Board allows Dunright Heifers to reduce livestock setback to existing structure line; approval caps expansion below CAFO threshold

The Dunn County Board of Adjustment approved a variance allowing Dunright Heifers LLC to reduce the required livestock-structure setback from a property line in the Town of Weston, concluding the site’s topography and existing infrastructure justify a reduced setback and that the proposal would not harm the public interest.

The variance permits reuse and expansion of an existing commodity shed and construction of an attached barn and open lot, with the requested setback reduction noted in staff materials as 20 feet from the property line (applicant stated a measured distance of about 35 feet). The board’s approval included conditions limiting total animal units to the allowable cap described in the 2017 livestock-siting approval and other standard conditions.

Tammy, zoning staff, described the Dunright Heifers parcel near County Road P South in Elmwood as intensive agriculture surrounded by general agriculture and said the operation received livestock siting approval in 2017 for 778 animal units with up to 20% additional allowed before reconsideration. She said the applicant intends to remain under the Wisconsin DNR concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) threshold of 1,000 animal units. "The operation received a livestock siting approval in 2017 for 778 animal units. They are allowed to add up to 20% additional animal units," Tammy said.

Applicant representative Joe Fetzer of Fetzer Firms described current and planned stocking levels to the board: "I actually, currently, we have animal units of, I believe, 657 on the place currently, and we will be adding, roughly a 180 animals that would take it up to 873 animal units," he said. Fetzer also said the shed and bunkers currently stand several dozen feet from the property line; staff had characterized the proposed setback as 20 feet in the packet.

Board members questioned neighbors’ awareness and any objections. Tammy said the board had received no written comments and that the nearest notified adjacent owner was the Chad and Jody Preston Revocable Trust. The Town of Weston recommended approval, and no objections appeared in the record.

In the staff findings presented to the board, the three statutory variance criteria were addressed: (1) unique physical limitations — staff found the parcel’s steep slopes and existing structures limited suitable locations for new livestock housing; (2) unnecessary hardship — staff concluded strict enforcement would require siting a new facility in a location that would involve significant earthwork and loss of cropland, making strict compliance unnecessarily burdensome; and (3) public interest — staff found no evidence that the reduced setback would cause nuisance, runoff issues or public-health impacts and said granting the variance would not set a broad precedent because the hardship is site-specific.

The board approved the variance with conditions that include adherence to the animal-unit limit described in the 2017 approval (staff noted a cap at roughly 934 animal units when accounting for the automatic 20% allowance above 778), requirements to comply with all applicable local, state and federal regulations, and standard monitoring expectations for environmental protection. The applicant told the board manure storage for the facility will be dry storage to the west and that other barns have slatted floors with pits for liquid storage beneath them.

The decision allows Dunright Heifers to expand within the proposed footprint while remaining subject to county permitting and environmental regulation; the board and staff reiterated that any future increases pushing the operation toward or above 1,000 animal units would trigger additional regulatory review.