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  • Signage on a silo along Highway 169 just north of St. Peter continues to spur controversy. File photo

    Silo

August 16, 2010

Nicollet County firm against silo art

By Brian Ojanpa The Free Press

ST PETER — The controversial Cambria silo remains a no-no, a Nicollet County panel decided on Monday.

The Board of Adjustment and Appeals unanimously ruled against a variance request to allow advertising signage on a silo along Highway 169 just north of St. Peter.

 Board members concurred that the silo’s usage as ad space for the Le Sueur quartz countertop company does not conform to county criteria regarding signage in a locale designated as a Conservancy Zoning District.

“The conservancy area was created to preserve natural resources in that area,” said board member Paul Engel, adding that advertising signage is inconsistent with that aim.

The silo, which received a Cambria-logo paint job in June, has also run afoul of Minnesota Department of Transportation regulations against advertising along certain highways without a permit.

The issue will come before MnDOT in a Sept. 29 hearing that initially was scheduled for Aug. 27.

MnDOT’s ruling on a permit request will be independent of Nicollet County’s action Monday.

 New Ulm attorney Justin Weinberg, who represented silo property owner and variance request applicant Lee Boyum at Monday’s board meeting, buttressed his appeal for a variance by strolling down the silo’s memory lane.

He said in the past 30-plus years the silo mere yards from the highway’s southbound lanes has featured ad signage ranging from clothing goods to Coca-Cola to 7-Up.

“And no permit has ever been issued for this particular property,” he said of the farm storage bin that has become something of a south-central Minnesota landmark.

Its recent controversy also has made it something of a local cause celebre, spawning a spate of public comment, pro and con.

Denis Daly, who lives near the property, testified on the advertising silo’s behalf at Monday’s meeting.

“The rehabilitation of the barn and silo, and the advertising on it, is all very tasteful,” he said. “Where was the county when the barn was deteriorating and looking terrible?”

“I see a big improvement here. God bless the Cambria company ... This is a company that employs a lot of people around here, and they should be given consideration for that.”

The silo signage was the brainchild of Cambria co-owner Marty Davis, who worked out a deal with Boyum to paint the company’s logo on the structure.

Davis has said he was unaware that a permit was required.

Cambria was notified by MnDOT earlier this summer that the advertising must be removed within 60 days.

Nicollet County District Court Judge Allison Krehbiel subsequently granted an injunction that delayed the removal of the logo.

 

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