Planning, Zoning and Land Records Committee

Minutes (25 KB)

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

Others Present: Mark Steward, Mary White, Dick Marino, John Montgomery, Bob Jewel, Brent bailey, Kelly Felton, Pat Dederich, and Gary Cooper.

Vice Chair Ashford called the meeting to order and compliance to open meeting law was certified.

Motion by Gaalswyk, seconded by Halfen to adopt the agenda with the request of Chair Lehman to not discuss “Communications” until he was in attendance. Motion carried 4-0.

Minutes from the previous meeting were not available to approve. This will be done at the next meeting.

Lehman joined the Committee meeting.

Public comments:

Gary Cooper from the Town of Dellona appeared to discuss county sign regulations. Cooper was not satisfied with county enforcement. He stated that the ordinances need to be enforced and he requested this item to be placed on the agenda for the next meeting. The Committee explained that Chapter 7 of the Code of Ordinances was being re-written. He was not willing to wait until the re-write was done.

Communications.

The Committee received correspondence from Larry Mundth regarding the Committee denying his request for a conditional use permit at the September 29, 2010 Committee meeting. Simmert commented on the information submitted by Mundth. There was a misunderstanding of E-mails. Doing a PUD was discussed. He could do that with the same results, but he would have to have the property surveyed. His appeal process was discussed. This appeal would not go to the Board of Adjustment.

Changing county employees health insurance carrier was briefly discussed.

Kelly Felton appeared with Mapping Departmental report. Previous month issues were reviewed. GIS information will be current after the first of the year. Redistricting will be in place by 2012. Number of information requests were discussed. It was noted that spring and fall are busier times of the year and more citizens are able to access the information on the web themselves.

Mapping vouchers were reviewed. Motion by Gaalswyk, seconded by Halfen to approve the vouchers in the amount of $11,930.81. Motion carried, 5-0.

Brent Bailey, Register of Deeds, appeared and his monthly report was reviewed. Budget figures were discussed. He anticipates being about $20,000 short on revenues this year. There has been a lot of refinancing activity.

Register of Deeds vouchers were reviewed. Motion by Gaalswyk, seconded by Ashford to approve the vouchers in the amount of $4,987.14. Motion carried, 5-0.

Pat Dederich, County Surveyor, appeared. He reported that section corner tie sheets should be available on line at this time. Just the new tie sheets had been scanned, but they refer back to old ones that hadn’t been scanned. They are working on them.

The Surveyor’s vouchers were reviewed. Motion by Gaalswyk, seconded by Ashford to approve the vouchers in the amount of $1,745.00. Motion carried, 5-0.

Chairman Lehman requested that the Committee take item 9c next. Bob Jewel, John Montgomery and Dick Marino appeared regarding nonmetallic mining sites. Jewel gave some background on conversion fees. They were concerned about paying that large amount and not knowing for sure that they would be granted a special exception permit. There is no guarantee. Now is the time to look at this because the ordinance is being rewritten. It was suggested that the rezone from exclusive ag. to general ag. be done after the special exception permit is granted. The entire conversion fee goes to the state. Most of the land stays in ag. or goes back to ag. after the mine is closed. Short term mineral extraction was discussed. It was agreed that most of the time, the contractors are in for the long haul. Large contractors probably wouldn’t use the short term alternative. Marino stated that there are approximately 29-30 permits necessary to open a mine. Steward asked if the Committee wanted staff to contact exclusive ag. townships regarding this. That was their directive.

The Committee then went to public hearing at 10:25.

The hearing was called to order and the members introduced themselves.

This was a Petition by Brad and Donna Luce to change the zoning of their property from
Agricultural to Recreational-Commercial Zoning District. The land to be affected by the
proposed rezone to Recreational-Commercial is located in Section 15, T.11N, R.6E, Town of
Baraboo, Sauk County,Wisconsin and more particularly described as Lots 3 and 4 of CSM 2694.
Area to be rezoned contains 2.02 acres more or less.

Brian Simmert gave background information. He noted an error on the notice of public hearing. They were rezoning from agriculture, not resource conservancy 35, to the recreational-commercial district.

There had not been any complaints on the property. There had been no negotiations with DOT for the property. Changing the value of the property was briefly discussed.

Brad Luce, owner, appeared in favor. He stated they wanted to bring the property into compliance with current zoning requirements. He stated there had been a complaint about the lighting.

Randy Puttkamer appeared representing the Town of Baraboo and was on the town board and planning commission. The town’s standing was that they wanted the business to be in the right district. He stated that the town had not received any complaints about the use. The owners had been working with the town. They didn’t know when the Highway 12 bypass will go through. The town didn’t want any nonconforming uses in the town. Nobs commended the town for that.

Seeing no one else wished to speak the chair closed the public portion of the hearing at 10:45.

Motion by Nobs, seconded by Ashford to approve the petition as requested. Motion carried, 5-0.

The Committee then reconvened in regular session. The Committee reviewed vouchers for the Planning and Zoning Department. Motion by Ashford, seconded by Gaalswyk to approve the vouchers in the amount of $1,848.96. Motion carried, 5-0.

Ashford gave a report on the October 25, 2010 restructuring committee meeting. Waukesha and Walworth Counties shared their experiences with the committee. Different solutions and merges were discussed. It was suggested that the members divide into pairs and prepare a plan on the merger and meet on November 18, 2010 to compare notes. They will give a report to the County board on December 21, 2010, but no decisions will be made by that time. Cost savings were discussed. Looking at counties that have failed to make this merger was also suggested.

Timber harvesting on the Waldinger property was then discussed. Brian Simmert and Mark Steward along with a DNR forest pathologist walked the property looking for diseased trees. Cutting amounts were discussed. Certain areas needed more harvesting to manage the forest. Removal of ironwood was necessary. They are waiting on results of the timber tests. They won’t cut until this winter.

Steward and Simmert brought the Committee up to date on a meeting with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection that was held on October 18, 2010. Density policy was discussed. Simmert explained calculating non-farm residential lots that could be created on a certain size acreage. Size of lots was discussed. Simmert proposed to put together a combination as examples and present it to exclusive ag. towns and DATCP. Tracking would be an issue.

Motion by Halfen, seconded by Ashford to adjourn. Motion carried, 5-0.

Respectfully submitted: Joel Gaalswyk, Secretary