TOWN OF CONCORD PLAN COMMISSION MINUTES

April 24, 2019

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. with Lloyd Zastrow, Jim Gilbert, Sally Williams, and Laura Callison present. Carole Hoffmeister was absent. Dale Konle, Larry Oliverson, Jake & Susan Couture were also present.

The meeting was opened with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Sally Williams stated that the meeting had been properly posted.

Jim Gilbert made a motion to approve the minutes from the March 27 meeting, second by Laura Callison. All approved. Motion passed.

Item 1:  Discussion of Comprehensive Plan update: The Town of Concord Comprehensive Land Use Plan was passed in 2009 and according to Wisconsin law needs to be revisited. Several factors in the discussion were the fact that 1) the county is currently updating their comprehensive plan and we may want to look at any changes they make as we consider updates to our plan, and 2) there will be a new census in 2020 and any updating of data that we do for our plan would be better based on that census data rather than the 2010 data.

Three approaches were discussed:

1. Re-adopt the Plan as written with no changes for now. Wait to update the plan until the new census data is in and the county is finished updating their plan.
2. Do a full plan update including all data now.
3. Do a partial update of the plan now to address current issues but wait to update any data until the county plan is finished and new census data is in.

The committee opted to follow approach number three. Sections and issues to be addressed include the following:

1. Vision statements, Strategies, and Issues will be updated for each chapter. Sally Williams will work on Chapters 2, 3, and 4. Dale Konle will work on chapters 5 & 6. Larry Oliverson will work on Chapters 1 & 10.
2. The use of the terms “rural” and “rural character” need to be defined so that they reflect the intent of the town. Laura Callison will work on this.
3. Current issues which the committee would like the plan to address include the following:
   1. need for a systematic approach to rezoning properties to A-2
   2. a statement of opposition to large scale utilities (solar, wind, pipelines, towers) that are developed in such a way that they interfere with the town’s basic values and rural quality of life and strategies to deal with these types of proposals.
   3. a statement indicating that new broadband should use existing towers wherever possible.
   4. a strategy to limit home occupations to small scale operations under the definition which existed in the county zoning ordinance in 2009 rather than the current expanded definition which allows for larger businesses with more employees.
4. Lloyd will check with the town attorney as to the following: Does state law require the town to pass a new plan in the 10 year time limit? What if we exceed that? Can we have a more restrictive list of conditional uses than the county in a given zoning district? Can we have a more restrictive definition of a given conditional use (such as home occupation) than the county has?
5. The goal is to have any updates done in time to mail out the notice of a public hearing on the updated plan along with the town picnic notice in August. The public hearing requires a 30 day notice and could be held in September.

With no further business, Sally Williams made a motion to adjourn, second by Laura Callison. All approved.   Meeting was adjourned at 9:36.

Respectfully submitted,

Sally Williams, secretary