Mitchell Daily Republic: Rounds addresses Laurent issue
Thursday, July 21, 2005
By SETH TUPPER, The Daily Republic
CANISTOTA - Gov. Mike Rounds said Wednesday that individual development projects - such as the proposed sign-language town near Salem - should not be subjected to referendums.
Rounds said the time for referendums is when local zoning laws are being created or modified. Once the laws are in place, he said, developers should be allowed to comply with the laws and move forward without the threat of a public vote on their projects.
�If every single new business coming in was subject to a vote of the people around them, then it�s a matter of do we like the person or do we like the business, and now we start limiting based upon the color of a person�s skin or the location of where they come from and so forth,� Rounds said. �And that is not appropriate.�
Rounds made the comments during a private interview at the Capital for a Day event in the Canistota School gymnasium, where he and state officials from 18 departments spent two hours speaking to members of the public. The event also featured a �Reach Out and Read� session for children with First Lady Jean Rounds, a community dinner and a speech by Rounds with a question-and-answer session. It was Rounds� 15th Capital for a Day event.
The proposed sign-language town, to be named �Laurent,� would be built at an interstate exit located three miles south of Salem and about 10 miles from Canistota. A group of residents and landowners near the site are opposing the town�s construction, and the McCook County Commission has been caught in the middle. Since April, commissioners have been mulling the creation of a zoning �overlay� that could allow the town to be built.
Lately, the commissioners have been stuck on an argument about referendums.
The ordinance to establish the rules for the zoning overlay is clearly referable. If that ordinance is adopted by the Commission and upheld by voters, The Laurent Company would then have to apply to the commissioners for an overlay permit. The commissioners could approve or reject the application; but, as the ordinance is currently written, their decision on the application would not be referable.
Some commissioners have suggested an amendment to the ordinance that would allow a referendum on The Laurent Company�s application. The state�s attorney has advised the commissioners that the amendment might conflict with state laws.
Rounds� comments Wednesday fell firmly in line with the advice of the state�s attorney.
�The laws themselves surrounding zoning changes should be referable,� Rounds said. �But once you�ve set the law itself in place, then the decision whether to allow people to follow the law on a case-by-case basis is not referable.�
Rounds compared the issue of development projects and referendums to the process of adopting and enforcing traffic laws. He said the public should be allowed to influence the laws themselves, but not the enforcement of the laws.
�If we say the speed limit is 30, then everybody should be allowed to go 30,� he said. �You shouldn�t say, �This person can, but this person can�t, and I want to vote on who we�re going to convict and who we�re not going to convict.�
�That�s the difference,� he continued. �If you don�t like 30 mph, change it to 15 or change it to 45. That�s where the vote should take place.�
Rounds declined to say whether he supported or opposed the Laurent project, but he said the developers should not be allowed to impede existing agricultural operations. Some farmers near the Laurent site are concerned that Laurent residents might be prone to litigation over the sights, smells and other nuisances created by farms. They also fear the town might grow and try to annex farmland.
Rounds also said the developers and the people who want to live in Laurent should be treated fairly. The leaders of The Laurent Company, a deaf man and his mother-in-law, want to cater the town to the deaf and hearing-impaired.
�If they believe that it could survive economically,� he said, �then they should have the opportunity to explore it, to follow the rules and the guidelines that are currently in place, and have an opportunity to try.�