April 24, 2023 at 12:17 p.m.
Oneida County planning and development committee denies MBC's CUP
By Trevor Greene-
There was a public hearing before the committee made its decision on the CUP, which MBC submitted to incorporate a beer garden at its East Front Street location.
The Minocqua town board agreed to recommend denial of Bangstad's CUP application at an April 5 meeting.
Karl Jennrich, director of the county's planning and zoning department, started the hearing by reading town chairman Mark Hartzheim's email recommending denial on the board's behalf.
Hartzheim informed Jennrich the board also unanimously decided not to grant MBC's request to use the town's right-of-way on Chippewa Street - commonly referred to as the "pork chop" - in order to provide a proposed total of six parking spaces.
Bangstad proposed a revocable license agreement with the town to use the right-of-way prior to the April 5 town board meeting, but the board indicated on April 5 it wouldn't enter into the agreement after denying "pork chop" use.
Jennrich said he received additional input from Hartzheim, and read an April 18 email from Hartzheim providing the committee with "additional background" information.
Hartzheim wrote the town typically requires a business to have its usable space be dedicated to parking.
"This is a case where exceptions were made for both Minocqua Brewing Company and the Yacht Club," Hartzheim wrote. "The Yacht Club already had 21 parking spaces and did not propose to reduce that number. Minocqua Brewing Company's permit approval dedicates six spaces for parking."
Jennrich continued to read a list of examples Hartzheim gave him of instances of how other businesses in the town have met parking requirements.
In another email Jennrich read, Hartzheim wanted to advise committee members Bangstad agreed to abide by conditions included in his already issued administrative review permit (ARP), which was given to MBC to operate only as a retail business.
Hartzheim attached an April 10 email from Bangstad where he says he will follow the ARP conditions "if the county decides to go that way." Bangstad also wrote in the email that he has "decided to stop fighting the town" and apologized for "the public ridicule (he) heaped" on the board.
During the public hearing, committee chairman Scott Holewinski asked the county's corporation counsel Mike Fugle if the CUP could even be approved with the town already denying use of the right-of-way.
Fugle said the committee "certainly can't grant a conditional use permit that allows someone to use someone else's property."
"If the CUP is granted and it requires that (revocable license) agreement to be fulfilled, that's part of the CUP," Fugle said. "That was what the proposal was that the revocable license agreement would be executed ... that could be part of it being passed, yes."
Bangstad spoke during the public hearing and said he doesn't want to be "antagonistic" with town and county officials anymore. He said he wanted to apologize before he speaks with regard to his CUP request.
"The big debacle is I bought a property being a young man, and somewhat naive about real estate deals, thinking that this property which never had parking on it previously... that that would be anything of an issue," he said. "I admit, that was my naivete. I didn't know, I just bought a piece of land that never had parking."
Bangstad indicated he was confused when the town initially requested he provide parking when he was applying for the ARP. He said he wouldn't have purchased the property if he had known the town or the county would require him to provide parking.
Like he said at the town board's April 5 meeting, Bangstad told the committee he has trouble identifying who has what jurisdiction among the town and the county.
He said state and federal brewing licenses allow people to drink beer on MBC's property.
"So the only issue that faced me is this parking requirement that seemingly has never been required in this particular place ... now makes it impossible for me to have enough space to allow people to drink beer on my lot," Bangstad said. "I guess I'm caught in a tough spot. And maybe, you know, it was just a big mistake to have a place called Minocqua Brewing Company in Minocqua."
He asked the committee members if there were some way for them to grant him the CUP for the beer garden even though he wouldn't be able to use the town's right-of-way to add parking.
"And that's why I would ask you to look at the bigger picture," Bangstad said. "Just allow me to serve beer on my property and I will do whatever it takes to do the most I can with parking, given the limited space I have."
Resident Bill Korrer, former chairman of the Minocqua town board and the Oneida County board, said during the public hearing parking has always been an issue in the town.
"It's not a vendetta by the town board or the county board against an individual," he said.
Korrer said he's not opposed to MBC having a beer garden, but "parking is an issue on the island." The town has made significant investments for parking so tourists don't have the perception that there is a lack of parking on the island, he noted.
Further discussion
Before the committee came to its decision to deny, it discussed aspects of the CUP for nearly an hour after Holewinski adjourned the public hearing.
"I read your ARP and it seems to me your plans, you bought a property way too small to put this (beer garden) in considering the parking," Holewinski said. "So, I look at this and I feel bad for you for buying a property that's too small. But how can we resolve it? The only way I see him resolving this is working with the town and getting parking on that piece (of right-of-way)."
Holewinski asked Hartzheim why the town is "so against" helping MBC accommodate parking.
Hartzheim said the town board will recommend waiving parking requirements in some instances. He said it did for the Yacht Club's recently approved CUP and it also did so for MBC's previously approved ARP.
"We knew the limitations of that space (MBC), it's very small," Hartzheim said. "But whatever parking could be accommodated there, we wanted to make sure it was provided. Because, as Bill said, parking is at a premium on this island. And we're not going to fill every triangle right-of-way in town with parking, that's no precedent to set."
He said he could see the board being open to letting commercial business owners on the island store snow in town right-of-way space, but believes the board and "people of this town" would not want to set the precedent of designating adjoining public right-of-way space for private parking.
Taking into consideration all the conditions in MBC's ARP, Hartzheim noted the board had already waived a total of 1,085 square feet on the parcel.
While Holewinski indicated the committee wouldn't be able to approve Bangstad's CUP application due to the town's unwillingness to allow parking on the "pork chop," debate on what the committee should do carried on when committee member Mike Roach said he had a "hard time wrapping (his) arms around" how local government "can tell somebody how to use their property."
"We just can't step over top of what's been happening in Minocqua and say 'Let us, the committee, give him an exemption' because that would be wrong," Holewinski said. "Compared to what's been happening in Minocqua based on what (Hartzheim) said."
"As much as I know you made your own bed and I don't feel sorry for you at all, you made a lot of enemies here, but I am trying to be open-minded and think how government can do this," Roach said.
Roach said he wasn't leaning one way or the other with regard to the CUP application, but instead, he was just trying to understand "the problem of the island for the first time."
After Jennrich went through a list of area businesses which acquired an ARP or CUP from 2020 to 2023 with "deficient parking," Roach again said he was having a hard time understanding.
"So what if I had a business that sold radio waves and it didn't require any people to come to my business and I wanted to expand it to put more equipment in there?" he asked. "'You can't do it, you're taking parking we need on the island.' It just it's really hard for me (to understand). That's why I don't like zoning because it's hard for me to wrap my arms around why we're doing this."
Holewinski told Bangstad the committee can't tell him what to do but advised him to work with the county's planning and zoning staff to explore additional options.
When Holewinski asked if the committee would want to act on the CUP application, Fugle said he doesn't "know that (the committee) can approve the CUP."
Holewinski then made a motion to "approve the CUP as presented, contingent on the applicant providing the revocable license agreement between the town of Minocqua and Kirk Bangstad with respect to the use of the platted right-of-way known as Chippewa Street and that the nine conditions (in the CUP application) are met."
"Excuse me Mr. Chair, I think you're making a mistake and playing into this circus," Hartzheim said. "The first thing corporation counsel said was you can't approve a CUP for property that's outside the premises."
Holewinski said again it would be contingent on the revocable license agreement between Bangstad and the town, but Hartzheim said the town provided the committee with information indicating the board would not enter into one.
"You're going around in a big circle and kicking this can further down the road with inaction from this committee," he said.
Fugle said the committee could either deny the CUP application or approve it. But if it approves the CUP with plans for MBC to use the right-of-way, it still can't make the town let MBC use the right-of-way.
Ultimately, the committee retracted and agreed to deny the CUP on a 4-1 vote with Roach dissenting.
"I think he's dead in the water if we approve, I think he's dead in the water if we deny it," Holewinski said before a final decision was made. "Because I don't think Minocqua's gonna change their mind and allow parking in that right-of-way."
Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].
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