Town of Crescent plan commission sets zoning debate in motion

At Wednesday night’s meeting on June 4, the town of Crescent plan commission approved an updated introduction to its comprehensive land use plan. The preamble, originally drafted by former plan commissioner and current town board member Johnathan Jacobson and revised by commissioner David Holperin for clarity, outlines the plan’s background and guiding tenets. The document is slated to be forwarded to the full board for further review.

The plan commission also discussed at length zoning in the town. In 2007, the town of Crescent adopted the zoning structure from Oneida County. However, all of the town was still zoned general use. 

“We’ve been meeting now for, I believe, almost a year now, on this and this was the first thing we said we wanted to attack.” Holperin said. “That is how to build in protections from what I would call bad actors or undesirable entities or land use that would probably not want to be seen by most residents.”

He said the plan commission had brought in several experts to advise them on how to deal with some of these matters. The commission had looked at different ways to address those issues. One was to adopt Oneida County’s plan and another was to potentially create town ordinances, much in the same way Presque Isle had done in Vilas County. The challenge there, he said, was the town had no way to enforce their own ordinances.

“All of this was to arrive at one conclusion,” Holperin said. “How do we move forward as a community to build certain protections while tip-toeing around, or having any suggestion that we might want to implement zoning for the township.” 

He said he had an epiphany of sorts while working on this. He asked why the plan commission would not look at zoning as a possible mechanism when looking at the long term protection of the interests of residents of the township. The commission members agreed that zoning did belong in the discussion when it came to parts, or all of, the land use plan for the town.

“I think it’s a great idea,” commission chair Mike Pazdernik said. “I think it’s something that is long overdue. I know people bring up the confrontations they had 30-plus-years ago, and it comes up.”

Holperin said people may not have a good grasp of what zoning is and what it does. There are things, he said, that are positive that provide certain protections for people. He felt some may not understand the value of zoning, instead seeing it as a confining regulation.

“The same people that tell me they don’t want zoning, and I ask them why — the exact reasons why they don’t want it are the exact same reasons why you should,” Pazdernik said. “It protects what their fears are.”

“We have to find a way, when discussing this, that it isn’t big brother,” commissioner Jim Altenberg said. “It’s little sister trying to make the neighborhood better.”

Under each category of zoning, Connie Anderson said, there are certain accepted uses. Should an individual or business wish to use that land for another purpose, they would simply apply for a conditional use permit, which would come in front of the town board. At that point it could be decided whether to allow that use. It would allow for various uses of lands zoned differently within the township but would also provide protections for those whose land use was conforming. While anything could conceivably be located anywhere, zoning would offer some protections.

Holperin moved to the map of the township and showed certain areas that could, and perhaps should, be zoned differently. His office, on Highway 47, is located in the township. That small area, he said, as well as an area on one side of River Street going into Rhinelander, was already an area containing only businesses. As such, he said, he thought it should be zoned as commercial. 

The commissioners felt it was a good idea to at least open up the discussion of zoning. The zoning designations would not be etched in stone, Pazdernik said, as land owners could change their zoning designation if the plan would benefit the community, as they would have a good chance at having that zoning changed at a public hearing.

Holperin said he would ask either Karl Jennrich or Scott Ridderbusch from county zoning to come to the next plan commission meeting. He said he would also reach out to the town of Presque Isle to learn more about how they went about formatting and creating their ordinances, with the possibility of inviting one of their board members to a meeting in the future, if that would prove beneficial. He did say, however, that this would be an enormous undertaking and something that may include outside individuals to create.

Another item of discussion was the possible addition of more town of Crescent residents to the plan commission itself. Members of the commission had recently had life changes, with one of the members being elected to the town board, that meant fewer people were available to continue the important work. Indeed, there was some concern over whether there would be a quorum at this meeting, with two of the remaining members finishing up tending to some personal commitments.

Pazdernik said he had been approached by several individuals who expressed interest in sitting on the committee and would be vetting them before the next meeting. He said people would have to fulfil certain requirements, however.

“I don’t just want a warm body on this committee,” he said. “I’m being kind of picky, but I want people who are not only interested in the town, but also active in the community.”  

He said he also felt having representation from across the town was also important. While he had three interested individuals who lived on Crescent Lake, he said, he felt it was important to have residents from the outlying areas of the town who could better speak to issues and concerns in those areas. Once Pazdernik finalized his recommendations, he said they would be sent to the full board for approval.

The next meeting of the town of Crescent plan commission will be July 2 at 7 p.m. at the Crescent town hall.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].