Martin Danner made an appearance on the agenda for Monday’s Carroll County Board of Supervisor meeting, mainly to present a proposal to build more storage at a bin site that has become the topic of a lengthy lawsuit. In 2013, Loren Danner applied for and received a permit to construct a grain leg on his property about two miles south of the Carroll Airport. After it was constructed, members of the Carroll Airport Commission reported the bins sat on a hill and the grain leg now protruded 61 feet into protected airspace. The subject of whether Danner will or will not be required to remove the structure is being argued in the Iowa Court of Appeals, but Martin Danner was not coming to the supervisors on that issue exactly, rather the addition of a new bin.
Danner says he would leave the conveyor free-standing until the litigation is settled—the timing of which no one knows. Planning and Zoning Administrator, Carl Wilburn, and County Attorney, John Werden, were also in attendance and discussed Martin Danner’s first building permit application that was denied because the conveyor would be attached to what is now considered a non-conforming structure—the grain leg. Werden provided his advice.
Former supervisor, Marty Danzer, came to the meeting with Martin and Loren Danner, and voiced his opinion on ordinances as a whole.
City Manager, Mike Pogge-Weaver, was in attendance, and said no matter what happens in the courtroom, there are a lot of layers involved with the two mile-radius ordinances.
Options developed by this working group, Wilburn said, will be brought back to governing boards. Supervisor Chair, Neil Bock, also voiced his opinion that a question about the grain becoming non-conforming because it passes through a non-conforming structure is moot. The grain itself is not subject to that classification. Martin Danner also told the group he has received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to build the bin. He will now refile an application for a building permit with the revised plan.
