Oneida County schedules revocation hearing for Bangstad CUP

The Oneida County zoning committee has scheduled a public hearing to consider revoking Kirk Bangstad’s conditional use permit for a Minocqua beer garden, after reviewing evidence pointing to a bevy of alleged violations of permit conditions.

The hearing will be held June 20.

Bangstad had to meet all of the conditions of the conditional use permit (CUP) before he could have outdoor seating or any outdoor activities. After a presentation by Oneida County zoning director Karl Jennrich this week, zoning committee chairman Scott Holewinski concluded that he hardly met any but was operating: “Based on what Karl has presented, I think he’s violated pretty much all of the conditions.”

In his presentation, Jennrich said staff had been monitoring complaints coming into his office about possible violations of the CUP. On October 4, 2023, the CUP was approved with 17 conditions. 

Some conditions were generic and common to all CUPs and so were easy to meet — such as the use must be the same as approved in the CUP — but Bangstad did not achieve compliance on more specific conditions on his operation, according to Jennrich’s report.

Among other things, the CUP required that Bangstad obtain proper permits from the town, the county and the state before opening the outdoor beer garden, but Jennrich said that had not happened. For example, Jennrich said Bangstad had not obtained a county building permit.

“I sent Mr. Bangstad an email on March 12th, 2024 informing him that they would need permits for the fencing and the pervious pavers for the beer garden and to my knowledge there’s no permit for those,” Jennrich said. 

Likewise, Jennrich said, there was no Department of Transportation (DOT) permit, though Bangstad had applied for one two days earlier. The CUP requires that Bangstad meet all DOT highway access requirements.

“We contacted DOT May 28 and he does not have a permit,” he said. Holewinski observed that Bangstad has only recently made contact with the DOT, even though the CUP was issued last October.

As for signage regulations, Jennrich said he believes there were two signs that should have had a permit because they were advertising his brand, but the department had taken no action on those. 

Jennrich said he did think that exterior lighting was downcast and compliant.

The CUP also requires traffic flow through the property to be one-way, as well as signage to that effect and markings to indicate traffic flow, but Jennrich said that had not happened. 

“There’s basically no one-way traffic,” he said. “There’s no signage showing one-way traffic. There’s no access to Hwy. 51 and there’s no pavement.”

Existing fencing does not match the CUP, either, Jennrich said.

“There was supposed to be eight foot high fence on the west side and the south side and that was supposed to be wooden,” he said. 

There’s also supposed to be one ADA compliant parking space onsite between the building and East Front Street with the parking space delineated by pavement markers. 

“The space may be there, but it is not signed as a handicapped parking space,” Jennrich said. “There were two cars parked in it when we did an on-site inspection. It’s gravel. It’s not paved. The applicant did put markings on the gravel but there’s no pavement markings.”

The CUP also required three parking spaces along the east property line delineated by pavement. Jennrich said there was no pavement to mark.

There is also supposed to be a parking space along the south property line, delineated by pavement.

“There’s a little bit of space but it doesn’t even appear that you could fit a car,” he said. “That’s south of the dumpster but there’s no room to park a car where [there is] supposed to be a parking space.”

As for the dumpster, it wasn’t compliant, either.

“The dumpster appears to be in the location but it probably should be a little bit further to the north because there is no parking in the south,” he said. “And as of today you can’t access that dumpster in a way because you were supposed to drive from Highway 51, grab the dumpster, dump it, and then go back out on East Front Street. … I believe in his current location there is no access to it.”

Jennrich said Bangstad had contacted him about the dumpster.

Another condition was a stormwater management plan that include pervious pavers for the beer garden, with the stormwater management plan to be reviewed and approved by the town.

Jennrich said the condition was not met.

“It has a washed aggregate,” he said. “There are no pervious pavers. I did not have a chance to review the stormwater plan in detail, but the parking lot was supposed to be paved in order to move water to a certain location, which it has not. And to my knowledge it has not been reviewed by the town, but I will still have to follow through and verify that.”

The CUP requires an agreement with the town of Minocqua permitting access across the portion of town right away, but as of May 28 Jennrich said there was no signed agreement. Another condition was a certified survey map (CSM) combining two parcels at the location, but that had not been done, either.

“Staff requested the committee to put this on as a condition because the two lots are actually acting as one,” Jennrich said. “We wanted to see them combined for that purpose. Plus we thought the fence was going to be placed over a lot line, so we wanted them combined. There is no CSM.”

The committee vote to schedule a revocation hearing was unanimous.

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