Plan Commission & Task Force Minutes
Town of Washburn
Town Hall
Sunday, June 7, 2026

Commission members present: Kim Bro (chair), Cyndi Belanger (secretary), Tim Schwenzfeier (vice chair), Caroline Twombly, Seth Vasser (town board representative).
Commission members absent: none.
Others present: none.

1. Chairman Bro called the meeting of the commission to order at 7:05 P.M. and verified its legal notification (posted at town hall and Tetzner Dairy on June 4 and on town website on June 5.
2. The minutes of the May 5, 2026 meeting were approved (Caroline moves, Tim seconds).
3. The group reviewed four public comment drafts of the updated County Planning and Zoning Ordinances “Sanitary and Sewage,” “Floodplain,” “Nonmetallic Mining,” and “Shoreland/Wetland.” The sense of the group was that these draft ordinances largely reflect the minimum state requirements for developments in these areas. The Nonmetallic Mining Ordinance provides for collecting an annual fee from all actively used sand pits and not just annually reporting on the mine reclamation plan. Commission members did not know if the Town currently pays an annual County fee for its sand pit.

The Commission’s main concern regarded an introductory statement that the County moved its bluff and bank setback requirement to the Shoreland/Wetland Ordinance, which applies only to wetlands, 1,000 feet from lakes, and 300 feet from navigable streams. Many of the steep, unstable slopes in the Town of Washburn are not in the area covered by this ordinance. The Town’s Comprehensive Plan identifies the need to protect unstable ravine slopes and steep transitional soils from development that could exacerbate slumping and erosion. The problem applies to many areas outside the shoreland zone in other towns in the County as well.

The Commission directed (Tim moves, Cyndi seconds) Kim to draft a comment for the Town Board to request that regulation of development on steep slopes extend to all steep slopes and not just those in the shoreland zone. Kim will provide an example of an alternative method to determine a bluff setback than the one in the draft ordinance. The draft ordinance calls for a 75-foot setback from the top edge of bluffs where there is evidence of active erosion. This criterion is inadequate for identifying unstable areas near steep clay ravines and such sand over clay slopes as former glacial lake beach lines.
4. The Commission decided to schedule its next meeting on Sunday, July 12 at 7:00 P.M. in order to give Commissioners as much time as possible to review the “General Zoning” and “Land Division” ordinances, which are not expected to be released until late June..
5. The meeting adjourned at 8:20 P.M. (Tim moves, Seth seconds).

Draft submitted by: Kenneth Bro, Chair, Town of Washburn Plan Commission (June 9, 2026).
Approved July 12, 2026.‘
Plan Commission Report

The commission recommends that the Town Board submit a public comment to the County Planning and Zoning Committee recommending regulation of development near all unstable, steep slopes, not just those in the shoreland zone.