ERIN ZONING REVIEW/SMART GROWTH COMMITTEE
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the residents who have
read our “Planning Update” newsletters and/or participated in our
Public Input Meetings. Your comments have been most helpful in our planning.
The Committee was randomly picked with the help of UW-Extension. Many factors
were taken into consideration including gender, age, how long you have lived in
the town, lot size, where in the Town you lived, etc. The purpose of this
selection was to get a true cross section of the residents of Erin. Randomly
selected member recommendations were given to the Town Board who then appointed
the Committee. It is an eleven member committee, with two members of the Plan
Commission and one member from the Town Board.
One of the primary goals of the Committee is to get as much citizen
participation as possible. Our meetings are open to the public and we encourage
you to attend. We have attempted to educate the Town on our progress through
Planning Update Newsletters and Public Input Meetings. We also have a site on
the Town web page and comments can be left there as well. We will not be able to
answer questions left on the web page but we will certainly read your comments.
Residents also have the option of contacting any member of the Committee.
Back in 2003, after the committee completed authoring the town’s land use plan,
the town board and plan commission gave the committee three tasks, in addition
to working on the smart growth plan. They were: 1) Create a cluster
subdivision ordinance, 2) Update our zoning enforcement provisions, and 3)
Create a road plan. To date, the committee has accomplished these tasks.
Now, we
are to identifying areas that will need to be addressed as Erin moves forward with
the state mandated Comprehensive Planning requirement that goes into affect in
2010. In developing our Comprehensive 2035 plan, the town partnered with
Washington County and 10 other municipalities in the county. The county applied for and
received a state grant to cover much of the cost of developing the plan. There
are four committees at the county level that drafted the plan,
with assistance from SEWRPC, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning
Commission. The committees are: Mulit-Jurisdictional Advisory; Agricultural,
Cultural & Natural Resources; Land Use & Transportation; Utilities, Community
Facilities, Economic Development & Housing. Currently, all the committees
have completed their duties, with the exception of the Advisory Committee.
Erin has a spot for a representative on each committee.
To learn more about the comprehensive planning process, the following link will
take you to the Washington County comprehensive plan information pages.
To learn more about the process the Town of Erin has been using, click the
link below, which is maintained by Washington County on their website.
Our committee has also finished work on the Conceptual Road Plan. The purpose of the plan is to address the transportation needs in the town until 2035. We also want to plan for efficient transportation and emergency access, and to allow residents to know where future roads may go, so there will be no “surprises”. The plan will be mainly development driven, meaning that most of the roads will only be built as land or subdivisions are developed. We planned for new roads on large tracts of undeveloped land, were development is most likely to occur someday, and connections between existing roads with safety and emergency vehicle access as some of the most important factors we used to plan where the new roads would go. In most cases, if land stays undeveloped, the roads will not be built. That is a very important fact to remember.
The committee approved the road plan at our March 2007 meeting. It will be a part of our comprehensive plan. There will be opportunities for public input at each future meeting. The plan is available for inspection at the town hall. It is also in a PDF format on the link below. The proposed roads are drawn in blue ink. It is intended to be a generalized representation of where the roads should go. A much larger and more detailed map will be available for viewing at the town hall. This will give the plan commission and town board guidance on planning for future roads. Enhanced traffic flow, emergency vehicle access, and safety were some of the ideas we used to develop the road plan. The town board made changes to the road plan map at its January 2008 meeting and approved the map that is shown in the link below.
Over the past year, the committee has been
diligently working on reviewing our comprehensive plan. We also have been
working on our 2035 land use plan map. This will show what land uses the town
wants to see in specific areas. This is not the same as the zoning map or the
zoning of your property. A proposed land use, in some cases, will be different
from the current zoning, which can be different from the current use. For
example, there are areas in the town that are zoned roadside commercial, but are
currently used as agricultural, and in the proposed land use plan show up as
roadside commercial. This revised map went to the town board and was approved at
the
January 2008 meeting.
PROPOSED 2035 LAND USE PLAN MAP
All residents have the opportunity to give us feedback on this map and the entire comprehensive plan at any of our meetings, which are the 3rd Thursday of each month at 6:30 PM at the town hall, and at any of the following events listed below. If you have questions, concerns, or want to provide input please do so at your earliest convenience. Please do not wait until the last minute to voice your concerns. We are on a rather strict timeline in which the state grant period ends in early June. If we do not have an adopted plan, we risk losing grant money and being forced to spend thousands of extra dollars to adopt a plan. State statutes require the plan.
The SG/ZR committee is currently working the final chapters of our Comprehensive plan. As the town board approves the chapters, I hope to add the chapter PDF files to the town website.
Town of Erin Smart Growth Plan
The following are the chapters in the draft plan. Due to
size, each chapter has its own file. The entire plan is approximately 306 pages.
The are in PDF format.
TITLE
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
CHAPTER II EXISTING PLANS AND ORDINANCES
CHAPTER III POPULATION, HOUSEHOLD, AND EMPLOYMENT TRENDS AND PROJECTIONS
CHAPTER IV ISSUES AND OPPORTUNITIES ELEMENT
CHAPTER V AGRICULTURAL, NATURAL, AND CULTURAL RESOURCES ELEMENT
CHAPTER VI LAND USE ELEMENT
CHAPTER VII HOUSING ELEMENT
CHAPTER VIII TRANSPORTATION ELEMENT
CHAPTER IX UTILITIES AND COMMUNITY FACILITIES ELEMENT
CHAPTER X ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ELEMENT
CHAPTER XI INTERGOVERNMENTAL COOPERATION ELEMENT
CHAPTER XII IMPLEMENTATION ELEMENT
CHAPTER XIII SUMMARY
ENTIRE
PLAN (WARNING 25 MB)
NOTE THAT THESE DATES HAVE CHANGED FROM WHAT WAS PREVIOUSLY
PUBLISHED IN THE WINTER 2008 NEWSLETTER. THESE DATES ARE CURRENT AS OF APRIL 22,
2008.
Here are some important dates:
Thursday May 1stth, 6:30 PM Smart Growth/Zoning Review meets review the final draft of the comprehensive plan
Wednesday May 7th, 6:00
PM-8:00 PM Open house informational/resident input meeting on the plan
Thursday May 15th, 6:30 PM Smart Growth/Zoning Review meets to approve the
comprehensive plan
Monday June 2nd, 7:00 PM Public Hearing; Plan
Commission meets to adopt the Comprehensive plan
Monday June 16th, 7:00 PM Public Hearing; Town board meeting to adopt the plan
Sincerely,
Bradley Bautz, Chairperson
Erin Zoning/Smart Growth Committee
You can contact us by Email, via the town website:
Email:
Erintown@netwurx.net
Below are the names and phone numbers of the committee members:
Brad Bautz, Chairperson and Town Board Rep 224-1497
Barb Kohler 628-0595
Polly Edgar 628-1555
Tom Lepien 673-2264
Dave Millen 673-2000
Cornel Rosario 532-2727
Donna Multhauf 414-238-5224
Tammy Kennedy 966-7045
Mike Stapleton 673-2942
Sue Spielman 673-6567