Board of adjustment takes up appeal of Cassian wellness center CUP denial

The Oneida County Board of Adjustment (BOA) will meet on July 25 to further consider all of the materials that have been submitted by the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC) in support of its application for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to build a 36-bed adolescent wellness center in town of Cassian. 

On April 3, the Oneida County board’s five-member planning and development committee unanimously denied GLITC’s application, based on a consensus that the organization had failed to meet two of the 10 standards that must be met. 

In the committee’s estimation, those two items were  failure to provide substantial evidence the facility wouldn’t lower property values and failure to meet the criteria set forth in the town’s comprehensive land use plan. 

GLITC subsequently appealed the committee’s decision to the board of adjustment.

The panel spent Thursday, June 27 reviewing the matter, starting with a tour of the property in question. 

Following the tour, the panel reconvened for a public hearing, led by chairman Harland Lee, in the county board room at the Oneida County courthouse in Rhinelander. 

The hearing, not including a 10-minute break, lasted approximately three hours. 

Most of the information provided during the public hearing came from Rod Carter, GLITC’s attorney, attorney Tim Smith, who was representing Oneida County, and GLITC chief executive officer (CEO) Bryan Bainbridge who reiterated that GLITC wants to be “a good neighbor.”

Other people spoke as well, including Cassian town chair Patty Francouer, one of three town board members present, who reiterated the town board’s opposition to the project.

The town’s outside counsel, Frank Kowalkowski of Green Bay, who is also representing the town of Lac du Flambeau in its ongoing dispute with the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians over expired road easements, also addressed the BOA, primarily on the property value question which includes the question of whether GLITC property would be removed from tax roles and placed in a federal trust. 

That’s something Bainbridge has been on record as saying won’t happen at least as long as he’s the CEO. 

During the public hearing, he reiterated that the trust process can take up to a decade to complete. 

Kowalkowski also referenced the failure by GLITC representatives to sign off on a waiver of sovereign rights, something Bainbridge and Carter would be considered. 

One of the questions Lee had for Bainbridge was why Cassian was chosen as the location for the center.

“What’s special about that?” he asked. “The search criteria had nothing to do with Cassian,” Bainbridge responded.“It had to do with property that met our criteria attributes in order to host a healing facility. As noted in the record and the documents, there were over 1,006 properties that were vetted. Not all of the 1,006 properties we set foot on but there were quite a few that we went to and visited.”

 “Were any of those properties tribal land?” Lee asked. 

“No,” Bainbridge responded. 

“Why?” Lee asked. 

“Because this is a joint effort of the tribes to diminish the sense of wanting individual ownership and try to be as centrally located as possible. We wanted to have a parcel that wasn’t on tribal land.”

It was established by Bainbridge and Carter, citing the information provided, that GLITC is a non-profit but pays taxes on the property it purchased in Cassian. 

Lee said early in the hearing of the 1,440 pages of documents related to the CUP application, he’d gotten through about 800. 

He asked county zoning administrator Karl Jennrich if the planning and zoning committee had visited the site and Jennrich told him it hadn’t.

 Lee indicated  he felt the zoning committee should have visited the property, as the BOA did earlier that day. 

By the end of the session, and with BOA attorney Andy Smith making a recommendation that the board take more time to consider all points of the CUP application as well as information the board heard during the public hearing, a decision was made to schedule an additional meeting.

Lee then set the July 25 meeting date.

That meeting will take place at 1 p.m. in the county board meeting room. 

After last week’ public hearing, Bainbridge, who last year said GLITC had planned to break ground in October and begin construction, seemed to be a little more positive outlook on the situation. 

“At least at this hearing, at this meeting, it wasn’t so glaring of a bias towards the ... proposed project,” he told The Lakeland Times. “I think the facts are showing. Nothing that was presented was new testimony. It all came from the record that was given and provided. It just demonstrates it wasn’t looked at. That some of it was brushed aside because a lot of those questions answered today, every single one of them, was in the previous record.”

Regarding a project timeline, Bainbridge said GLITC has until the end of 2025 before some of the federal funding that has been awarded for construction of the AWC would no longer be available.

“There’s a need for it (the center),” he said before referencing an encounter with Robert J. Smith, Jr., vice-chairman of the Sokaogon Chippewa Community in Mole Lake who had some sobering news for Bainbridge after the BOA meeting adjourned Thursday. 

“They just had three youth pass away from overdose,” Bainbridge said. “It’s important and people need to see past the other stuff and really look at what the problem is and the need of the kids. It’s not about me. It’s about the ones that we’re losing and the families that are suffering.”

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].