By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission approved one of the two proposed conditional use permits that went before it Monday.
The commission approved a request from Midwest Energy to build a communications tower south of Hays on the corner of Grants Villa Road and 250th Avenue. The permit also includes an equipment shelter.
The conditional use permit was approved 6-0 by the County Planning and Zoning Committee. The county commission voted 3-0 to approve the permit.
The commission voted 3-0 to deny a conditional use permit for a proposed wedding venue and reception hall on Buckeye Road north of Hays.
According to Chair of the Planning and Zoning Committee David McDaniel, Glen Teel owns the property north of town and a proposed sale of the property to Adam Stenzel was contingent on the approval of the CUP.
McDaniel said Stenzel failed to appear at the Aug. 24 Joint Planning Commission meeting and that, along with input from neighbors of the property, was the reason the planning commission voted 6-0 to disapprove the CUP.
“In my opinion, if someone wants to come before a committee and ask for something, they should be there,” said McDaniel.
McDaniel said a group of neighbors expressed their concern about the proposed venue and said they did not want it in their neighborhood and said “the reason they moved to the rural setting was so they wouldn’t have anything like this around them.”
Zoning Director Karen Purvis said, “A lot of the concern was the traffic and the wedding hall, that there would be extra traffic.”
She said alcohol was also a concern.
The county commission voted 3-0 to disapprove the permit. Stenzel was not present at the county commission meeting.
The time allowed to protect the decision by the planning committee ended with no appeal from Stenzel, according to Purvis.
He could appeal the county commission’s vote, but Purvis said she does not anticipate it.
In other business, the commission continued its discussion on the proposed vacation of Randall Road south of Hays in the Volfeldt Addition. Commissioners Marcy McClelland and Dean Haselhorst selected three people to view the road with the commission. They will be contacted by the county administrator and officially appointed in the future.
The commission also met as the Public Building Commission and approved accounts payable of $130,372. Of that, $126,278 was the final payment to MW Builders.