Jasper County rezones 25-acre agricultural parcel to make room for new homes

Upon a second public hearing and after no citizens showed up to the meeting to voice their concerns for the proposed rezoning of a 25-acre parcel from agricultural to rural residential, the Jasper County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 1 voted to waive the third hearing and approve the rezone.

The property does not have an address, but its parcel ID is 02.15.300.008. Geographically, it is located north along Highway F17 West, just west of the Baxter city limits. According to data on Beacon, the county’s GIS software, the land was sold in 2004 to the current property owner for $113,000.

Bruce Dee, the owner of the property, made the rezone request, which was brought before the county’s planning and zoning commission. Although no minutes of the planning and zoning commission could be found on Jasper County’s website, community development director Kevin Luetters said there was opposition.

“The neighbors, yes. The same with what was going on. The farmer across the road worried about kind of the same thing we dealt with before — more people, people complaining about living (in the country),” Luetters said, referring to the process to rezone what is now called the Bowen Acres subdivision.

To make sure neighbors got a chance to voice their opposition to the county, the board decided at the first public hearing to not waive the second and third hearings just yet. Supervisor Doug Cupples suggested they hold back for the sake of letting someone “speak their piece.”

In the end, supervisors were not contacted by any individuals opposing the rezoning and arguing their case. Luetters did say someone called him asking questions, but the individual did not show a preference to one side over the other. Supervisor Brandon Talsma said he felt OK waiving the next hearing.

“They’re not present here today, so I think we’ve done our due diligence in trying to present an opportunity to voice any objections they may have to it,” he said.

Luetters said the rezone would turn the land into a large lot rural residential area and will likely be divided into smaller lots to build houses. Initially, it was proposed five homes could be built. At the July 25 meeting, Luetters said due to the density it needed to be pulled out of agricultural and become rural residential.