Supervisors approve first reading to rezone 75.57 acres for LifeCraft biochar facility

The Muscatine County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 8 approved on the first reading an ordinance to rezone about 75.57 acres in Moscow Township from A-1 agricultural to I-2 heavy industrial to allow applicant LifeCraft to pursue a special-use permit for a biochar production facility. The public hearing and vote took place during the board's regular meeting at the county administration building.

The rezoning would allow LifeCraft to apply to the county board of adjustment for a site-specific special-use permit; the I-2 district itself allows only the uses in I-1 by right and places other heavier industrial uses under special-use review. County development staff and LifeCraft officials told the board the step is necessary before the company can file for the site permit and begin construction work proposed for a site adjacent to Wendland Quarry near West Liberty.

LifeCraft Chief Executive Officer William Kalagrishy described biochar as a carbon-rich, porous soil amendment produced by pyrolysis of biomass. "We can process about 5 tons of material an hour" and…