At least two of three Douglas County commissioners are interested in hearing by the end of this year plans to modify or possibly eliminate the county’s 5-acre exemption.

But after hearing several impassioned defenses of the exemption Wednesday at a joint meeting with Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commissioners, county commissioners said they don’t want to change the regulations so much that rural landowners are significantly hurt.

The 5-acre exemption basically allows rural property owners with 5 or more acres to build a single-family home without going through the sometimes difficult and expensive rezoning and platting process. And commissioners Wednesday evening heard that many rural land owners won’t part with the exemption easily.

“I bought my land with money I earned from serving in the military, and anybody who thinks they can tell me what I can do with that land isn’t thinking right,” Wilbur Ford, a rural Baldwin resident, told commissioners. “I never got wounded in the military, but I feel like I’m getting stabbed in the back tonight.”

Others, all speaking against changing the exemption, told commissioners additional regulations in the rural areas weren’t needed and removing the exemption would unduly limit the rights of property owners.

County commissioners though, said they still were interested in looking at changing the exemption, but only to a point.

“I have a lot of interest in going forward and possibly making some changes, but I’m guided as much by what I heard from the audience as I am from what I heard from you,” County Commissioner Bob Johnson told planning commissioners, several of whom urged a change in or elimination of the exemption. “I don’t think any of this means we have to come up with something that tells Mr. Ford what he can or can’t do with his property.

“I don’t think we have to harm these people. If we do, then I’m not interested.”

Planning problems

As part of the joint study session, planning commissioners told county officials the exemption creates problems because the unplanned development can create extra costs for cities when they grow into areas where the exemption has been used.

Planning commissioners, though, said they weren’t trying to tell landowners they can’t build on their property, but rather that they need to go through some sort of planning process.

“I don’t think anyone thinks residential development in the county should be stopped,” said Planning Commission Chairman Ron Durflinger, who is also a homebuilder. “But we are saying that when you take off your hat as a farmer or landowner and start acting like a developer, you need to play by the rules of a developer.”

Commissioner Charles Jones also said he was in favor of looking at changes to the exemption.

“But this will be so much easier if we can give something back to landowners rather than it just being perceived as something we’re taking away,” Jones told planners.

Planning commissioners have appointed two members John Haase and Jacob Plants to study the future of the exemption. Wednesday, some said a possibility may be to create several layers of regulations, with the regulations becoming less restrictive the farther a property is from the city limits.

Community issue

County Commissioner Jere McElhaney told planners he would just as soon they not tackle the issue since it was clearly addressed in the county’s comprehensive plan.

“It bothers me that this issue of the 5-acre exemption wants to keep raising its head,” McElhaney said. “It is specifically spelled out in Horizon 2020, and the community came together to create that plan and said they wanted to keep it.”