MADELINE ISLAND NEWS AND INFORMATION
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TOWN PLAN COMMISSION EXPLAINS "JUNK CAR/NUISANCE PROPERTY ORDINANCE"
REVISED: 01-16-08
TOWN PLAN COMMISSION MEETING 12-19-07
The La Pointe Town Plan Commission met for their regularly scheduled meeting at 5:00pm on Wednesday 12-19-07. Members of the public were present, apparently concerned about a proposed "nuisance property" ordinance. This ordinance appeared as an item on the Town Board Meeting Agenda for 12-27-07.
When members of the public began inquiring about the ordinance, Zoning Administrator Jennifer Croonborg, the public official designated to respond to public information requests, could find no mention of discussions or motions in previous TPC Meeting Minutes despite the claims of Town Plan Commissioners stating otherwise.
Also, in her attempt to fulfill public information requests, she found many of the TPC Agendas to be vague and TPC Minutes to be missing mention of discussions that may have taken place concerning new ordinances and proposed ordinance changes that were listed on the Agendas. (For a list of these items, see Croonborg's letter to the TPC and Town Board.)
So far In our investigations, we have in a copy we received of the November 20, 2007 Meeting Minutes, a motion to submit to General Code, the proposed Nuisance Property/Property Maintenance Ordinance . The motion was made by Beth Fischlowitz and seconded by Lois Carlson and was voted on, passing 5-1 with Dick Hoffman opposing the motion. However, no other mention of discussions concerning this topic have appeared in any of the minutes since as far back as July, 2007. In addition, we have found that these "approved" proposed ordinances may not be going to General Code, but the Town Board first, before being forwarded to General Code for commentary and analysis. In an attempt to find out which ordinances have been sent to General Code, we have received a response from J.Croonborg on 01-14-08 that states, "...as far as I understand, no new ordinances or changes to the ordinances have been sent to General code yet. These documents do not exist." We find it curious that at a Town Board Meeting, TPC Commissioner /Town Board Supervisor Mike Starck states that one individual's request is over 700 pages and he demonstrated the fact by placing all of the documents on the table for the Town Board to see. Click here for more details).
Much time was spent in this meeting discussing the proposed ordinance and ordinance work, in general, as well as Croonborg's letter. Also, a member of the public, Holly Tourdot expressed her opinions concerning the proposed Nuisance Property Ordinance during the meeting, concerned with the affects of nuisance property ordinances in relation to local property taxes, citing studies of these types of ordinances in other communities; what is commonly known as "gentrification".
Other discussions included Towards the end of the meeting, TPC Commissioners agreed that an official response from the Town Plan Commission was needed.
Click the following links for:
Click Here for the Official Agenda
Click Here for the Official Meeting Minutes
Click Here for the Official Audio Recordings
Related Items
Response from the the Town of La Pointe's attorneys concerning this issue.
Response from the Wisconsin's Town Association concerning this issue.
Wisconsin Open Meeting Law Compliance Guide Excerpt
Town Plan Commission Information Page
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