Whiteland BZA denies school request to keep goats on high school campus

The Town of Whiteland Board of Zoning Appeals voted 5-0 to deny a use-variance request that would have allowed animal husbandry (goats) on the Whiteland Community High School campus at 300 Main Street.

The petition, filed on behalf of the Clark Pleasant Community School Corporation, proposed a small school-run goat operation to provide hands-on animal-husbandry experience for students in the district's agricultural pathway. "My name is Hannah Knight, and I am 1 of the agricultural science teachers and advisers at Whiteland High School," said Hannah Knight, the teacher who presented the proposal. Knight said the program would start with five meat goats and could expand to a maximum of eight; students would care for the animals during the school year, and animals would typically be raised to market weight and sent to market at semester ends.

Town staff recommended denying the variance. The staff report cited Whiteland Municipal Code provisions limiting animals on most parcels (ordinance cited as 91.09) and the permitted uses in the R-1 single-family residential district (ordinance cited as 156.05). Staff…