Surprise: Renville Co Board of Adjustment & Appeals denies Duininck's request for variance

Earlier this week, Bluestem reported that there would be a Aug. 27 Renville Co. hearing on Duininck's proposed gravel mine near Joseph Brown ruins.

We've just gotten surprising news that the request by Duininck for a variance was turned down by the Renville County Board of Adjustment and Appeals at this morning's hearing.

In an email to Bluestem, Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) Water Program Coordinator Ariel Herrod writes in part:

This morning, about 20 people attended the hearing, although only 4 landowners were notified. . . .

At the end of the hearing, and to everyone's surprise, the Renville County Board of Adjustment and Appeals denied the variance request, citing the arguments made throughout the morning that issuing the variance would not "maintain the essential character of the locality."

 

. . .[T]he option still remains that Duininck will sue in an attempt to overturn the decision.  However, without such a lawsuit, this mining project has effectively been stopped in its tracks, because residents in the area were given the chance to speak up.

The site, on the floodplain, was close to the Minnesota River and about a half mile from the Joseph R. Brown Wayside Park. The Brown mansion was destroyed in the 1862 US Dakota War. We enjoy taking guests to the Upper Minnesota River Valley to the site, which is also a favorite of geocaching enthusiasts. Please thank the county by visiting its lovely riverside parks and spending some money on your way up or down the river valley.

 

The wayside park is also within easy driving distance of Upper Sioux Agency State Park and the Swedes Forest and Gneiss Outcrops Scientific and Nature Areas (SNA).

 

Photo: The Joseph R. Brown Wayside Park is home to the ruins of "Farther and Gay Castle," the Brown family mansion that was burned in the 1862 US-Dakota War. We love to tell the story of Indian agent and inventor Joseph Brown's role in renegotiating treaties (and those terms' impact on the run-up to war) and the courage and eloquence of his French and Dakota wife, Susan Frenier, whose Dakota name is Hinyajice-duta-win (Soft Scarlet Down), in securing the lives of her children and hired hands when they were captured in fleeing the fire.

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Aug. 27 Renville Co. hearing on Duininck's proposed gravel mine near Joseph Brown ruins