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• I am a confused and frustrated individual . I own a farm in Marshall , which is in the Township of Medina . This farm has been in our family over 150 years . I have many memories on this farm but the bank requested that I sell the farm to provide additional capital for our greenhouse business . Our plans were to move the greenhouses from the Marshall farm to our Cottage Grove location, since there is natural gas there, and to build more greenhouses this summer at the Cottage Grove location. So with great reluctance I began to sell the farm. In February I contacted Darrell Langer, chairman of the Medina Town Board, with the suggestion that I wanted to keep 10 acres . I would like to build a home on it . This would allow me to keep at least a part of the farm where my dad was killed, and where my wife and I have spent many hours walking and enjoying the farm and to continue to keep a part of it in the family. Darrell told me the only way to build another home on the premises was to tear down the existing $65 ,000 home or to make it into a machine shed. I decided that I wanted to pursue this matter further and requested that I be allowed to come before the town board to discuss this matter. Since there is such a time lag between meetings , I put in a request to the Dane County Zoning Board just before the town meeting on March 4 as I believed that once the board understood my reason and intentions my request for the correct zoning would be approved. I explained to the board what my request was and the reason for the request . The chairman of the board, Darrell Langer, made the motion to deny the request and it was seconded and passed with the discussion that only as part of a farm consolidation would they consider splitting the buildings off . I received an offer from a neighbor to purchase 40 acres of the farm with the request to purchase the additional 40 acres when the zoning became correct . I have sold the 40 acres to this neighbor who already owns a home and does not want the existing farmhouse and buildings since he already has a set . I requested that the board hear my request again because it was now part of a farm consolidation. I also have to sell the farmhouse and buildings as agreed with the bank since I have a set of buildings with no house at the Cottage Grove location and I need a place to live which I had hoped could someday be on the 10 acre parcel I would keep . I again explained the situation. Darrell again made the motion to deny the request and it was seconded and passed. I do not understand why as an agricultural employer with over a quarter of a million dollars in payroll each year and up to 41 employees , as I understand the zoning, I could build secondary residences for these employees and myself and then sometime in the future when there are no employees rent these residences out , yet I am unable to rezone and keep 10 acres of non-farmable land for myself on which to build one home. My farm neighbors who live in the Cottage Grove Township can take perfectly good farm land out of production and have the zoning changed so they can build a duplex . As I understand, this is happening in other townships yet my request to separate the farm buildings and house as part of a farm consolidation and to rezone 10 acres of nonproductive farmland that has been in our family many years to build a house on is being denied by the Town Board of Medina. Could someone explain to me why the above is happening and why there is such a problem with a farmer building a home on a separate 10 acre parcel and having it rezoned rural homes district . Sincerely, Edward Knapton