By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Government in action. In May, changes were made to Barton County zoning regulations. Tuesday morning, Performance Crop Research became the first beneficiary of the new regulations. Zoning Administrator Judy Goreham presented to the commission on the addition of a structure located at 526 Southwest 20 Avenue.
"The idea was to change our zoning regulations to allow more conditional land use applications versus requiring people to rezone their property," Goreham said. "This is the perfect example. This 80-acre tract will stay agriculture district and the use will be perfectly okay, if you approve it, and there would be no future issues if the land sold because it would go right back to ag district."
Melissa Baldwin, owner of Performance Crop Research, and her staff presented the project to the Barton County Planning Commission in an open meeting on Dec. 14. Goreham called it the most thorough application she has seen in nearly 20 years. Part of the research, Baldwin said in the Dec. 14 meeting, is using GPS to track every seed planted.
"I think his application is a direct reflection of what we do on the ag side of things," Baldwin told the planning commission. "Very comprehensive, very complete, very detail-oriented, really thorough."
As part of the growing business, Performance Crop Research is adding a 60-foot by 60-foot office space and an adjoining 80-foot by 80-foot shop on the northwest corner of its property. The company was created by Baldwin in 2018 to be a third-party independent researcher for companies from around the world to develop their products to be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency for commercialization.