Board of adjustment reverses denial of CUP for proposed wellness center in Cassian

The Oneida County Board of Adjustment (BOA) has granted a conditional use permit (CUP) to the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council (GLITC) to build a 36-bed adolescent wellness center in the town of Cassian.

In a unanimous vote Thursday, the panel reversed a previous decision made by the county’s planning and development committee.

On June 27, the BOA spent the day on the GLITC matter, starting with a tour of the property in the morning and then a public hearing at the Oneida County courthouse in Rhinelander, which, not including a 10-minute break, lasted approximately three hours. 

The town has been vocal in its opposition to the proposed wellness center.

The matter ended up with the BOA after the county’s five-member planning and development committee voted unanimously April 3 to deny the CUP application, based primarily on a consensus that GLITC had failed to meet two of 10 standards, or criteria, the committee considered. 

Those two items were what the committee felt were GLITC’s failure to provide substantial evidence the facility wouldn’t lower property values and failing to meet the town’s comprehensive land use plan.

At the outset of the July 25 meeting, which was a continuation of the June 27 hearing, BOA chairman Harland Lee said the CUP includes “nine articles” that had to be met in order for the CUP to be approved. He also explained that CUPs can be approved or disapproved in “basically” three different ways. 

Lee went through each of the nine aspects of the CUP at hand, proposing certain conditions or no conditions at all under each one. He opened each part of the CUP up for discussion among the BOA members and then approved each “article,” some with conditions, individually. Each vote was unanimous, making the approval of the CUP a unanimous decision.

“The board has voted unanimously to approve the CUP,” Lee said. “Several conditions have been noted, as you heard as we went through this discussion. Therefore I declare that the CUP has been approved unanimously by this board.”

Some of the conditions the BOA approved suggest the town and GLITC must work together. 

Lee indicated he hopes that collaboration is done with no issue and in “good spirit.”

Following the vote, Cassian town chairperson Patty Francoeur told members of the media she was “extremely disappointed.”

She said the board will meet to discuss the matter once one member of the board returns from vacation. 

At that point, Francoeur said, she said she hopes to be able to answer questions more fully. 

Francoeur indicated she didn’t necessarily expect the decision by the BOA after the planning and development committee’s original decision and “all our work in giving substantial evidence to support our claims and our reasons for this facility and where they were proposing to build it.”

“So, right now, to say there’s a long road (ahead) as we move along, I believe there would be if you’re talking construction and everything,” she said. “The town will work (with GLITC). We’re opposed, but it does not mean that now it’s approved we will sit there and not want the best for the town and for the facility to be successful.”

Francoeur said she doesn’t believe the town has been uncooperative. She also noted that she still feels the town isn’t “getting the full truth.”

Francoeur “went back to the beginning” when last year, Gov. Tony Evers attended a “ground-blessing” at the property.

“So when you talk about being open in communication with the town that you’re going to build a facility like this, I would have thought we would have been approached immediately,” she said. “So, in that aspect, I don’t think that should be lost when we talk about cooperation.”

“A little bit change of story in there, huh?” GLITC chief executive officer Brian Bainbridge remarked to members of the media after the meeting.

Bainbridge said he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised by the BOA’s CUP approval. 

From his first interactions with Lee, it appeared he “was willing to listen and it showed,” Bainbridge­ added.

“It’s what we’ve been trying to do for over a year now,” Bainbridge said. 

The timeline is “strict,” he said, stressing that the wellness center isn’t for anyone other than youth struggling with substance abuse.

“You know, I’d hate to do it, to show pictures of all these lost people,” Bainbridge said. “And we’re prepared to do that to say ‘Hey, this is reality,’ and they’re all different colors, they’re different shapes, they’re all different sizes, they’re different ages. So there’s a purpose for that property and we started the way we did.”

It was important to keep “ that negative mindset and some biases out of this process,” he added.

Even though town officials have been opposed to the project, Bainbridge still feels they understand the “benefit for the town itself.”

“I don’t hold animosity to anybody because, like I said, it’s not lip-service, it’s true what I say,” he said. “I want to be a good neighbor and I want to bring things to the community for everybody that’s involved in the area (and) not just the ones involved in the facilities, not just for the employees that are working there, but for everybody around.”

Bainbridge said next steps include having a meeting with the GLITC board of directors “and see what they think.”

He said there was disappointment expressed by GLITC leadership following certain “actions” and decision “from that last go-around.”

“We understand the purpose and we understand the dire need and the timeline of why we’re trying to get this thing (set),” Bainbridge said. “It wasn’t fast-tracking. You know, we didn’t try to fast-track anything, but we tried to go through a process that just kept on getting extended … way longer than it should have been.”

The end of December 2025 is the approximate target Bainbridge provided for the wellness center. 

When asked if he was confident the property in Cassian is definitely going to be the construction site, he reiterated that he needs to speak with the GLITC board of directors further.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge this board, and even the opening statements from the chairman of the respect of the people and sovereignty and just because the tribes have a special political position, doesn't mean we have to have a bias held to us because of that,” Bainbridge concluded. “And it was all fear-based … and I have to applaud these guys (BOA members) because they’re not exposed to (these situations) on an everyday basis. You know, I cut my teeth on this stuff. It’s ingrained in me. My relatives, my grandpa was tribal chair, I have relatives that worked on our council and even fought beyond council for our environmental issues and everything else. It wasn’t to say we were activists in those sense(s), we’re realists. We’re people. And when we go do these things it’s purposeful and it’s not just for us.”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].