TOWN OF
PLAN COMMISSION
APPROVED
Agenda Item #6
Anders, Inc./Kratz — Consider &
Peregrine stated that the Plan Commission had looked at conceptual plans for various locations over the last 4 — 5 months and nowhere in this conceptual approval were we aware of the overall area in which these 43 acres sits in the Town. This was one of the sites that we labored over when we dealt with the Weide and Robinson farms in our plan and in approving development. We place great value on public hearings. We have learned a lot about this site, which we could have learned no other way than through a public hearing. I personally don’t think that approving the rezoning under all these circumstances would be in the best interest of our Town. The fact that it is set-aside in our plan is immaterial and we now have more information than we had when we were developing our Land Use Plan. For those reasons I move that we recommend to the Town Board that the rezone be denied.
Chairman Runyard, I feel the same way. I also feel that we didn’t look at the adjoining neighbors to the north and consider the amount of dairy area that we have left and really top agricultural area. When you put the Peebles and Koepkes together you are talking about a lot of cattle. These people are young people with sons and grandsons and they will probably be farming for a good number of years. I am not in favor of the rezone.
Garvey stated that we do not have many opportunities to
preserve agricultural land. We know that farm operations are quickly
diminishing and Ag preservation in the Town is disappearing rapidly. In this
particular case we do have viable dairy farms and we are asking for trouble if
we develop land contiguous to these dairy farms. We see this all over the state,
particularly in southeast
Navin stated I agree with Commissioner Peregrine. We were presented with one side of the story only when the developer wanted to develop that parcel. Until we had the Public Hearing we didn’t know the value of that property for agricultural purposes. I am in agreement.
Heinrich stated I agree with Bob in that we did not have all the information. A lot came out at the Public Hearing. Based on that he seconds the motion
Chairman Runyard stated for the record that this farm is 43 acres, not under 35 acres. We have approved parcels under 35 acres, but this is a sizeable piece of property and I feel we should keep it agricultural. Peregrine stated that there is a big distinction between the Robinson farm and this farm. There we dealt with 75 acres, which could have been developed and could have destroyed all sorts of conservancy, woods and wetlands. We approved a cluster of 10 lots on substantially less than class soils. That was a plus to permit development on a little over 20 acres and save over 50 acres in its pristine shape for posterity. Every one of these is a little different. When someone comes in with a conceptual plan we need to have a greater overview of the area because when we dealt with small pieces, we didn’t assimilate those pieces into the surrounding area
Motion carried unanimously.
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