2017 Spring District Reports
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Brian Duell, West Central District -- The West Central District will continue to hold quarterly meetings. Elections of officers were held at our December meeting. Brian Duell (Clark County) was elected as District Rep. and Tony Roder (Chippewa County) was re-elected as Secretary/Treasurer. Dean Johnson (Marathon County) was elected as the 2nd Vice President for WCCA. Kay Lutz attended and presented updates on the Shoreland Zoning Program and the progress of County ordinance revisions. The district will be hosting an Administrative Assistants training on February 9th in Eau Claire. Future meeting and training topics for 2017 were discussed. The March 9th district meeting will be hosted by Chippewa County to discuss tools, worksheets and forms to assist with the shoreland zoning permits; it is a goal to have similar forms throughout the district. The district will also host soil training and nonmetallic mining training in 2017.
Andrew Baker, Southeast District -- The Southeast District met on February 17th, 2017 on a sunny 63 degree day in Waukesha. Staff from each of the nine Counties in the district braved the unseasonable weather to attend the meeting.
First on the agenda was a discussion of the experiences that each County has had dealing with short term rental properties. More often than not, the practice comes to light based on complaints from the neighbors related to noise, parking, trespassing, trash, etc. For the most part, the decision is whether or not this practice is a zoning related issue or if it should be dealt as a nuisance on a case by case basis by law enforcement. Some counties in the SE District have a process to approve these practices and establish conditions of approval and others simply view them as a residential use in a residential district. The general consensus was that it is something that is very difficult to regulate due to the amount of time that is required to document the activity.
District members were giving an update on the activities of the WCA Shoreland Zoning Task Force, which has met on a hand full of occasions in the last year to formulate a “steering” document that has been presented to legislators for consideration in the next legislative session.
The presenter for the day was Michelle Staff, DNR Floodplain Management Coordinator. Michelle’s main topics were nonconforming structures and the 50% rule and fill in the floodplain. Another important point that was made was that we as local administrators play an essential role in the ability for property owners to get flood insurance through the NFIP and for other disaster related assistance in the community. We also have the obligation to maintain records for review and to inform the public about floodplain standards and restrictions. This authority stems from federal rules and FEMA, and is overseen at the state level by the DNR, but ultimately it is the local floodplain zoning ordinance that property owners must comply with. These general topics lead to great group discussion about examples of the good, bad and ugly.
The next time the SE District will meet will be to discuss the new wave of legislation that will likely be made public in the coming months.
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Jen Croonborg-Murphy, Northwest District --The NW District met on December 7, 2016 in Ladysmith. At the meeting Jen Croonborg-Murphy was elected the new NW District Representative. Jay Kozlowski was re-elected Vice Chair, and Web Macomber was re-elected Secretary/Treasurer. Edwin Taylor, DSPS POWTS Specialist, presented new product approvals for passive pretreatment systems and discussed the applicability and installation of each. Ed also discussed upcoming training opportunities for soils and POWTS that he has spearheaded. The NW District expressed their gratitude for these new training opportunities. CeCe Tesky updated the District about her work addressing POWTS program concerns at the State level. She fielded concerns from members to bring to meetings, including the possible defunding of the WI Fund program. Kay Lutze, WDNR Shoreland Policy Coordinator, attended to update the District on the progress of counties’ shoreland zoning ordinances. Kay also briefed the District about new ordinance certification and variance notification procedures as there were employment/position changes at the WDNR. Frank Dallam; WDNR Floodplain Engineer, was unable to attend but provided a written report for the District. Several District Members will be attending a WDNR Non-Metallic Mining Reclamation Program Roundtable on February 8 at the Ashland DNR Service Center.
Our next meeting is scheduled for February 15, 2017 in Hayward. We will be discussing the Annual Executive Board Meeting held on January 19, upcoming conferences and meeting dates, as well as welcoming DSPS and WDNR representatives for POWTS, Floodplain, and Shoreland updates.
Jeremy Johnson, Northeast District -- The Northeast District met in Crandon in January and February. Guest speakers in January included Jennifer Jefferson and Miles Winkler of DNR and Stacy Dehne of DATCP. Jennifer and Miles discussed dam regulations and hazard ratings, with links to floodplain zoning. Stacy discussed various projects with Land Conservation Departments and ways to protect shorelines. She stated that DATCP can help with many types of projects including survey data, spillway capacity reviews, stream flows, and shoreline design.
The February meeting incorporated the district NR135 roundtable with DNR staff and most of the counties.
NEWCCA will meet again in mid-March with the East Central District at Kelly Lake in Oconto County. A joint summer meeting/tour is also being discussed.
Adam Wiegel, Southwest District --The Southwest district met in Monroe on December 15, 2016. Topics that were discussed included WCCA Conferences, NR 115, WI Fund and Cell Tower permitting. Adam Wiegel was officially re-elected as District Rep. Mike Bindle was re-elected as alternate. The next district meeting will be held prior to construction season.
Jeff Brewbaker, Central District -- On January 13, 2017, the Central District of the WCCA met at the Wood County Courthouse. All counties in the Central District were invited to participate as well as the Administrative Staff from those counties. Jeff Brewbaker was elected to another one year term as the Central District Representative. There was an hour long business meeting, where local shoreland, floodplain, and POWTS topics were discussed among the attendees. The business meeting concluded with a discussion of future meeting sites and topics. It was agreed that the next meeting would be held in Waushara County sometime late summer 2017. The preliminary plan is to have a field tour of vegetative buffers that have been established in Waushara County.
The last two hours of the meeting were presented by the Wood County Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The group presentation focused on conflict, passive/aggressive behavior, and dealing with difficult people through influence and assertiveness. A personality assessment and discussion also took place. The meeting was adjourned at 12:05 PM.
Brian Giebel, East Central District -- In December the ECWCCA district met in Fond du Lac County to discuss Shoreland Zoning with Kay Lutze and Dale Rezabek of the DNR. In January our district met in Kewaunee County for a presentation on fill in the floodplain, non-conforming structures, permitting and compliance issues with Michelle Staff and Miles Winkler of the DNR. In February our district will meet with Mark Finger and Tim Vanderleest of DSPS in Manitowoc County to discuss approving plans and POWTS Inspections. Our district will also learn about new stair technology for steep slopes in shoreland areas and electronic septic inspections.