Plan Commission & Task Force Minutes

Town of Washburn

Town Hall

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Commission members present: Kim Bro (chair), Jim Park (town board representative ‑ via Google Meet), Tim Schwenzfeier (vice chair), Caroline Twombly.

Commission members absent: Cyndi Belanger (secretary).

Planning Task Force members present: Terri Bahe, Tom Cogger, Phil Kraus, Charmaine Swan, Dennis Weibel (via Google Meet).

Planning Task Force members absent: Ryan Padrutt, Alex Prediger.

Others present: none.

1. Chairman Bro called the meeting of the commission to order at 7:04 P.M. and verified its legal notification (posted on town website on November 30 and at town hall and Tetzner Dairy on November 27).

2. The minutes of the November 14, 2024 meeting were approved (Tim moves, Caroline seconds).

3. Emily Nelson, a planning consultant with the Northwest Regional Planning Commission (NWRPC) has shared a GoggleDocs link to draft chapters of the plan to all members of the commission and the task force. She has updated the required background data in the chapters. All present said that they have been able to access the documents. Several members have begun the process of updating the Goals, Objectives, and Implementation Steps for their selected chapters. Emily said that, if members want additional background information or maps to be included in the plan, they should let her know.

4. Jim has posted the updated schedule of meetings on the Plan Commission page of the town website. Kim asked if the group would agree to hold two public meetings in January 2025. If we are going to post an updated draft plan at least 30 days prior to a public hearing on March 6, 2025, the draft needs to be posted on February 4, 2025, the same night as our February meeting. Emily will need time to prepare a PDF copy of the draft plan to be posted on the town website. The group agreed to schedule an additional meeting on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 7:00 P.M. to give Emily all of the information to compile a “penultimate final draft” that will be posted by the February 4 deadline. Kim will prepare a public hearing notice that needs to appear in the Ashland Daily Press at least the week prior to the February meeting. At the February meeting, the group can plan the March 6^th community presentation to introduce the updated plan prior to accepting public comments.
5. The group discussed progress in updating chapters. We recommended that additions to the GoogleDocs chapters be in a colored font and deletions be in strikeout font so that our group can identify changes that are made in the editing process. The Agriculture & Natural Resources group asked Emily to recommend good examples of this chapter in other town plans, and she made some recommendations. Caroline asked Emily to post a copy of the Bayfield County Comprehensive Plan “Implementation” chapter so that the group could use it as a starting point for preparing goals, objectives, and action steps. Emily asked if the group would like a map and table of the latest PACER data on town roads for the transportation chapter. There was some discussion of adding information about the cost of road improvement and maintenance in order to make a case for keeping concentrated, new development near existing paved roads. In discussing “Cultural Resources,” Terri mentioned that some former one-room schoolhouses remain on private property in the town. We discussed adding a map of cultural resources. Tim said that some revisions are still needed in the updated “Existing Land Use” map. Potters Farm should probably be in the “institutional” category, and the town sand pit should probably be in the “extraction” category. Kim will check the definitions of categories that were used in the county plan because the county asked all towns to use a common set of colors and definitions for their land use maps.

6. The group reviewed the graphic that Charmaine had prepared for announcing a “photo challenge” to be posted on the town’s Facebook page. The concept is to encourage more input from the community about what they love about our town as we update the plan in December and January. Jim will post the photo challenge on the town Facebook page, and all members will work to encourage photo submissions.
7. Because of his expertise in media communications, Phil has agreed to serve as a “plan editor.” He will read the updated plan chapters to assure that the text reads smoothly, succinctly, and understandably and that it does not descend into vague acronyms and wordiness.
8. Because Emily is contracted for only three in-person meetings with the plan commission, we will have to decide which of the January meetings is most important for her to attend in person.

9. The meeting adjourned at 8:35 P.M. (Tim moves, Caroline seconds).

Draft submitted by: Kenneth Bro, Chair, Town of Washburn Plan Commission (December 10, 2024).

Approved January 7, 2025.

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Plan Commission Report

The commission recommends that the town board spread the word about the Facebook “Photo Challenge.”

Town of Washburn

Plan Commission Meeting

Date &Time: Thursday, November 14, 2024, 7:00 P.M.

Location: Town Hall*

Agenda

1. Call meeting to order and verify legal notification.

2. Introduce Alex Prediger and Ryan Padrutt, new volunteers on Planning Task Force

3. Approve minutes of meeting of October 1, 2024.

4. Sixth meeting of Comprehensive Plan Update Task Force.
   ● Introduce Emily Nelson, planner with Northwest Regional Planning Commission.

● Finalize meeting dates through February allowing 30 day review eriod of the final draft
prior to the public hearing in early March.

● Review and approve a “Public Participation Plan,” which will summarize the measures
adopted to encourage public engagement.

● Review chapter drafts that Emily and members prepared.

● Schedule chapter editorial people or subgroups to edit text and draft updated goals,
objectives, action steps, and timelines.

5. Set date and time for next meeting (propose Tuesday, December 3, 2024, 2024, 7:00 P.M.).

6. Other announcements

7. Adjournment.

Submitted by:

Kenneth Bro, chair

Washburn Town Plan Commission

E-mail: plan@townofwashburn.wi.gov

* Video conference access is available via GoogleMeet: meet.google.com/vzn-qfeq-dkc or

by phone (US) +1 814-822-4840‬ PIN: 803 631 892‬#

Plan Commission & Task Force Minutes

Town of Washburn

Town Hall

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Commission members present: Kim Bro (chair), Jim Park (town board representative ‑ via Google Meet), Tim Schwenzfeier (vice chair), Caroline Twombly.

Commission members absent: Cyndi Belanger (secretary).

Planning Task Force members present: Terri Bahe, Ryan Padrutt, Alex Prediger, Charmaine Swan, Dennis Weibel (via Google Meet).

Planning Task Force members absent: Tom Cogger, Phil Kraus.

Others present: none.

1. Chairman Bro called the meeting of the commission to order at 7:03 P.M. and verified its legal notification (posted on town website and at town hall and Tetzner Dairy on November 13).

2. The minutes of the October 1, 2024 meeting were approved (Tim moves, Caroline seconds).

3. Alex Prediger and Ryan Padrutt joined the Planning Task Force and introduced themselves to the group. They are new to the planning process and will familiarize themselves with the 2007 plan to identify how they wish to contribute to preparing the updated plan.

4. Emily Nelson, a planning consultant with the Northwest Regional Planning Commission (NWRPC) introduced herself and distributed a map of “Existing Land Use” and a copy of updated demography tables for the “Issues and Opportunities” chapter. She has converted the 2007 PDF plan to WORD.docx format that can be edited by the group, and she will update the background data required for individual chapters. Kim shared materials that the group reviewed previously on land fragmentation and on fiber-optic broadband expansion for the town.

5. The group reviewed the schedule for remaining meetings up to the public presentation and hearing on a draft updated comprehensive plan. If the March town board meeting is on the 11^th (2^nd Tuesday), a public hearing could be held on Thursday, March 6, 2025 and a posting of a draft plan on February 4^th would allow the required 30‑day review period. The Plan Commission could meet on February 4^th to approve any final revisions. Because the Ashland Daily Press is printed only once per week, the public hearing notice will need to be published on the last week of January. The bulk of text preparation needs to occur in December, and the Implementation steps and Future Land Use Plan will need to be set in January. Subgroups with no more than two Plan Commission members can meet separately to work on draft chapters without needing to post a public meeting notice. The group agreed to meeting December 3^rd, January 7^th, and February 4^th at 7:00 P.M. at the town hall.
6. The group recommended (Caroline moves, Tim seconds) that the Town Board adopt the draft Public Participation Plan that was distributed prior to the meeting.
7. Emily asked the group about reporting the results of the 2006 community survey to identify issues and opportunities. The group felt that, while the issues identified in 2006 remain relevant, the specific, numerical results of the survey are no longer useful. The group is now using feedback that it receives in the process of preparing the updated plan. Kim reminded the group that the City of Ashland used a “Photo Challenge” to encourage community members to submit photos of the characteristics that they value in the community. Sharing photos online is more popular and more common now than it was in 2006, and the town’s Facebook page could be used to advertise the challenge. Jim mentioned that photos cannot be posted by the public on the town’s page, but they could be sent to the Plan Commission email address and, depending on the response, a representative sample could be posted. Kim will re-send information about the Ashland “Photo Challenge” to Charmaine and Phil to see if the process can be adapted to encourage community input as the plan is updated in December and January.
8. Emily told the group that she will post editable chapters of the 2007 plan on a Google Docs site that she can share with the group. As with the “Issues and Opportunities” chapter that she shared, Emily highlighted those portions of the text that the Task Force needs to update. She and Clem (NWRPC mapping specialist) will update factual information, but the Task Force needs to provide information on goals, objectives, and action steps. If access through Google Docs is problematic, NWRPC has another way to provide access to editable chapters.
9. The group identified individual chapters of the plan on which they will begin updating:
   Housing: Kim
   Utilities & Community Facilities ?
   Transportation Caroline & Charmaine
   Economic Development Tim (adapting relevant parts of county plan)
   Agriculture & Natural Resources Tom & Dennis
   Cultural Resources Terri
   Land Use Kim & Terri
   Intergovernmental Cooperation ?
   Implementation Action steps developed by individual chapter subgroups.

10. The meeting adjourned at 8:51 P.M. (Tim moves, Caroline seconds).

Draft submitted by: Kenneth Bro, Chair, Town of Washburn Plan Commission (November 28, 2024).

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Plan Commission Report

The Town Board is required by state statute to adopt a Public Participation Plan for a comprehensive plan and to post a Class 1 notice of a 30‑day review of the updated draft comprehensive plan prior to a public hearing on the plan. The commission recommends that the Town Board adopt the commission’s Public Participation Plan.