Planning commission recommends rezoning for Lauer Foods to create truck staging area

Aug. 7, 2025 — The Cache County Planning Commission recommended approval of a request to rezone 7.8 acres from the agricultural A-10 zone to the industrial zone to allow truck staging and uses related to Lauer Foods near the Richmond/Wellsville area.

The change, which staff said would allow uses including general manufacturing, storage and warehousing, transport services and major telecommunications facilities, was the subject of a public hearing before the commission. Commissioners voted to recommend approval (motion described as “option number 2” with four required findings) and the motion passed with all members voting aye.

The rezoning application covers a parcel that staff said fronts Highway 91 and State Street, is within an urban expansion overlay and is adjacent to a mix of agricultural and residential properties. Lauer Foods’ engineer, Jake Latham of Sunrise Engineering, and owner Alan Lauer said the company wants a place to stage trucks and install a truck scale to keep trucks off the highway and provide operational redundancy.

“We're putting a truck scale … on the end of our property,” said Alan Lauer, identifying himself as with Lauer Foods. He said the company is not building a new production building but needs space to receive and stage up to about 20 trucks that arrive on busy mornings and that the parcel contains groundwater the company is trying to develop as a redundant source: “We're trying to drill another well … so we'd have redundancy.”

Staff told the commission that the parcel had recent boundary adjustments and that noticing for the hearing was completed in late July; Richmond City provided a written comment saying it had no issue with the rezone. Staff said it did not make a formal recommendation but offered to help draft a letter if needed. County staff also said Highway 91 is a UDOT road and that access across a limited-access corridor would require UDOT approval.

A Richmond resident, Kurt Ander, said he learned about the proposal only at the hearing and raised traffic and safety concerns for State Street and nearby collectors, describing narrow road sections, speeding and heavy truck traffic. “My concern is about safety associated with that, increasing in number of gravel trucks and trucks that continually pound that road constantly,” Ander said. He also asked why the parcel was not being annexed into the city; the applicant said the Lowers prefer to keep the parcel in the county for the foreseeable future.

County staff told the commission that Lauer Foods has submitted required materials to UDOT and that UDOT had reviewed design elements; staff said one of the outstanding items for UDOT is confirmation that the county will allow the proposed access as part of the rezoning and site plan approvals. Applicant representatives said they had submitted a queue summary to UDOT and were awaiting final action from UDOT decision-makers.

No formal annexation was proposed; staff noted the parcel sits at the county–city interface and that the county’s master plan shows the area in an urban expansion overlay.

The commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to county council for final action, where council members will review the planning commission record and the staff packet. Staff said the city had no objections and that UDOT coordination remained a permitting requirement.

Ending: The commission recommended approval to the next legislative body; the county council will consider the rezoning and any UDOT access approvals and related permits in subsequent proceedings.