 Up Against the Wall
Attention: County Attempts to Usurp Cities’ Power!
by Terrence Wall
Dane County is considering an ordinance that will regulate all land located within 1,000 feet of a lake, stream, river or pond.
This authority would even extend to detention ponds or drainage ditches that developers build in new developments, and the regulation will give the county control over land inside municipalities – something the county presently lacks. Likewise, since the Isthmus is only about 2,500 feet wide, the county will suddenly have control over most development within downtown Madison as well.
The county staff estimates that over 44,000 properties that are presently in compliance with all laws will suddenly become ‘non-conforming’ if the ordinance passes. What that means for you is that your business or home may abruptly become a property that cannot be expanded, rebuilt or changed without county board approval and without coming into compliance – and you may not be able to rebuild at all.
I call this a ‘back door taking’.
You’re still probably wondering, “How will this impact me?” Well, for starters, the county staff and the county board will be dictating to you how your property should be used – as well as setting new and arbitrary set backs, including set backs nowhere near a body of water.
This legislative effort is being done under the innocuous title of the Dane County Waterbody Classification Project, and while I am all in favor of cleaning up the lakes, this isn’t going to do the job.
(We need to start filtering street storm water runoff at the source – 160 pipes that empty into Lake Mendota and assist farmers in building storm water detention ponds along the Yahara watershed.)
And if you think that somehow you will escape being affected by this effort, the county staff has come up with 160 classifications of different types of water bodies. (Put away the kids’ swimming pool!) The staff is now developing regulations for each of these categories. Even working quarries that have partially filled with water will be subject to the regulations. Good luck continuing to quarry!
Another key component of this proposal is that the non-conforming properties will not, that’s right, will not be grandfathered, which means immediate non-conformance. Any new construction, renovation – or anything requiring a building permit for a home – will require bringing the entire property into conformity, at significant cost.
How can this be? Well, according to Phil Salkin of the REALTORS® Association of South Central Wisconsin, the regulations require a property to tally up 100 points to mitigate any non-conformance, and no one knows right now what it will take to secure those 100 points because that won’t be defined until later (and of course, the standards for the points will change over time, presenting a moving target).
Likewise, no one knows the negative economic impact on the county, let alone on an individual property owner.
What about that senior citizen who has lived in her home for 50 years – only to find that the cost to bring her property into conformance is 50% or 75% of the value of her home? Or how about that young couple who bought a home by the development’s detention pond and now has to refinance – but the bank doesn’t know how to assess the risk or cost of the regulation, so the bank declines to refinance the house? Now what do they do?
Not to mention that the two-acre minimum lot size requirement won’t be met by a single home in an urban area (like the City of Madison)....
Besides, doesn’t the two-acre minimum conflict with the recently passed plan by the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (CARPC) requiring higher density housing? How come one body of the county is pushing regulation in direct conflict with another body of the county?
And if you are one of those people who think that this legislation is too radical to get passed, don’t bet against it and please don’t remain apathetic. Many people told me that the CARPC’s plan for reducing development land by 81% would “never pass,” including the acting Executive Director of CARPC. But I warned that CARPC would attempt to pass it in the dark of night when no one was watching and that is exactly what happened. Now the county is stuck with a radical plan that is overwhelmingly opposed by its citizens as well as its municipalities, towns and villages. Yet a minority of anti-growth individuals managed to push it through while the rest of us were resting comfortably at home.
You shouldn’t expect anything less in this situation; the proponents of this new regulation will look for a window of opportunity to push it through when no one is watching.
If you’re interested in making your concerns known on this issue, e-mail the County Executive at falk@co.dane.wi.us so she can pass them along to the appropriate parties.
Business Tip of the Month: Join an association of common business interests – one that tracks pending local regulations that may impact your business.
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