I have been holding off on writing about this topic lately as, quite honestly, sometimes I don't quite know what to make of all of it. As I am member of the town Planning Commission, one might naturally think that I would have access to information and resources to guide my decision making that a regular citizen does not have -- well, you would be wrong to think so. But that is a whole 'nother story.
We did see some movement on the issue this past week. (For background, links to Lakeland Times story, and Part IV.) On Tuesday a hearing was held on several petitions by Tom Baer and his companies to amend the Land Use Plan and rezone several parcels. The petitioner's attorney presented it as a compromise, though many in attendence characterized it differently. Following the public hearing, it had been scheduled for the Planning Commission to take up discussion and possible action on the petition but a mistake in the posted meeting notice prevented us from doing so. We rescheduled for Thursday night.
Thursday night we moved right into our Planning Commission meeting. Firstly, we approved a request for a rezone that we considered relatively non-controversial (a parcel along Hwy 51 from Multi-family to General Business) as the request conformed to our existing Land Use Plan. Secondly, we took up the matter of the petition to amend the Land Use Plan to reclassify the attempted cranberry operation south of Pine Lane (Phase II) from Single Family to Agriculture. Several hours of discussion and comments followed. As the two nights of meetings together must have run about 5 hours in total, I cannot cover everything here. But the gist of it is that we unanimously approved the petition to amend the Land Use Plan (with conditions). Now let me tell you why.
Remember this important point -- Planning Commission actions are advisory to the Town Board, i.e., the Commission takes an action, and the Town Board either ratifies it or reverses it. If a petition to change something comes to the Planning Commission and it is denied, the matter does not go to the Town Board for further action. Our discussion Thursday night made it apparent to me that the best option for us was to kick the matter up to the Town Board so that the board may have the opportunity to hopefully negotiate some sort of resolution. Therefore, I moved that the petition regarding the Phase II property to amend the Land use Plan to reclassify from Single Family to Agriculture be approved subject to the Town of Manitowish Waters and the petitioner entering into an agreement relative to the various zoning and litigation issues. My motion was approved 7-0. The meeting was ended at this point, no action was taken on the other two rezone petitions.
Now, I recognize that my motion is controversial. Some folks appear to be so angry that they simply want to go ahead with the lawsuit and consequences be damned. From where I am sitting though, I prefer to explore other options first.