Planning, Zoning and Land Records Committee

Minutes May 25, 2010 (7 KB)

Sauk County Planning, Zoning and Land Records Committee Meeting

May 25, 2010

Committee Members Present: Lehman, Ashford, Gaalswyk, Nobs.
Committee Members Absent: Halfen

Others Present: Mark Steward, Mary White, Steve Pate, Kelly Felton, Marty Krueger, Todd Liebman, Kurt Muchow, Joe Fish, Brent Bailey, Pat Dederich, Gail Tassone and other interested citizens from the Town of Excelsior.

Chair Lehman called the meeting to order at 9:00 A.M. Compliance with open meetings law was certified.

Motion by Ashford, seconded by Gaalswyk to adopt the agenda. Motion carried, 4-0.

Minutes of the previous meeting were discussed. Gaalswyk requested clarification of the discussion and motion regarding compensation for a planner position in the Planning and Zoning Office. At that meeting, the Committee requested more information and the motion was not called, therefore it was lost. Motion by Gaalswyk, seconded by Ashford to approve the minutes of the May 11, 2010 Committee meeting. Motion carried, 4-0.

Public comment: Property owners from the Town of Excelsior were present to discuss item #6.

Communications: None.

Mark Steward appeared and gave a brief background regarding a junk and nuisance ordinance as requested by the Town of Excelsior. The Committee has discussed this request three times and decided that it would be taken up as part of the ordinance re-write process. Kurt Muchow appeared and explained the reasons the Town was pushing for the amendment. He stated the process had started in June of 2009. It was agreed that the ordinances in place have not been updated and are old. It has been almost a year and nothing has been done. It would take another year to re-write the ordinance. The Town didn’t find it unreasonable to have this done at this time. There is no property owners association. The Town could adopt their own ordinance, but why create another layer of government. The Town of Merrimac ordinance was brought up. It is totally different than the County’s. The Committee was listening to the Town’s concerns but it wasn’t in a position to make changes at this time. Nuisances are generally handled by the public health department. The departments work together. Steward stated that the Planning and Zoning Department is enforcing the current ordinance. Todd Liebman spoke in generalities on how the enforcement process works. Court is not a quick process. Planning and Zoning works with the property owner to get the situation resolved. Joe Fish, Town of Excelsior Chairman, stated that they get copies of citations when they are issued. Some people pay the fine and continue violating the ordinance. Different residential districts were discussed. Muchow stressed that they didn’t want the same restrictions in agricultural districts as in residential. Having ordinances does not always get the enforcement done. Muchow stated the Town and County agree the ordinance needs to be updated - just when? Steward said the re-write could be done by the end of the year. Liebman suggested private action against a neighbor as a quicker way to handle violations. Muchow stated it was much better looking at the end of the year instead of another whole year. Individual cases were discussed. Gale Tassone, an interested citizen, had a question on an individual case.

Steve Pate and Kelly Felton from the Mapping Department appeared. Starting in June, Felton will be reporting to the Committee. Pate asked what information on the monthly departmental report was useful for them. Felton will monitor the modernization budget and will be in charge of parcel mapping. Duties will be shared between MIS and mapping for GIS records. The current Mapping Department will be rolled into MIS. The land records modernization budget will be separate. The Committee reviewed responsibilities and separation of duties. Pate will occasionally report on the GIS project. The Treasurer will supervise Felton’s position. The Committee suggested trying the report for a month or so before making changes. Pate gave a brief monthly report. Parcel edits and time shares were discussed. Discussion followed on the intern’s activity. Monthly issues were reviewed. Pate will have a resolution for the Committee to sign at that next meeting regarding changes implemented by Act 314.

Vouchers for the Mapping Department were reviewed. Licenses for software were discussed. Motion by Gaalswyk, seconded by Ashford to approve the vouchers in the amount of $12.333.40. Motion carried, 4-0.

Brent Bailey, Register of Deeds, appeared with a departmental update. He had nothing new to report. Discussion followed on Act 314. New fees and redaction of social security numbers were discussed. Bailey had a contract for the redaction project, but hesitated signing it without County Board approval. Contract charges were discussed. The company had only given the County a 2 week timeline. The budget will need to be updated. This may be included in the land records budget. Bailey will have a resolution for the next agenda.

Register of Deeds’ vouchers were reviewed. Motion by Ashford, seconded by Gaalswyk to approve the vouchers in the amount of $3,517.14. Motion carried, 4-0.

Pat Dederich, County Surveyor, appeared. Vouchers were reviewed. Motion by Ashford, seconded by Gaalswyk to approve the vouchers in the amount of $3,550.00. Motion carried, 4-0.

2010 remonumentation projects were discussed. The Committee reviewed section corner sheets showing existing corners and ones that still needed to be set. This work was in the northeast corner of the county. Land records money was used for these corners. Carrying over funds for multiple years was discussed. Dederich will get Corporation Counsel approval before he signs the contracts. Discussion followed regarding eligibility of surveyors that no longer work for specific engineering firms. The surveyor and engineering firms both remain qualified providing they have the same type of equipment used in the original proposal. This was reasonable with the Committee.

Planning and Zoning Department vouchers were reviewed. Motion by Ashford, seconded by Gaalswyk to approve the vouchers in the amount of $3,245.38. Motion carried, 4-0.
The steel septic tank inventory program was then discussed. Steward gave background information on the steel tank inventory program. Brian Cunningham explained the proposed program in more detail. The letter to be sent out and a time line of 6 years was discussed. The Committee didn’t feel that this needed to go to the County Board. Motion by Gaalswyk, seconded by Ashford to proceed with steel tank notifications and inspections. Motion carried, 4-0.

Items for the next agenda were discussed. Act 314, increase to conversion fee and items for report to economical development committee.

Motion by Ashford, seconded by Gaalswyk to adjourn at 11:05. Motion carried, 4-0.


Respectfully submitted,


Joel Gaalswyk, Secretary












Notes by Mary white.