BROOKINGS — A request to rezone land near Lake Goldsmith in order to allow camper vehicles to be placed closer to the shoreline was rejected on a 4-0 vote by the Brookings County Commission at Tuesday’s meeting.

The applicants, John and Joy Mills, had hoped to rezone the land in question, located on the northeast side of the lake, from its current natural resource district designation to a more permissive lake park district. Goldsmith is 1 mile north and 1 mile west of Volga.

The NRD designation, which extends 300 feet out from the water’s edge, is intended to preserve the land from most forms of development and is found in other areas of the county, as well as in other parts of South Dakota and beyond. On the other hand, the LPD designation allows for things such as picnic tables, camping vehicles and residences, as long as they’re a minimum of 75 feet from the water.

Commissioners heard testimony from the John and Joy Mills and their family members first, then listened as opposing neighbors, six altogether, offered their reasoning.

Among other things, the commission learned that land use hasn’t been picture perfect, zoning-wise, along the lake at various points in time, with some area residents parking camping vehicles within NRD-designated land and also building docks out into the lake. They also received insights into why the NRD designation was implemented many years ago: It’s partially because, in the 1960s and 1970s thereabouts, development was taking place along several lakes in the county — including Lake Campbell, Lake Hendricks, Lake Tetonkaha and Lake Poinsett. Commissioner Doug Post pointed out that, in Poinsett’s case, some residences back in those days were running sewage pipes directly into the lake.

It was also learned that the county doesn’t actively look for violators of the zoning rules at Lake Goldsmith or, for that matter, anywhere else in the county.

“We do not go out — we’re not Big Brother — we do not go out and look for violations. It’s on a volunteer basis, on a complaint-driven basis,” County Development Department Deputy Director Richard Haugen said.

Commissioners, in turn, asked a range of questions — from private property rights to how rules are applied and more — and offered comments, including one from Commissioner Shawn Hostler just before the vote.

“As a buyer of property and things like that,” he said, “you have to do your due diligence to find out when you buy property, what you can do, what you can’t do, what the setbacks are —what all those are — to make that informed decision before you pull the trigger on a very large purchase like that.”

In the end, commissioners voted 4-0 in unison against the proposed ordinance, putting the kibosh on the Mills’s quest for the zoning change. Voting were Larry Jensen, Kelly VanderWal, Dave Miller and Hostler. Post recused himself from the vote, citing his business relationship with the Mills.

In other action at Tuesday morning’s meeting:

• Heard from Highway Superintendent Brian Gustad that the contractor working on the water/sewer project in White plans to pave the intersections of Fifth Street and Hooker Avenue and Main Street and Hooker Avenue on Wednesday and Thursday, which should open up county Road 25 by the time the weekend rolls around.

Over in Volga, Gustad said the contractor is indicating that the Samara Avenue project is expected to begin July 7. A reconstruction project years in the making, it will include a detour, a map of which will be available on the county’s website at https://www.brookingscountysd.gov/ and Volga’s website at https://www.volgacity.com/.

Lastly, he said the concrete blowout on county Road 23 — aka Broadway Street and 476^th Street — near Aurora on June 21 is almost fully repaired, with the work done by Timmons Construction. Gustad is hoping the road will be back to 100% by July 4.

• Heard praise from Assistant Sheriff David Biteler for the firefighters, emergency responders and South Dakota Soybean Processors employees who helped with Friday’s collision on Caspian Avenue and U.S. Highway 14 that involved two tractor-trailers.

“The time that it took to get traffic diverted and cones up and traffic moving again was phenomenal,” he said.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mondell.keck@brookingsregister.com.