MADELINE ISLAND NEWS AND INFORMATION

WHY CARL BROBERG MUST GO

by Edward Itor

After receiving this feedback the Town Plan Commission, led by Barbara Christensen at the time, decided to hold a series of workshops designed to gather public input concerning the town’s zoning ordinances. The first of these workshops were held early in 2007 and more were held throughout the summer.

These workshops have been criticized by some for their apparent lack of documentation. In our investigations we found that of the seven workshops held, no records exist concerning these workshops other than the notices that were posted around town inviting input from the public. There are no minutes of these workshops and there is no record of who attended them. There does exist one recording from a workshop that was held in late August concerning “Junk/Salvage Storage Yards”. Ironically enough, one of the citizens who attended the meeting who seem to have the most concerns about this topic was Broberg's wife, Madonna Francois. (Some people have speculated that this workshop was the basis for the creation of the ill-fated “Junk and Nuisance Property Ordinance” proposal.)

During the second half of 2007, a new item appeared on the TPC's agenda was "General Code Project" with subheading of various topics. It is during these meetings where long discussions took place concerning various La Pointe zoning ordinances or the lack thereof. This agenda item has been criticized by some for its vagueness; especially by those unaware of who or what General Code was. It became clear later that this was how the TPC was “giving notice” to the public that they were writing a new Zoning Ordinance. TPC working on revising the town's zoning ordinances. As the year progress, this agenda item was simply changed to “Section 450”. The TPC has also been accused of deliberately using vague agenda items to keep the public in the dark about what they were working on.

However, this tactic seem to back-fire on them. When "Junk and Nuisance Property Ordinance" came to light in the beginning of December, many citizens were outraged as the wording of this ordinance essentially allowed the town to “clean up” what the ordinance defined as a “nuisance property”, sending the bill to the owner.

The TPC claimed that this ordinance was based on public input gathered at the workshops held earlier in the year. However, this ordinance created so much public outcry that in January, the Town Board decided to have a public workshop of its own to address the issues and the many letters that they received in regards to this issue.

There is no written documentation on record from the public concerning any of the topics from the public workshops. The topics listed on the agendas were, at best, vague. The public reaction to the surprising appearance of a fully written zoning ordinance, appearing out of the blue, was predictable. Is it any wonder that residents question the source of the “public input” suddenly appearing from nowhere?

In April of this year, Broberg became the chair of the TPC after Christensen's term expired and she was not reappointed. Throughout the summer, the TPC continued to work on this project, however no more public workshops were held. In September, Broberg and the TPC released the first draft of their work. This time public outcry set a new record. At the Public Hearing, required by Wisconsin Law, the public showed up in record numbers to protest. About 170 people showed up, with more than half of the people not being able to get inside to hear what was being said. It appeared that once again, the public was being left out of the process. Obviously, Broberg and TPC had no clue as to how the public would react to their work. If they did, they would have had held the meeting at the school's gymnasium to accommodate those wishing to participate.

Nearly every speaker from the public was opposed to the proposed changes drafted by the TPC. A group of residents from Nebraska Row hired an attorney to represent their interests. Not only do the proposed ordinance changes allow for drastic changes in population densities in traditional single family dwelling areas, but they also allow for less restrictive setbacks in shoreline and wetland zones. Apparently Broberg is not aware or is ignoring the fact that town zoning laws cannot be less restrictive than county zoning laws.

In my opinion, this "first draft" by the TPC re-enforces my idea that the people sitting on the Town Plan Commission lack the experience, background, knowledge and skills necessary to undertake such a complicated project.

Currently, Broberg and the TPC are still working on this project. There has been some discussion at recent Town Board meetings of hiring an outside consultant to work on this project. However, nothing has happened. Could it be that the Town Board is happy with the work of Broberg and the TPC?

Would it be unwise to apply for a grant, hire a company that has experience writing Zoning Law, and defer to experience, skill and expertise?

After all, three of the Town Board members were sitting on the TPC during 2007 and early 2008 when much of this body of work was drafted, Mike Starck, Ric Gillman, and Beth Fischlowitz. Apparently they were also ignorant to the fact that town zoning laws cannot be less restrictive than county zoning laws. Otherwise, this document would have never reached the Town Board with its obvious legal problems.

Also, the Town Plan Commission missed a deadline to apply for a grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management program who was interested in helping La Pointe with zoning project. In a letter addressed to the Town Board in September, by Zoning Administrator, Jennifer Croonborg, states:


."...As I have informed the Commission several times, there are grant funds available through the WI Coastal Management Program. The WCMP has expressed interest in funding 50% of the Town of La Pointe’s COMPREHENSIVE REVISION process. The WCMP is ready and willing to help preserve the balance between development and preservation in our valuable and unique coastal community. I hope the TPC will respond to my recommendation to apply for the grant before the application deadline ends."

According to Croonborg, she informed the TPC of this opportunity in July of this year. The deadline for applying was November 3.

Why didn't the TPC apply for this grant?

Are Broberg and the Town Plan Commission not willing to receive any outside help on this project?

Are they not interested in preserving the balance between development and preservation on the island?

It seems not.

To date, Broberg has been accused of not following the process outlined in La Pointe's own zoning laws. According to Section 12.0 Public Hearings of the La Pointe Zoning Ordinance.

SECTION 12.0 PUBLIC HEARINGS

12.1 NOTICE

Adequate notice shall be given of any public hearing required by the provisions of this Ordinance, stating the time and place of such a hearing and the purpose for which it is being held.

1. Posting and Publishing

A. Notice of public hearings shall be given as per Wisconsin Statutes, Sections 60.61(4)(c), 60.62 and 985.07(2).

B. In addition, when the hearing involves a proposed change in the zoning district classification of any property, or the granting of a conditional use, a copy of the notice shall be posted in the vicinity of the proposed change or conditional use where practical and notice of the public hearing shall be mailed by first class mail to the owners of all lands within 300 feet of any part of the land included in such proposed change or conditional use at least 10 days before such public hearing. The failure of such notice to reach any property owner shall not invalidate any amending ordinance or grant of a conditional use permit.

No such mailing was sent out by the Town Plan Commission; a direct violation of the law. You would think that an "expert" like Broberg would be familiar with this requirement, especially since he is not only the chair of the TPC, but also the head of this ordinance review. However, this issue has been essentially ignored by the Town Board, some of the very same people who helped draft these changes.

Another legal issue, ignored by the Town Board, is Broberg’s unresponsiveness to public information requests. According to Croonborg, also Town Plan Commission custodian of records, she has been unable to fulfill some information request that have come to her office due to Broberg's unresponsiveness. However, recently the Town Board voted reached consensus that Broberg did not have to turn over documents and records in electronic format, even if they were created electronically. Apparently the Town Board is not aware or is ignoring the fact that this is a direct violation of Wisconsin Open Records law.

However, what is most troubling is how this project seems to have been transformed into something bigger than its original intent. When this project started, it was to make the Zoning Ordinance internally consistent, enforceable, and unambiguous. There was no mention of the Comprehensive plan at that time. General Code does not advise on rewrites as they have no experience, interest, nor skill in this revision.

During the past three years we have watched this project go from a review project, to a codification and rewrite project, and now, by Broberg's own admission at the recent public hearing, a "revision" project. But on whose authority?

Wasn't this supposed to be just a rewrite project?

Clearly Broberg and the Town Plan Commission have overstepped their bounds.

Anyone who has taken a look at the La Pointe zoning ordinance can understand the need for a rewrite and perhaps codification of the current ordinance. However, much of the work done by Broberg and the TPC appears to be simply revisions for the sake of revision with very little forethought about the consequences of these proposed changes, if they were to pass. In fact, Broberg has been accused of copying many of the newly proposed zoning ordinance changes directly from Door County Wisconsin’s zoning ordinances.

But why is Broberg trying to take on so much at once by a complete ordinance revision?

Wouldn't it have made more sense to take this project in steps, using the work done by General Code, which has been completed for some time, but never submitted to General Code as a basis for the later rewrite?

Wasn't that the original intent?

You would think that after two years of wasted time and taxpayer money that the Town Board would realize that Broberg and the Town Plan Commission are no closer to completing this project as much of the work that Broberg had done will have to be scrapped as it is in direct conflict with Ashland County Zoning.

You would think that newly elected Ashland County Board member Mike Starck, who also sits on the Town Plan Commission, would have been more familiar with Ashland County zoning and could have prevented such an embarrassing mistakes made in the "first draft" of their proposed changes. This could have saved the town a lot of money by not have to do much of this work over. Maybe electing Starck to the Ashland County board wasn't such a good idea after all.

The town of La Pointe has a little over a year before Wisconsin law will allow challenges by citizens to decisions regarding zoning issues made by cities and towns that are contrary to what is outlined in their Comprehensive Plans.

In my opinion, this project has failed on many levels. Obviously the people who have claimed to have worked very hard on this project did not have the necessary skills or the understanding of county zoning laws to do a good job on this project. But more importantly, these people had no any idea of how the public would react to their work. Otherwise, they would not have met such opposition from the public when it was released. It remains to be seen if Broberg and the TPC will actually take into account the input from the public. Up to this point, it appears that the public is getting nothing from both the Town Plan Commission and the Town Board but lip service.

However, part of the problem is that the people who worked on this project are now sitting on the Town Board and all seem to agree that Broberg is doing a good job and does not need outside help. To dismiss Broberg and the TPC from this project and to hire outside consultants who are experts in zoning, would apparently be admitting failure.

In the meantime, you can be sure that Broberg and TPC will continue to bumble along wasting even more time and taxpayer money on this project.
 

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