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Posted Nov 4, 2009; 3:57 AM
County adopts Comprehensive Plan 2030 Final version to be posted to the Web
By Kurt Rentmeester
The Door County Comprehensive Plan 2030 provides local leaders a proactive and fresh approach to development in their communities. "The Door County Comprehensive Plan 2030 was developed in accordance with a public participation plan," said Mariah Goode, Door County planner. The process to create that plan was developed in 2005 by the county and updated two years later. Municipal leaders from across the county were involved with the plan, which was approved last week by the Board of Supervisors. Foremost among them was the Comprehensive Planning Committee, an ad hoc panel established two years ago by the board to oversee the process. The county is required by state statutes to have a Smart Growth or comprehensive plan. It replaces a plan that was approved in 1995 by the county. The 100-page main section of the plan includes vision statements and sets action goals. The second section of the plan is a resource effect filled with an inventory of items and objective data, Goode said. "We've already heard from numerous people who said the resource report will be helpful," Goode said. The Comprehensive or Core Planning Committee includes one representative and one alternate from each municipality. It also included two county Resource Planning Committee members. In addition, residents on six work groups tackled various aspects of the plan. The groups addressed: The RPC held four meetings last spring and summer to review the comprehensive plan's proposed draft. Four open house meetings were held in August to take residents' input before the RPC held a hearing Sept. 17 on the comprehensive plan. Last week, supervisors received a corrected version of the town of Washington's land-use map that was sponsored at open house meetings by the RPC. There also is a revised version of the town of Gardner's land-use map as that board comes closer to finalizing its map, Goode said. The city of Sturgeon Bay also provided an updated version of its first draft of its land-use map. Supervisors also received a revised town of Baileys Harbor land-use map. Six additional municipal resolutions affirming the plan were included in the document from the towns of Brussels, Gibraltar, Jacksonport, Union, Sturgeon Bay and Baileys Harbor. Thirteen municipalities, including eight of the county's nine towns in comprehensive zoning, have approved the plan. "As far as any regulatory changes implied by the plan, the Resource Planning Committee and staff have said that there will be no county-sponsored zoning map changes because of this plan," Goode said. "There are none either required or proposed because of anything in this plan." As municipalities work with the new plan next year, she expects there will be several zoning ordinance text changes. That could involve eliminating impediments to affordable housing in the county, rewriting the cluster-housing chapter in the zoning ordinance to make it user-friendly or separating lot size requirements from density requirements in the county. "For example, if you were in a 20-acre zoning district right now, you're required to have a full 20 acres for a new parcel," Goode said. "The concept would be instead of requiring 20 acres to be split off from a 40, you could instead have two houses on much smaller lots and leave the remainder in agricultural production or conservation easement or some other use." Goode said the Planning Department could look at rewriting the natural resources protection chapter to provide greater clarity and make it more consistent. Go to map.co.door.wi.us/ planning and click on the link for the Door County Plan 2030 for information. The final version of the Door County Comprehensive Plan will continue to change. "The final plan is still being compiled," Goode said. "We hope to have it by the end of the week on our Web site." |
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