Final Minutes of the Town of Cross Plains

Plan Commission Meeting

July 9, 2007

 

PRESENT:

COMMISSION MEMBERS: Jim Boland, Chair; Carl (Pat) Jones, Vice Chair; Mike Coyle; Ken Esser; Wayne Parrell; Jeff Baylis; Amelia Williams

CONSULTANT: Arnold Harris

TOWN OF CROSS PLAINS BOARD SUPERVISORS: Harold Krantz; Vera Riley

Six citizens

 

The Town of Cross Plains Planning Commission met on Monday, July 9, 2007 from 7:45 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. at the Town of Cross Plains Community Center

 

Jim Boland called the meeting to order.  Amelia Williams called the role (all members were eventually in attendance, and corrections to the June 18 minutes were requested.  There being no corrections, the minutes were approved as written.

 

REZONE ISSUES:

 1) Ken Thompson (3303 Valley Spring Rd. Mt Horeb, WI) added a 1.7 acre parcel to his property, and would like to build a 24 x 30 ft. garage, approximately on the interior lot line.  He showed the Commission his CSM (certified survey map) and hoped that the change was acceptable. He noted that the property is zoned RH-2. He will need a building permit, and has contacted Norb Schribner about his plans.  There were no objections to this plan. A motion called by Pat Jones, seconded by Jeff Baylis, was passed unanimously to accept the proposal for consideration by the Board of Supervisors.

 

2) Fred Dillett, 4334 Observatory Road, wanted to sell a parcel of his property for a second house near the end of his private drive, which stretches one mile in from Observatory Road. He was advised that the parcel would need to have 66 feet of frontage on a public road (Observatory Rd. in this case) in order to satisfy the County ordinances. He is hoping for a variance from the County to make it possible to build this second home. Jim Boland encouraged him to keep us informed of his progress. 

 

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLAN:

Bowman suggested we discuss Bob Bowman’s ten-page document for the Public Participation Plan, submitted at the previous Board Meeting. Baylis thought the way the suggestions were made was out of order, as it was not discussed at the open meeting, where the topic came up on June 11. He suggested we table the issue. Others felt that although some of the document was relevant, most was not necessary to the task at hand. 

Harris mentioned that he had assembled a book of surveys and plans from other towns in Wisconsin, and that he would send out some of the public participation plans (“PPP”) to members of the Commission. Some of these plans were available in the materials Harris had collected.  Amelia distributed updated versions of the PPP and talked a bit about the changes in the new version which had been suggested by Bob Bowman.  Pat Jones suggested that we number the written materials as they are submitted, in order to keep the authors names private.  Esser noted that the PPP was essentially unchanged, and should be submitted to the board.  Comment came from Louise Klopp that the public was not given time to participate in the public meetings, which she felt should be included in the plan.  After some discussion we agreed to add two changes as amendments to the PPP.   A statement was added, to the effect that the public can speak during the commission’s meeting, but not during the working sessions unless requested. A second change was added at the end, stating that changes could be made to the PPP during the planning process.  Williams offered these friendly amendments, seconded by Baylis and the motion passed 7 – 0. Harold Krantz commented that people from other towns should not be allowed to comment on our town, but it became clear that their participation was allowed in the defining state statutes.  Baylis moved to send the plan (seconded by Jones) to the board. The motion passed with Amelia in opposition (6 – 1). Her reservations were because she felt the public should always be given a chance to speak at meetings.

We also responded to suggestions to date all documents and decided that the citizens present at meetings might look at the documents under discussion, but should leave them with the Commission before leaving.  Brunner, Klopp, and Esser all had strong opinions on this topic, and several thought that we should await the Board’s decision on our participation plan before accepting public input.

 

THE FIRST PUBLIC SURVEY

            Harris presented a revised version of a first public survey.  He and Baylis had accumulated a number of the surveys from other towns for comparison. Each question was examined, improved or eliminated. Harris answered questions about other towns, other surveys, and the discussion often centered on how people might interpret the meanings of such words as “rural” “multifamily dwellings”, and “commercial”. However, members of the commission came to agreement on most all of the questions, adding some for clarification along the way.  We then took up the issue of whether we could go ahead, concluding that we must await the decision of the Board on the Public Participation Plan. Toward the end of the session we thought that a glossary might be useful to avoid confusion on some of the difficult terms.  Harris discussed the technical aspects of mailing the surveys.  The survey was to be revised by Harris and Williams, then sent to each member of the Commission for review. We felt that a final decision on it could be made as soon as the Board accepted the Public Participation Plan.

 

DRAFT CHAPTER 1 OF THE LAND USE PLAN

            Baylis and Harris had previously submitted a draft of Chapter 1, but as we began to examine the wording, we realized that passage of the Participation Plan and the results of the survey might change it, so we went on to the next part of the agenda. Jeff Baylis was asked the source of the statistics in Chapter 1. He had used the US Census. The census showed only ten farmers in the town, and we felt that this and other obvious mistakes could be corrected with input from the survey.

 

WEB SITE FOR THE PLAN COMMISSION

            Williams had spoken to Bruce at Cedar Creek where the server is located.  He said we could provide pages which would show our public documents, other reference materials, and links to relevant ordinances and statutes.  Harris mentioned other sites which could be accessed from our own, and added that a descriptive article will be ready for our next meeting which we would like to put into the newspapers.

 

EXTRA MEETING?

            An extra work meeting might be possible on July 30th, depending on whether the Board passes the Public Participation Plan.  We might be able to complete the survey, and discuss Chapter 1 (Issues and Opportunities) and 2 (Housing). We are hoping to mail the survey as soon as possible.

Other suggestions included looking into the DSL line and trying to find out how to prove our non-profit status.

 

 

ACTION ITEMS:

1)      Jim Boland:

a.       Agenda for the next work meeting, if we have a meeting at 8 pm on the 30th, to Williams before Friday, July 20th.

b.      Agenda for next regular meeting by Friday, August 9th for a meeting on Monday, August 20th

c.       Also suggest agenda items for next the Board meeting.

2)      Amelia Williams:

a.       Make small revisions to the Public Participation Plan, and send it to the Board members and commission members within two days.

b.      Revise the survey, send to all Commission members

c.       Contact TDS about DSL line.

3)      All: Read and be ready to discuss, revise, and approve:

a.       First Survey Questionnaire wording

b.      First draft chapters of the new Land Use Plan (received at May 21 meeting)

4)      Contact Williams or Harris if you are missing any of the documents mentioned above.

 

Corrected and Submitted by Amelia Williams, July 31, 2007 with corrections