County passes 180-day campground moratorium

There will be no large-scale campground development in Oneida County for at least six months — no small-scale campgrounds, either, for that matter — now that the Oneida County Board of Supervisors has enacted a 180-day campground moratorium.

The vote at the October county board meeting was 20-0 with supervisor Tommy Ryden absent.

According to Oneida County zoning director Karl Jennrich, the moratorium will give the county time to review its campground ordinance, which has specific provisions regarding campground development and which also governs which zoning districts allow campgrounds.

The time is necessary, Jennrich said, because of an escalation in large campground development.

“The [zoning] committee has seen an influx of campground-type developments, in particular in the town of Nokomis,” Jennrich told supervisors. “We’ve also seen some other campground-type resorts that have changed hands that are coming back in to get conditional use permits to expand or modify.”

The moratorium request came from two towns, Jennrich said.

“The county was approached by the towns of Nokomis and Little Rice due to the fact that there are a lot of parcels of property out there that are now transferring from what I call ‘paper lands,’ so to speak, larger parcels in private hands,” he said. “Those are getting subdivided and now developed. And again, we’ve seen the influx of campgrounds.”

Specifically, Jennrich said, the moratorium would prohibit the county from issuing any conditional use permit for any campground in any zoning district for a period of 180 days. 

“This would not affect or impact conditional use permits that have already been issued,” he said. “So again, it’s a request to have a moratorium.

The committee would be respectfully cracking the whip by me to research other counties on how they regulate campgrounds.”

Jennrich said the county board could extend the moratorium if the county needed more time.

“The committee can extend that moratorium for another 180 days or whatever time frame is needed,” he said. “We just have to have another ordinance amendment to do that.”

Jennrich said the county could not enact a perpetual moratorium because that would be considered a prohibition. 

Town input

Supervisor Steven Schreier wanted to know if the county’s towns would have an active role in reviewing ordinance changes.

“So do we seek anything from them or how does that work?” Schreier asked. “Because it seems like they have legitimate concerns both for public safety and other things. And what role is it for planning and zoning to reach out to those communities, to make sure that we know that those concerns are being addressed in whatever product you’re going to bring before us, hopefully in 180 days?”

Jennrich said he would take it upon himself to reach out to the towns of Nokomis and Little Rice.

“But as part of the process, we send out proposed ordinance language to all the towns,” he said. “We can do that prior to holding a public hearing just to get input.”

And towns will have input at the hearing, which the committee will consider, Jennrich said.

County board and zoning committee chairman Scott Holewinski cited growing problems with large campgrounds in the western part of the state, and he said the department would likely be looking at what those counties are doing to address the issue.

He also stressed that the moratorium is not anti-campground.

“We’re not trying to eliminate campgrounds, just there’s not many rules for a campground,” he said.

Supervisor Mike Roach echoed that sentiment.

“Campgrounds are awesome,” Roach said. “Here’s what I see happening. We’re not the same America, we’re not the same Wisconsin we were when we were growing up.”

Back then, Roach said, the “common guy” — the blue-collar person —could take his kids to a Packers game.

“Today that’s not the case,” he said. “It’s 200 or 300 bucks just to take your kid to a game. It’s a shame.”

Similarly, Roach said, in the old days there were campgrounds in Eagle River where people could take their families and children on the chain of lakes “for almost nothing.”

“They were all bought out and they put condos there,” he said. “Now only the elite live there. I’m all for campgrounds. I live on the lake. I would encourage campgrounds, but I also understand the rules. There are problems, because we’re a different America. Wisconsin is different. So we’ve got to fix that problem.”

Supervisor Chris Schultz, who represents Nokomis and Little Rice, also cited the so-called “paper mill land.”

“What’s happening by us in Nokomis is, people are buying this land; they split it down to like 10 acres or 20 acres from 80 or 120,” Schultz said. “Then what they’re doing is they’re putting like six, seven campers and they’re not getting camping permits.” 

When they can’t stay at a campground, Schultz said, they just build their own.

“I don’t know if they have water,” he said. “A lot of them don’t have water.”

Schultz said there have been complaints about campers with no water and no septic. 

“I don’t know what they’re doing with it,” he said. “It is a concern and they’re there all the time. They’re here for a year.”

Schultz said there were people camping along a road with a Port-a Potty parked right next to the blacktop: “If you stepped out the door, you’re on blacktop.”

Earlier in the meeting, Nokomis town chairman Gary Luedke said there has been a lot of public participation in the town about the issue, and he said everyone’s primary concern was public safety with so many campers — roads and the potential need for rescue and fires left unattended at campgrounds, as well as law enforcement. 

Luedke said there needed to be provisions addressing those concerns in the ordinance.

“We use Oneida County as a police force, and Oneida County officers are spread pretty thin,” he said. “Everybody needs more help. We’re also concerned about excessive boat traffic on our lakes. They disturb the lake bed, which disturbs the lake and the environment of the lake.”

Invasive species are brought in, Luedke said.

Gary Waters said he retired to the Northwoods a few years back but has had property for about 30 years in Oneida County. 

Waters said he started attended town board meetings about 10 months ago and was shocked at some of the campground proposals.

“We were shocked at the lack of control that the town and the county had because of the general zoning,” he said. “So we basically had two options and that was to rezone the township or come up with a moratorium.”

The town’s rezoning committee has been volunteering hundreds of hours trying to submit a proposal for rezoning to the town, and Waters said that process is ongoing.

“The hope is the moratorium will give the town time to better prepare themselves for the — I don’t want to say fight against campgrounds—but to authorize proper development in the area,” he said.

Waters said he and others consider the township vulnerable now because of general zoning. 

“So the town is part of the family of Oneida County,” he said. “I know you all represent different townships here, so we’re hoping for your support as a part of the family of Oneida County to pass this moratorium, to allow [the town] to better prepare themselves for campgrounds and for these big developers who want to come in and maximize the property.”

Waters stressed the temporary nature of the moratorium.

“It‘s temporary and that’s what we all have to understand,” he said. “It’s just temporary to give the townships more time to prepare themselves for this type of thing.”