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Countyís riverway decision harshly criticized MondayBy MaryHelen Swanson Twenty-five people have been working for over 9 months on updating the countyís comprehensive plan and Bill Riley, an Amador Township supervisor, feels the action the county board took Dec. 17 was a ěknife in the backî to this committee. As he stood before the county commissioners Monday morning, during the end of the year board meeting, he said the steering committee is on target and by taking the action to place a moratorium on development in areas along the St. Croix River and the Sunrise River, the board treated the committee shamefully. He said the action was a complete misuse of the emergency situation for a moratorium. Riley said there is currently no planned development in areas along the rivers, so there was no need for an emergency action. He said the area in Amador Township that is now included in the moratorium is already protected by the state park designation. He said as far as ědirtyingî the Sunrise with development, 100 years of run-off has already contributed to that. He asked the board to rescind its action adding he and the Amador Town board members feel is was a sad use of power. Commissioner Lora Walker, defending her introduction of the resolution at the Dec. 17 meeting, said it was brought forward because of constituentsí concerns and she said she tries to respond to their concerns. Commissioner Rick Olseen, a member of the 25-member steering committee, said he felt it will be another year before the comprehensive plan is done and that there are things happening in his district now that cause him to believe it is an emergency situation. He believes the county should protect people from building in marginal lands. The township appeared to have two issues with the board action: approving an unnecessary moratorium and the process in which the action was taken. Commissioners Mike Robinson and Bob Gustafson both said the process of bringing it up late in the meeting without public input was wrong. Robinson also noted that a year from now there could be three different board members at the table who could change the zoning regulations and reduce density considerably. He said if power is taken away from the townships, soon the county will be one big city, with one house after another. He felt the board should rescind the motion and have public input. He said almost monthly the board deals with a proposal that could set up a homeowner for trouble. Montzka defended the action saying he hoped that in 50 years people will be glad for the decision made in December. He supported Walker saying it was a democracy that allows free speech, and thatís what Walker did. He said he believed he had supported this in the best interest of the people who want to protect the rivers. With the last word on the subject, Riley repeated that he felt the decision was misuse of power. Following this discussion, zoning officials Marion Heemsbergen and Julie Runkel came before the board to get clarification on the intent of the resolution as many phone calls have already been received on it. Heemsbergen noted that when the moratorium was placed around Sunrise Lake while zoning issues were worked on, a map was created designating the area affected. If a map is drawn to reflect the intent of this action, he said, should it include land only within the 1/2 mile and 1 mile areas from the rivers or entire parcels located along those corridors. Commissioner Olseen thought the entire parcel would have to be included. Walker said it would certainly be up for debate. but did agree with Olseen that if a portion of a parcel fell within the protected area, the entire parcel would be included. Jeff Knickerbocker, a Dist. 2 resident, presented an aerial photo of his property and proximity to the St. Croix River. It showed two triangular pieces of his land within the boundaries of the moratorium, while the vast majority of his land seemed to be outside of it. Planner Runkel said it was not fair to make staff draw the lines as it would become personal. But Commissioner Gustafson said staff should do the map, as they are paid to do such work. Heemsbergen suggested using quarter-quarter sections as guides. Zoning will work with GIS to develop a map for board consideration at a later date. ©ECM Post Review |