Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutPlanning & Zoning 01-15-03AGENDA ST. CROIX COUNTY NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING CALL TO ORDER: ROLL CALL: ADOPTION OF AGENDA: DATE OF NEXT MEETING: ACTION ON PREVIOUS MINUTES: UNFINISHED BUSINESS: OTHER BUSINESS: NEW BUSINESS: TO: Clarence Malick, Chairman St. Croix County Board FROM: Art Jensen, Chairman COMMITTEE TITLE: Planning, Zoning and Parks Committee DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 TIME: 7:00 p.m. hearing LOCATION: St. Croix County Agricultural Center, Baldwin, WI 1) Donald H. Roettger to rezone approximately 80 +/- acres of land from Agriculture to Ag /Residential. Location: The West %2 of the SE '/a of Section 24, T30N -R20W, Town of St. Joseph. 2) David Ihle /St. Croix County to rezone approximately 2.5 4 acres of land from Ag /Residential to Commercial. Location: Part of Government Lot "2" of Section 27, T30N -R20W, Town of St. Joseph. POSSIBLE AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING: ADJOURNMENT (Agenda not necessarily presented in this order) SUBMITTED BY: St. Croix County Zoning Office * Amended Items DATE: January 9, 2003 COPIES TO: County Board Office Committee Members County Clerk News Media /Notice Board MINUTES St. Croix County Planning, Zoning and Parks Committee January 15, 2003 St. Croix County Agricultural Center, Baldwin, Wisconsin Committee members present: Supervisors Art Jensen, Lois Burri, Veronica Anderson, Jan Zoerb and Linda Luckey. Staff present: Steve Fisher and Deb Zimmermann Chairman Jensen called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. A motion was made by Luckey, seconded by Anderson and carried to adopt the agenda. The date of the next meeting is January 22" for a rezoning hearing at the Ag Center in Baldwin. Jensen explained the hearing process and opened the hearing. Donald Roettger: Fisher read the notice into the record. The request is to rezone approximately 80 + / -acres of land from Agriculture to Ag/Residential. Location: A parcel of land located in the W I /2 of the SE 1 /4, Section 24, T30N -R20W, Town of St. Joseph. Donald Roettger is the owner of the property. He explained that he wants to sell off some lots. He may have some adjoining property owners wanting to buy some property to add onto their existing parcel. He stated that the land is not suitable for farming and the taxes are very high. His preference is to sell larger lots, and not to develop the property into small lots. Teresa Johnson, Supervisor for the Town of St. Joseph, said that the parcel is too small for farming and meets the Town criteria for rezoning. She added that the Town Board did address §91.77 when making their decision to recommend approval of this request, even though it was not stated in the letter from the Town. Howard LaVenture, 1423 Main Street, Houlton, WI, and Miles Wittig, 1722 38 St., Somerset, WI support Roettger's request for rezoning. Bill Von Wold, Woodland Court, Houlton, is an adjoining property owner and is one of the property owners interested in purchasing some acreage from Roettger. Dan Roettger, Houlton, is Roettger's son and spoke in support of the request. He is planning on buying 10 -20 acres of property to build a home on. There was no opposition to the request. Fisher went over the staff report with the committee. At the present time, Roettger has not provided a conceptual plan for the property, which has been something the committee has asked for in the past from other applicants. Fisher noted that there may be some issues with access to the property. Staff has suggested looking at a combination of Ag/Residential and Ag -II zoning on this property. Fisher went over the GIS maps and the LESA maps with the committee stating that the LESA scores are low. He reiterated that there is very little prime farmland, it is partially wooded and the entire site is located in an environmental corridor. A lengthy discussion was held on the reasons for submitting a rough sketch for the property. The committee believes it is important to have an idea of what the plans are for the property before approving the request, particularly when there are environmental corridors involved. Roettger is not certain how the property will be developed, but his intentions are to sell off parcels of 10 -20 acres. Teresa Johnson stated that the Town believes that the rough sketch should be done at the subdivision level, not at the rezoning level. Motion by Zoerb, seconded by Jensen and carried to recess the hearing. Motion by Zoerb to table the request to have the applicant look at rezoning to Ag -II and to put together a rough sketch of what he wishes to do. Discussion. Motion withdrawn. Motion by Zoerb, seconded by Jensen and carried to table until the January 28"' meeting and encouraged the applicant to provide the staff with a copy of a rough sketch for the committee to review in order to make a final decision on this request. David Ihle: Fisher read the notice into the record. The request is to rezone approximately 2.5 +/- acres of land from Ag/Residential to Commercial. Location: A parcel of land located in part of Government Lot 2 of Section 27, T30N -R20W, Town of St. Joseph Fisher went over the background of this rezoning request, and the reasons why the county is sponsoring the rezoning, and why it is important to correct this error and have the property rezoned to commercial. Fisher read the reasons listed in the staff report into the record. The staff has had several meetings with the town board members and neighboring residents regarding this site, and the county agrees that a buffer zone between the commercial and residential properties is a very important factor. The staff is recommending two conditions for this rezoning if it is approved, and Fisher read those proposed conditions into the record. The St. Joseph Town Board has recommended disapproval of the rezoning request, and the reason for the disapproval is stated in a letter from the Town attorney dated January 8, 2003. The Town believes that the property where the commercial building is located is already zoned commercial. Fisher added that the county does not agree. Joe Ryan, attorney for David Ihle, explained that when the property was bought in 1988, Ihle was told that the property was zoned commercial, and now, according to the county maps, the commercial building is located on Ag/Residential property, and cannot be used. He understands the neighbors concerns, but any new use on the property will have to go through the special exception process to obtain a permit, which will help to limit what is allowed on this parcel. There is a very large buffer of mature pine trees along the property line, and the residential properties are completely screened from the commercial site. Howard LaVenture addressed the committee with his concerns, and went over zoning maps with the committee. He pointed out language in all prior zoning ordinances that stated that any commercial strip located along a highway is to be 200 -feet deep. The Town believes that the 200 -foot strip is there today, making the commercial building located on a commercial property, not ag /residential. LaVenture handed out information on the history of this property that he put together, and went over the handout. He believes the county maps are wrong. Stan Hanks, 1409 Hilltop Ridge, Houlton, is a neighboring property owner. He referred to the letter the committee received that was signed by other neighbors stating their opposition of this request, and concerned that it will diminish property values and set a precedence for others in the commercial area in Houlton. Discussion held. Teresa Johnson added that this is a very "muddy" situation, but believes that the back part of the lot that is zoned ag/residential should remain as is to protect the residential areas behind the commercial lot. 2 Fisher told the committee that he has listened to LaVenture's explanation in past meetings, but the zoning and planning staff, along with corporation counsel, believe that this is a parcel that needs to have the zoning corrected and that the commercial strip is shown as 100 -feet on the official zoning maps, not 200 -feet. Fisher believes that these are the official maps that should be followed. Regardless of the 100 -200 foot discrepancy, Fisher further added that the property has been used for a commercial business since the 1980's, and has been taxed as a commercial property since that time. Fisher reiterated that buffering is important and the county simply wants to correct this problem, and once rezoned, a special exception permit is still required to permit a use on the parcel. The staff does not agree that this will set a precedent, as every parcel is looked at separately. Fisher added that this is an opportunity to correct a problem that has been around for a long time. Discussion held. Motion by Anderson, seconded by Burri and carried to recess the hearing. Discussion held by the committee on the 200 -foot deep commercial strip language in the ordinances. Motion by Zoerb, seconded by Burri to table the request so that the committee may review the information received and have the staff look into the committee concerns on the 200 -foot commercial strip language. This item will be placed on the January 28 agenda for further discussion, the committee requested Corporation Counsel be present at that meeting. Minutes: Motion by Jensen, seconded by Zoerb and carried to approve the November 13, 2002 minutes with changes noted. Motion by Zoerb, seconded by Anderson and carried by to adjourn the meeting at 9:15 p.m. be ra Zim erm nn, Recorder i 9 Lois Burn, Secretary