Buying Land in Boone County, Iowa

Zoning, subdivision, and floodplain: all administered by Planning & Development

Boone County's Planning & Development department administers the county's Zoning Ordinance (No. 88, adopted July 1, 2008), handles applications and permits routed to the Board of Adjustment or Planning & Zoning Commission, and separately administers Floodplain Management Ordinance No. 145, adopted to bring the county into the National Flood Insurance Program. The county's comprehensive plan frames the overall land-use goal as balancing preservation of rural agricultural areas with room for residential, business, recreational, and industrial growth, and explicitly treats utility-scale solar farms and wind turbines as conditional uses within agricultural zoning districts rather than uses requiring a separate energy-specific ordinance.

Any construction inside a mapped floodplain requires a permit from both Boone County and the Iowa DNR -- a two-layer requirement worth confirming early if a parcel sits anywhere near the Des Moines River or its tributaries, including Pea's Creek, which carved the sandstone gorge at Ledges State Park just south of Boone.

Boone County was a real coal-mining county -- check the state's mine map before building

Settlers who arrived after the Civil War found coal, and mining flourished for decades in towns across the county, including Madrid, Boone, Moingona, Ogden, and Fraser. Fraser -- platted in 1893 by the Fraser Coal Company -- boomed and then emptied out within a couple of decades once its mines were exhausted, a pattern repeated in other now-diminished coal towns in the county. This is genuine, documented local history, not a generic Iowa caveat.

The practical reason this matters for a land buyer: Iowa's Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (DALS) Mines and Minerals Bureau maintains a statewide database of abandoned underground coal mines (built from historic surveyed mine maps, State Mines Inspector records, and Iowa Geological Survey reports) plus an online coal-mine map, and it runs an emergency program to address mine-related subsidence -- sagging ground, sinkholes, and collapsed shafts -- that can occur decades after a mine closes. We could not confirm that Boone County itself requires a mine-hazard check as part of its building permit process, so don't assume this is automatically screened for you. If you're evaluating acreage in or near one of the county's historic coal-mining areas, check the state's Iowa Coal Mines map yourself and follow up with DALS' Mines and Minerals Bureau before finalizing a building site.

Septic and well permitting: Health & Sanitation, separate from zoning

Boone County's Health & Sanitation department, not Planning & Development, issues septic system permits for new installations and soil-treatment-area renovations -- published fees are $200 when a percolation test is required and $125 when it isn't -- and separately administers the state's Grants to Counties well program, including well water testing (test kits available for $12 including postage, payable online). County Sanitarian Mike Salati and Code Enforcement/Environmental Health Specialist Ed Tharp are the named staff for this department as of this review; reach the office directly at (515) 433-0506 rather than through the zoning office.