Zoning committee pulls motion to deny Bangstad CUP permit

After seemingly poised a week earlier to deny the conditional use permit application for the Minocqua Brewing Company to have an outdoor beer garden with insufficient parking, the Oneida County zoning committee last week withdrew the motion to deny and granted owner Kirk Bangstad more time.

The committee reconvened its public hearing with the motion to deny on the table after abruptly adjourning the hearing a week earlier. In the intervening week, Bangstad’s attorney, Fred Melms, met with Oneida County corporation counsel Mike Fugle and county zoning director Karl Jennrich, and the committee also discussed the conditional use permit (CUP) application in a closed session prior to resuming the hearing.

At the resumption of the public hearing, Melms immediately asked for a delay.

“I would ask that we continue this to a later date to give us a better opportunity to create a CUP that would be good for everyone,” Melms said. “I had a very productive meeting with Mr. Fugle and Jennrich yesterday and I think that the sort of CUP that the county would be willing to accept is on the table here. And I would like a little more time to work on that.”

Melms did not want to commit to a specific timeframe but said he and his client wanted to move quickly, perhaps in as few as two or three weeks.

Fugle advised the committee that the best course of action would be to withdraw the motion to deny, which was still pending from the week before, and then vote to extend the time to consider the CUP application, which was set to expire in the middle of August, according to zoning committee chairman Scott Holewinski.

“If there is unanimous consent to withdraw the motion to deny, then you could move to a motion to extend the time limits to allow the applicant to come back,” Fugle said. 

Fugle said his understanding of what was going on was twofold, first and foremost the conflict over parking. Bangstad’s CUP application does not meet county parking standards, and the town of Minocqua has been adamant in its recommendation to the county that Bangstad have at least six parking spots, which would still be below county requirements. 

Bangstad has refused to budge on his position that parking is not needed, and, at the previous session, just prior to the motion to deny the CUP, Bangstad refused again. This week, though, Fugle said Bangstad had reconsidered. 

“One, they [Bangstad and Melms] wish to address Mr. Holewinski’s concerns at the end regarding the parking issue,” he said. “And two, my understanding is that the applicant is going to probably by the end of business tomorrow, if not done already, file an appeal relative to the revocation of the administrative review permit (ARP).”

In fact, the appeal of the ARP had already been filed.

Fugle advised the committee that the motion to deny could be verbally withdrawn if no one objected. However, supervisor Tom Ryden did object, and that required a second to the motion to withdraw, which was provided by supervisor Bob Almekinder. Holewinski, Almekinder, and supervisor Mike Timmons then voted to withdraw the motion, with Ryden voting no.

At first, Holewinski had been reluctant to withdraw the motion himself until Fugle explained they could always resurrect a motion to deny.

“Withdrawing the motion does nothing more than allow you to proceed with other business,” he said. “The motion can be made again and seconded again if you desire. So withdrawing it does nothing to prevent it from coming back either in a minute or in a month.”

Ryden inquired whether changing the parking would constitute a different CUP from the one being applied for, and thus require a new CUP process.

Fugle said no.

“So the question at the last meeting was asked by Mr. Holewinski, ‘are you willing to address the parking issue?’, and my understanding is that that was declined last week, but now the applicant’s come forward and said that he would like the opportunity to address the parking,” he said. “And so I don’t see that as being a new application,”

Fugle compared the situation to previous applications by Marshfield Clinic and Howard Young Medical Center.

“I see this as being similar to what happened with both Howard Young with the helipad and with Marshfield Clinic and building their facility after the application,” he said. “In discussion with the committee, there were some changes that were made, but they weren’t a material change. And so we didn’t go back through the entire process and file a new application. So I believe this is within the scope of the CUP that you’re deciding and it’s within the scope of the inquiry that was made by the chair relative to the parking.”

Holewinski clarified to Fugle that parking wasn’t the only issue with the application.

“You keep bringing up that I said parking was one of the issues, but there’s multiple issues with it that we didn’t get into the discussion after the motion was made,” he said. “There’ll be discussion about the DOT (Department of Transportation) permit, there’ll be discussion about signage. There’s going to be discussion on multiple things, but we didn’t get to that point yet.”

Fugle said he was only focusing on the question that was asked and the motion that was made.

“Certainly I’m not saying that you are unable to address other things, but my understanding is that the applicant is here today because they want to respond specifically to that [parking],” he said. “That’s the crux of their request because that was the most recent topic that was discussed.”

After the motion was withdrawn, the committee then voted unanimously to extend the period for approval of the existing CUP application from 90 days to 180 days.

A revised application will be submitted to the county for consideration; Bangstad’s appeal of his ARP revocation heads to the county’s Board of Adjustment.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.