It’s already down almost to the base underneath. It’s a terrible dirt road. You can’t hardly get in and out any time it rains … I do like the fact that deer and turkey and pheasant run across that property all the time, too.”

Many neighbors echoed similar sentiments about the wildlife and rural atmosphere around their neighborhood along Highway S-74 South.

The property is bordered by the highway to the west, a 32-acre field to the north, a neighborhood of six homes to the east and a home with a large open yard to the south. To the northwest and across the highway are several houses accessed through Highway S-74 or South 52nd Avenue East.

Rick Nearmyer farms the 32 acres north of the parcel and worries the people moving in to the homes will complain about noises and smells that comes from rural life. Brenda Ryan read from a prepared statement explaining her opposition to the rezoning request.

When the Ryan family purchased their home more than two decades ago, they selected that property specifically because they would not have neighbors on either side. Ryan has great respect for the farming community and wants her family to continue enjoying their rural lifestyle.

“We keep to ourselves and thoroughly enjoy being surrounded by our farm setting,” Ryan said. “Farm ground is being lost at such a rapid rate these days to developers across the country, including Jasper County. It would be such a shame for Jasper County to lose yet another valuable piece of crop ground.”

Many residents argued the Corn Suitability Rating (CSR) of the farm ground was high, with some saying it was somewhere in the high 80s.

Ryan said the current residential areas in this part of the county have been “very frustrating” for her family. While not all neighbors are bad, she said a select few who feel they can do anything they want “and to heck with anyone else” have been a difficult experience for her family.

“We’ve had trash from house remodels be dumped onto our ground; vehicles driving through our fields and damaging our crops or hay ground; snowmobiles, dirt bikes, four wheelers running through our yards and fields and damaging trees, landscaping,” Ryan said, noting others have also trespassed for hunting.

It is against the best interest of the county to permit the rezoning and allow a “cluster development” to be built, Ryan said. The farmland needs to be protected and provides habitat for local animals, she added, and her family does not want anymore potentially disrespectful neighbors.

“I think we all know we live in the heartland of America,” Ryan said. “If you look up the definition of ‘heartland’ you will see it is defined as: A central area of land of the country, usually Midwestern states, associated with main street values, rooted in agrarian life.”

The ground should continue to represent Midwestern values and should stay zoned as agricultural, she added. Tanner Nearmyer, who lives one block north of the property, said he has talked to several other farmers and upcoming next generation farmers that are concerned with growing residential neighborhoods.

“Getting a small piece of ground like that is huge for a newcomer farmer because no one can afford the big parcels of land or the rent,” he said.

Some residents questioned why the developer would not want to build homes at another area nearby. Vandewall argued it would take infrastructure and a street to build the lots neighbors were referring to. In addition to being too small of lots, it is not really what he is looking for.

Vandewall said a majority of the lots he is proposing are “quite a bit bigger” than the 26 houses he claimed are visible on the 11-acre parcel.

“My main job is pouring foundations,” he said. “We probably do at least five or six in Jasper County a year that are in the middle of a farm field. In other words, a lot more acres than this are being taken out every year on individual pieces; two, three, four acres at a time.”

Farm ground, he said, gets taken out all the time to build houses. Vandewall said it could also take 10 years to build all the houses on the acreage.

Firm Foundations Inc. is proposing 1.75- to 2-acre lots, which are bigger than the majority of the houses around the neighborhood, Vandewall. Factoring in the 66 feet of roadway and 60-foot setback, the closest farmed ground would be 126 feet from the front of these proposed buildings.

The property has been for sale for the past eight months. Addressing the road issues, Vandewall said he cleared the proposal with the county engineer first before purchasing the land. He argued the private road that is past the parcel is in a lot worse shape than the county road.

Local farmers would be protected from nuisance lawsuits from the home owners who would live on the property. They would have to sign documents forfeiting their right to sue for nuisance before they even purchased the home. Vandewall also said the land is within two miles of the Newton city limits.

Vandewell lives in Jasper County and said the crews and even the bank and lawyers working on the project will be local. Josh Illingworth, the builder on the project, said some neighbors argued building homes would rob an opportunity from a young farmer; but it also takes an opportunity away from builders.

“I’m a 30-year-old independent contractor, so it’s kind of the same boat for me. It would be taking an opportunity away from me and my family as well,” he said.

By building homes on the parcel, it increases the county’s tax base and turns a piece of farmland into more than $2 million worth of houses when it’s completed.

“I’m just trying to give people an opportunity to live and basically get what a lot of people in this room already have,” Vandewall said.

The board of supervisors will vote on the rezoning after the next two public hearings. Normally, rezoning requests are not nearly as contested. In the past, supervisors have even waived the second and third public hearings when there are no public comments.

“Because this one is being contested and does have such large support, we will be going through all three public hearings on this one,” supervisor Brandon Talsma said.