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.”