Soybean plant: not in our front yard

There is a lot of mis-information going around about the proposed soybean processing plant and how it affects the residents of Lake Creek, so I hope I can provide clarification. Most importantly, no one from Lake Creek has voiced opposition to having a plant in Buena Vista County that I am aware of. The opposition is to the location of the plant. As the plans are currently drawn, the processing plant would be located toward the South end of 440 acres of land directly South of the Lake Creek housing development. The rail yard, with the capacity to hold 100 cars, would be located on approximately 300 acres at the North end and would come up to the existing railroad tracks near highway 7.

While we would not expect the noise from the plant itself would be an issue due to the distance from the highway, we do have objections to the noise level from connecting and disconnecting the 100 rail cars right across the road from our homes. One of the owners of Platinum LLC, stated the plant would produce an odor. He described it as smelling like almonds or nuts. This may or may not be an issue, but certainly would be objectionable if the prevailing south winds in the summer cause the odor to reach our community very often. Platinum LLC has offered no potential solution to either the noise issue or the odor. The biggest issue with this location, however, is traffic. Platinum expects 200 trucks per day delivering beans to the plant, so 400 trucks per day by the time they return home. For any of you that use Highway 7 on a regular basis, you know how busy it is, and there is no way we could expect it to handle the truck traffic along with the normal traffic, whether the trucks are merely crossing Highway 7 or traveling on it. It would be chaotic and very possibly result in serious accidents. The proximity of Storm Lake to the east and Alta to the west makes it impossible to take the most direct route to the proposed plant location without adding to the congestion.

There may be other locations West of Alta that would eliminate the above stated objections. The job of our Board of Supervisors as well as the developers is to find a location more suitable for a project of this size and importance.

When Lake Creek was built, the land on the North side of Highway 7 was rezoned from agricultural to residential. The land on the South side of Highway 7, where the plant site is being considered, is zoned agricultural. That zoning could be amended to accommodate some additional uses, but industrial is not one of the potential uses. The likely reason the comprehensive plan presently in existence does not permit rezoning the proposed site to industrial is that industrial is not compatible with residential in such a close proximity. To amend the comprehensive plan to permit industrial adjacent to residential would apply to all such parcels throughout the county and is irresponsible. In reviewing documents from Iowa State University Extension, they devote four pages explaining why not to put industrial and residential zones too close together. There have been a significant number of court cases where these zoning rules were not adhered to, which provide back up for Iowa State’s position on zoning.

In summary, it is unanimous, or nearly so, that Lake Creek residents are opposed to rezoning the land south of our homes to industrial for the reasons stated above. As stated above, however, we are in favor building the soybean processing plant in Buena Vista County, just not in our front yard.