Larger hog nursery approved: Farmers get zoning board’s OK to house 4,000 pigs near Brownstown

A local hog farmer received permission to double the size of his nursery from the Jackson County Board of Zoning Appeals during a meeting Tuesday at Brownstown Church of the Nazarene.

Approval of Paul Pottschmidt’s request to expand the number of pigs he can have from 2,000 to 4,000 followed on the heels of another farmer dropping his request to build a 4,000-head confined animal feeding operation for hogs near Brownstown.

Grant VonDielingen did not speak during the meeting, but building commissioner Mike Weir read a letter from VonDielingen, which discussed his decision to drop his request for a special exception that would have allowed him to construct a building to finish swine.

VonDielingen recently decided to pull his request, saying he did so because of the potential for legal challenges and the acrimony directed at him and his family because of the request.

This story appears in the print edition of The Tribune. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.