A couple suing Mankato Township over a Blue Earth County public works building is looking to continue their efforts on appeal.
Patrick Lease and Lynn Koosman-Lease filed the suit last year, claiming that the planned building out on the corner of County Roads 90 and 16 – about 1½ miles south of Mankato – violates local ordinances, since the county did not provide sufficient reason for placing an industrial use building in an area zoned for agriculture.
The couple argues that the building will decrease their property value by, among others, creating a number of light, noise and other pollutants. In the response, the county argues that the location is the best one for the building.
“No one wants to live next to this,” Koosman-Lease said, as quoted in a previous article in the Mankato Free Press. The couple live near the proposed location of the public works building.
“It provides an opportunity to most effectively service roads and it provides a cost effective use of tax dollars when all factors are considered,” County Administrator Bob Meyer said in that same article.
Neither party was able to respond to a request for comment in time for the publication of this article.
In February, the county filed a motion for summary judgement; which is a way to have the court reach a decision without a full trial.
That motion was granted in June, with the Judge Kristine Weeks siding with the Township and Blue Earth County writing, “Although this court may not have come to the same conclusion as the Township in granting this (conditional use permit), it may not substantiate its own judgement for that of the governing body.”
The judge went on to write, “In reviewing the record, the reasons given by the Township for issuance of the CUP are legally sufficient and supported by factual basis in the record.”
In response to this decision, on July 10, the couple partnered with Kenneth White, a local appellate lawyer and former assistant Nicollet County attorney, to file an appeal to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
The following day, the parties received a letter from the Appeals Court Clerk notifying them that a case number for the appeal had been assigned. The Blue Earth County Board of Commissioners closed a portion of their Aug. 5 meeting to discuss this case privately. As of the publication of this article there is no word on when a future ruling or hearing may be determined.