The Carroll County Board of Supervisors and Carroll City Council met last night (Monday) to begin discussions on the longstanding 28E agreement between the two entities that grants city officials control of zoning surrounding the town. Since 1984, the county has ceded zoning, permitting, and inspection control to the city in a two-mile radius of city limits, but residents in the two-mile zone have recently pushed for the county to withdraw from the agreement, claiming it is government overreach and their property usage is decided by a council they have no voice in electing. Ward 4 Councilwoman Carolyn Siemann, who previously served on the Carroll Planning and Zoning Commission, says Carroll’s zoning control represents only a small percentage of the county’s total area.
Currently, structures built within the two-mile limit must be approved and inspected by the city. The county does not employ a building inspector, so any structure under county control must complete only a state electrical inspection. Ward 3 Councilman Kyle Bauer says his fear if the agreement were to be dissolved is animal confinements going up right outside city limits.
Last week, the supervisors sent a letter to the council outlining what they see as the two possible options moving forward. The first option would see the county withdraw entirely from the 28E, moving Carroll’s control outside city limits to the state default of a quarter mile. Alternatively, the supervisors have proposed cutting the agreement area from two miles to one and implementing a joint council to give the county more say in what happens on chiefly county-governed land. District 2 Supervisor Mike Andersen says the existing agreement is no longer tenable and needs adjustment.
County Attorney John Werden says he has no legal opinion on which route the council and supervisors should take moving forward, but the existing 28E is unlikely to withstand any serious legal challenge.
He notes no animal confinement would pass the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) master matrix, so that concern is not germane to the question at hand. No action was taken at Monday’s Carroll City Council meeting. Still, the issue will likely remain on both entities’ agendas in the near future. The city council has tentatively scheduled a work session for Monday, Oct. 21, to discuss the issue further among themselves. A link to the video from this section of the meeting is included below.
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