Residents, officials frustrated with late CUP application by Biscay

Township officials and rural neighbors to the city of Biscay’s wastewater treatment construction project expressed frustration at a public hearing for a conditional use permit (CUP) application Wednesday morning.
The $1.8 million project, which will construct a combination septic tank and “cluster” mound system to treat septic waste for 29 homes in Biscay, is already under construction.
Biscay Mayor Ray Urban apologized to the McLeod County Planning Advisory Commission Wednesday morning for the late application for a conditional use permit, saying the city was unaware it needed a permit.
Peter Miller of Wenck Associates, Inc., the city’s engineering firm, also said not obtaining a conditional use permit from the county was an oversight.
“There was no ill intent to circumvent the CUP process,” said Miller. He added that the city had obtained all other necessary permits, including a wastewater permit from the county.
But, unfortunately, the lateness of the CUP application left many people in the dark about the project, according to Hassan Valley Township Board of Supervisors chairman Steve Reiner and neighbor Derek Dusoski.
Reiner said the township board voted to recommend denial of the CUP, not because it was not in favor of the work, “but because there has been a lot of confusion.”
Among the confusion is whether part of the piping would be in a township road right of way, and whether there would be a new driveway approach to a township road, which requires township approval.
“It’s not that we didn’t want it (the pipe) in the road right of way, it’s that we were never talked to about it,” said Reiner.

For more, see the Oct. 1 print edition of The Chronicle.