Today's Des Moines Register:
Vedic City officials table vote to pursue land
NIGEL DUARA
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
June 24, 2007
Maharishi Vedic City administrators caught a whiff of Bob Palm's
possible interest in building a hog confinement on his land a few
months ago and didn't like what was in the air.
In response, city officials said, they drafted a proposal to buy the
land. If that plan fails, they expect to exercise eminent domain and
take or force the sale of Palm's land in the name of public
improvement.
On Sunday, the Maharishi Vedic City's governing council voted to
table a controversial vote that would have taken the first steps
toward buying Palm's 149-acre farm and turning it into a city park.
The community is two miles northwest of Fairfield, in Jefferson
County.
City Attorney Maureen Wynne said the proposal is about both expansion
and ideals.
"It would be a very difficult situation for the city if a hog
confinement is built on its boundaries," Wynne said. "The city is an
all-organic city and we didn't impose that on anyone. (Hog
confinements) are not part of the national organic standards ... In
this case, it would be a major nuisance for the city."
An appraiser for the city valued the land at $2,675 per acre, but Bob
Palm said he'd rather paint a sign and drive it straight into the
dirt of his acreage: Not For Sale.
The 57-year-old farmer said Sunday he's tried to resist the advances
of Maharishi Vedic City management, and said he will fight the city
to keep his land.
"It's everything to us," Palm said about the farm on which he grows
corn and soybeans with his brothers Lou and Ron.
Ron Palm said he and his brothers had "shelved" the idea of a hog
confinement, and said city officials jumped the gun when they
threatened eminent domain.
"About all we had done was research into a hog confinement," Ron Palm
said. He said the brothers also considered raising cattle or growing
a vineyard.
The vote, which would have started negotiations between the Palms and
Maharishi Vedic City, will be tabled indefinitely while the city
negotiates with the family and Jefferson County officials.
The proposed park included in the city's plan would include
windmills, soccer fields, a swimming pool and a place to charge
electric cars.
Considered the spiritual center of the transcendental meditation
movement in the United States, the city was incorporated in 2001 as
Vedic City and residents later added "Maharishi" to the name.
It designated Sanskrit as its official language, adopted a new
currency and outlawed the sale of non-organic food. Wynne said about
420 people live there now.
