A lot of things would change under Lincoln County's proposed ordinance for confined-animal feeding operations.

The new ordinance adjusts how much cows, pigs and other "animal units" are worth - making most of them worth more. It raises fees for a permit and changes the way noncompliance complaints are handled. In perhaps the biggest change, it puts in place a "buffer zone" system that varies the distance CAFOs must be from the edge of the land they sit on depending on their size, implementing up to one-mile setbacks.

None of those things mattered for the handful of county residents gathered at the Lincoln County Courthouse Wednesday evening. Their problem was with how the ordinance fits in with a proposed revised land-use map.

The revised ordinance would limit all new and expanding CAFOs to a specific CAFO zone, most of which sits in the southeast corner of the county. To residents of that corner, that's just wrong.

Why? they asked, over and over again at a hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Person after person, their concerns were largely the same. Land would be taken away from growing sugar beets to grow feed for cattle, harming an economy based on the Amalgamated Sugar plant in Twin Falls. CAFOs would possibly put a strain on the aquifer. Land prices would continue to rise, preventing new farmers from starting up.

Roads would take an intense beating, warned both Mike Woodland, chairman of the Kamima Highway District, and P&Z Chairwoman Corrine Jones, who recused herself during the hearing to testify. If they're grouped like that, Jones said, "you've surely doomed that highway district to certain death."

One speaker asked whether the southeast corner was chosen because Blaine County residents would complain if the CAFOs were farther north. Another noted the issues such a large concentration of cows would cause for families.

"When we moved from Jerome, all of a sudden my kids don't have asthma problems anymore," Alan Woodland said, recalling moving away from CAFOs.

Commissioners, who will vote on both issues at a later date and hold one more hearing on the map, seemed to take the concerns seriously. Vice-Chairman Gary Bowman, also a board member of the North Snake Ground Water District, noted that it's unclear what effect CAFOs have on the aquifer. He also had similar questions about the land-use map, he said, and apologized that the current commissioners weren't able to better answer some questions.

"We're not trying to dodge your question, but we were not on the commission at the time this was done," Bowman said when asked by one resident why all the CAFOs were grouped in her area.

Interested parties now have 10 days to submit written comments on both the ordinance and the map. The commission will vote on the ordinance sometime afterward, passing it on to the board of county commissioners. The map will go through one more hearing before it is passed on.

Comments for the P&Z can be sent to the Lincoln County Courthouse.

Nate Poppino may be reached at 208-735-3237 or npoppino@magicvalley.com.