County Commission reviews sanitary code changes

The Butler County Commission wants input from the Butler County Planning Commission before approving suggested revisions to the sanitary code.

The commissioners first received the proposed changes a couple of weeks ago to review them. They took another look at them during their meeting Monday to see if staff should move ahead with the changes, which will have to be sent to the state for approval before the county can approve them. Once approved by the state, a public hearing would have to be held before they are adopted.

In the past, the Planning Commission expressed some resistance to the reduction of lot size from five acres to three for a sanitary sewer.

“If it’s in rural residential I don’t see a problem with going down to three acres and making some changes,” said Commissioner Jeff Masterson.

Commissioner Dan Woydziak agreed.

“Some of the areas developers are looking at are off of paved roads anyway,” he said.

Rod Compton, with the Planning and Zoning Department, said some of the planning commission proposals only wanted to look at changes on paved roads and not township roads because they couldn’t handle additional traffic.

One regulation would require lots smaller than five acres to not have both on-site water and waste water.

Another change was to require fences around lagoons to be five feet from the outside edge of the burm area. That is a greater distance than currently required, although it would apply to only new developments.

One other area addressed was not following the code being a criminal misdemeanor.

“I want more information on why become more restrictive and add more requirements,” said Commissioner Peggy Palmer. “Do we have a problem and how big is the problem?”

Compton said they get four to five requests a week from lenders to do inspections of systems.

The change in the codes could make it mandatory the county is contacted for inspections.

He said percentage wise they have 50 to 60 percent that don’t meet
requirements.

“That’s where I’m having a little problem with this is why we need to become more involved with this when there are current laws on the books,” Palmer said. “I’m just not clear on the need.”

Masterson said there was a need because the zoning and sanitary codes currently conflict.

“That’s the primary purpose of looking at amending the sanitary codes,” Compton agreed.

He said they have looked at some of the issues for a number of years, including that the current codes do not require an inspection if a property is sold; they only strongly recommend it.

The concern was that buyers could face problems with systems that are malfunctioning, although Palmer said that was the seller’s responsibility.

Palmer also wanted to know more about the fees involved and which ones were new fees.

There will be a total of $150 in fees for the inspection, then every re-inspection for things that did not meet codes would be $50 for every trip out there.

Palmer also questioned changing the charge to a criminal misdemeanor, but Compton said it was already classified as such in the sanitary code.

When asked about the number of employees needed for the increased inspections, the commission was told with the current levels of construction they have enough employees.

After reviewing the changes, Palmer said, “I’m not ready without some discussion and some input from the Planning Commission on the technical areas.”

Will Johnson, county administrator, suggested they take it to the Planning Commission next for their review, which will take a couple of months, then bring it back to the County Commission for their recommendation.

In other business, the commission:

• approved, 5-0, a request by Gordon and Jacquelyn Stands for a homestead lot split with Agricultural Preservation Overlay in order to separate five acres from an existing homestead of 148 1/2. The property is located along Highway 54, with the south portion of the property along SE Grant Road.

• approved, 5-0, a co-ownership agreement between Butler and Sedgwick counties for the Andover tower site for the communication plan.

• approved, 5-0, to allow the EMS Department to apply for a grant through the Kansas Board of EMS for software that would pull EKG data and put it into patient care reports. The grant would be for $14,370, with a 70-30 match from the county, making the county’s portion $4,311. The grant has to be submitted by Jan. 2 and they will hear if they received it by April or May. At that time, they will ask for allocation of funds for the county portion, which will come from the EMS budget.