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January 12, 2006 MINUTES OF SPECIAL JOINT MEETING OF THE TOWN OF DELAVAN TOWN BOARD & PLAN COMMISSION
MINUTES OF SPECIAL JOINT MEETING OF THE TOWN OF DELAVAN TOWN BOARD & PLAN COMMISSION January 12, 2006 The Town of Delavan Town Board held a special joint meeting with the Plan Commission at the Delavan Town Hall, 5621 Town Hall Rd., Delavan, WI. Chair Pelletier called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. PRESENT: ALSO PRESENT: Chair John Pelletier Clerk Colleen Endisch Supervisor Richard Hummel Attorney Steven Wassel Supervisor Larry Malsch Supervisor Dolores Nowak Supervisor Wayne Polzin PLAN COMMISSION MEMBERS: Frank Jones Bob Nieuwenhuis Don Hummel Mark Kolczski Brad Cook WALWORTH COUNTY MEMBERS: Matt Wiedensee Associate Planner Deb Grubb Senior Zoning ASSESSOR Keith Munson Audience: 25 citizens Chair Pelletier opened the joint meeting to order at 7:00 PM. There was a quorum present for doing business. COMMUNICATIONS Chair Pelletier stated he had received correspondence from the Delavan Lake Improvement Association, and read the letter written by the president of the association, Mary Knipper. The letter is supporting the efforts of the Town of Delavan to implement and amend the Master Plan which has components that are designed to preserve and protect Delavan Lake. John asked the clerk to add the letter to the record of the minutes of this meeting. COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS OF CITIZENS PRESENT: Renae Dunbar asked about the people in subdivisions; what happens to them. She used an example of View Crest and what would happen in the event of a fire. Chair Pelletier asked if these were substandard properties right now. Dunbar replied some are. Pelletier stated the intent of this process is not to disadvantage people, but to preserve the quality of the lake. Pelletier added the board is not looking at taking away the rights of the property owners around the lake, but to do nothing the board would become hard pressed. Pelletier stated her conclusion might not be correct and her questions would be answered later in the meeting. Bob Beal stated that View Crest Association owns a substantial amount of property whose boundaries are 40 x 145 and has concerns regarding the build ability of these lots. Mr. Beale stated they have a huge tax bill now and will this rezone make their taxes go down. Keith Munson responded this will not affect the value of the properties, if the lots were not buildable they would be affected. Munson added that substandard and build able lots are two different things and substandard would not be rendered not buildable. Chair Pelletier stated that some aren’t buildable today. Deb Grubb stated the existing zoning ordinance has minimum standards in pre-platted lots, which will remain true if zoning is changed. She added that pre-platted lots would be grandfathered under their ordinance, which would not affect anything pre-platted. A lot that was buildable will remain buildable. Additions meeting current setback requirements would still be allowed. Rebuilds permissible now would still be allowed. Renae Dunbar stated that residents would have a difficult time getting a loan on a non-conforming lot and asked if the county would issue letter telling the mortgage companies that something could be rebuilt on the existing platted lot. Ms. Grubb responded that a zoning information form would need to be filled out and filed; there are many different rules in play here. Mr. Beale asked about combining three or four tax keys to make one buildable lot, would that still be grandfathered. Ms. Grubb responded yes because these are pre-platted lots. Dan Lemanski stated what he is hearing the one negative effect would be on un-platted properties. Ms. Grubb responded yes. Chair Pelletier stated that in 2002 the town updated their master plan to protect the lake and its water quality. Pelletier stated the town will need to identify the areas defined as R-2 that are within 1000 feet of the ordinary high water mark of the shore of Delavan Lake, the Inlet and the Outlet. Pelletier explained this is to alleviate the issues the Town had with properties around the lake meeting county zoning requirements but not meeting with the Town’s Master Plan. Pelletier said the town and county were at odds over this issue regarding whose rules were to take precedent. The Town took the county to court and lost two different time and it was determined that the county controls zoning and the town’s master plan doesn’t carry any authority. Pelletier talked with the county about what could be done for future development and the county felt the town could rezone the R2 properties to R2A, which the county believed was created for conditions like this one in the Town. R2A properties are currently requiring 50,000 sq feet and the town voted to ask the county to amend their code to redefine to 40,000 sq. feet., the same as its Master plan. Pelletier stated the county has this item on their agenda for next week and if the county agrees the town would start having public hearings and extending the moratorium of no more land divisions around the lake, no further subdivision of lots until the rezone was completed. Pelletier stated this has been an issue for quite a few years and he doesn’t want this haunting future boards. He wants to think this through and make the right decisions. He asked the experts to be at this meeting to explain what will happen if we do this, explain that the Town is not trying to take away anything the residents don’t already have. Pelletier stated that only non-platted properties would not be protected, there would be no taking away of property rights and if a property burns down it could be rebuilt and if you want to add on it could happen as long as you meet the county setback rules. Pelletier stated the disadvantage would be that pre-platted lots, more than 30,000 sq feet could currently be divided into two parcels and under R2A they would need to remain one lot. Bob Beale asked if two houses could be built on one lot and the responses was one dwelling on each 40,000 sq ft of property. Attorney Wassel stated an example would be the Mitchell property, which the new owner is tearing down the residences and creating two tax parcels that the plan commission and the board are most concerned about limiting the residential units built on one property. Frank Jones asked if four families could live in one building. Deb Grubb stated the definition of family is a dwelling unit with a separate kitchen, sewer, etc. and this would not resolve the condo issue. If a person owns a property that is divisible, each 40,000 sq ft, each needs to have a separate family. Mark Kolczaski pointed out that once a group of pre-platted lots meet the standards they can’t go back to being substandard (one tax key). Attorney Wassel stated that a 30,000 sq ft property today could be subdivided and built on and under the R2A they couldn’t Supervisor Polzin stated this would make the lands more valuable; not as much density, fewer homes to meet the supply and demand. Chair Pelletier stated this will be a large undertaking as this will not only affect those on the lake or with lake access but those 1,000 feet back, regulated by shore land zoning which is mandated by the state. Pelletier asked does it make sense to rezone Delmar for instance, are there legal issues here? The Town needs to be able to show that the rezone was evenly applied. Pelletier suggested that maybe 1000 feet would involve too large a number of properties. Frank Jones stated he doesn’t agree with Pelletier’s conclusion. Jones stated that in the late 1980’s the lake was extremely susceptible and it was determined that all properties within the 1,000 boundary affect the drainage and they were not looking at limiting the size of the properties but to protect the lake. Jones added the boundaries are already established, and everyone must keep in mind to protect the lake, more pets, people, fertilizer etc. add to the disruption of the lake. Attorney Wassel remarked, take Assembly Park for instance, 208 residential units, with a park in the middle, a subdivision significant in size. Wassel stated you just can’t eliminate a subdivision from the analysis. He added the town will need to sit down with the plat book to physically see what lands are involved and approach from a uniform basis. The intent of the master plan will need to be updated. Wassel added the lake study done by UW Whitewater conclusively showed the importance of the lake to the community. Deb Grubb state the easiest way to manage would be to send the property owners notice. Grubb remarked when LaGrange did a mass rezone it took them 1 ½ to 2 years, they had multiple hearings and there was a lot of controversy. She added that once the county received notification they could just process it, LaGrange had mapped out and identified all the parcels, which is what the county worked from. Matt Wiedensee stated the town would need the legal description of the area to rezone and agrees it would make sense to stay within the 1,000 feet. The legal description for 1,000 from the high water mark would be pretty easy to get, he thought the County GIS system already had the information and the IS department might be able to give us a list. Chair Pelletier asked what are the legal risks? What recourse do the property owners have, would there be liability or not liability? Wassel stated the town would be the one asking for the rezone, the real exposure would be the county, not doing arbitrarily; but sees it all fall under the legitimate reason of preservation of natural resources. Mark Kolczaski asked if the town needs to petition the county and Attorney Wassel responded yes, and they don’t have to agree, they can come in and reject at all levels, but the Town Board and the Plan Commission in favor, would be favorable to the county. Brad Cook stated that DNR needs to be involved; DNR needs to be noticed in the rezone effort and has a right to comment. Supervisor Malsch stated the Plan Commission would recommend to the Town Board, the Town Board would recommend to the county. Malsch asked if Matt has any feel on how the county will react. Mr. Wiedensee responded that County Zoning would have a public hearing and the zoning agency would then make a recommendation to the county board to vote on and the rezone would have to ratified by both the town and county to proceed. Chair Pelletier stated the Town Board needs to come up with how much money this will cost, his estimate would be in the $ 10,000 to $ 15,000 range. Frank Jones stated this issue is important enough to spend a few dollars, and the result if the town doesn’t do so is disastrous. The lake would revert to the status prior to the drawdown and the areas economy will be adversely affected. Supervisor Polzin stated it took seven million to cleanup, with the town spending 3.74 million. Bob Nieuwenhuis stated if the town needs to spend $ 50,000, that wouldn’t be too much; we can’t skimp and let the lake go down the drain. He added that Lake Lawn Lodge has 165 boat slips and DNR has approved 212, just one example. Mark Kolczaski commented that the public education campaign needs to be enacted, a flyer, the town web-site as a precursor. Chair Pelletier stated he will talk with Thom Aiello about running a story in the Delavan Enterprise. Mr. Yadon would also be contacted for follow-up. Attorney Wassel asked if the County sees any potential opposition from the County and the County responded the seven person committee would vote on and make the recommendation to the twenty-five council members. Wiedensee stated that most times when the towns want to do something the county will approve. Chair Pelletier asked the plan commission members to make the board members aware of their position and all plan commission members agreed to move forward. This item will be placed on the Tuesday Board Meeting for the Board to act on. Pelletier stated that he is just trying to make the right decision, that there will be many more meetings and opportunities for the public to become involved. Chair Pelletier made a motion to close the Special Plan Commission Meeting with a second from Bob Nieuwenhuis and the motion carried unanimously. Chair Pelletier made a motion to close the Special Town Board Meeting with a second from Supervisor Malsch and motion carried unanimously. Chair Pelletier adjourned the joint meeting at 8:40 PM. ATTEST: APPROVED ______________________________ ______________________________ Colleen Endisch, Town Clerk John Pelletier, Town Chair