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COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE -Minutes 20110524 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE – CITY OF MUSKEGO (Approved) MINUTES OF MEETING HELD TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2011 Mayor Chiaverotti called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. ROLL CALL Mayor Kathy Chiaverotti, Aldermen Snead, Harenda, Borgman, Werner, Soltysiak, Schaumberg, and Fiedler. Also present Community Development Director Jeff Muenkel and Deputy Clerk Jill Blenski. STATEMENT OF PUBLIC NOTICE The meeting was noticed in accordance with the Open Meeting Law. APPROVAL OF AGENDA There were no issues with the agenda item listed. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ald. Snead moved for approval of the May 10, 2011 minutes. Ald. Borgman seconded; motion carried with a request for correction from Ald. Soltysiak. NEW BUSINESS 1. Exclusive Agricultural Zoning Discussion. Community Development Director Jeff Muenkel discussed his handout (see attached) regarding Exclusive Agricultural Zoning (EA). The City is looking at going forward and removing the EA zoning district. It was installed in the early 1980’s enabling farmers to receive farmland preservation tax credits from the state based on their property being zoned EA. Over the years there has been a decline in applications. Recently in the last year there have been changes in the policy and law. Farmers wishing to rezone out of EA to another zoning category will have to pay a conversion fee based on the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s Use Value Guidelines for Agricultural Land Assessment. The fee changes from year to year – the 2010 fee for Muskego is $879.00 per acre. Farmland Preservation Tax Credits are harder to come by and at the end of this year farmers would have to be zoned EA by the City, but first the City would have to adopt a more restrictive zoning district language – stating that only agriculture practices can happen on this land and they may need a conditional use grant if they want residential use on their land. Also their lands would have to be shown in the Waukesha County’s Farmland Preservation Plan and the farmer will have to enter into an agreement that they would not intend to develop for up to 15 years. His staff sent out letters to all the properties zoned EA in April looking for input. Those that responded stated that they did not intend to participate in the program anymore as it was too restrictive. Based on the following his department would like to move forward with a rezoning to replace the EA districts in the community with A-1 Agricultural Zoning: Committee of the Whole meeting page 2 May 24, 2011  The A-1 allows farmers to continue agricultural practices and meets the obligations and densities of the Comprehensive Plan.  Farmers were originally told that being in the EA zoning district would not impact them and now the State’s conversion fee does hamper them (the State is looking at removing this fee per the new budget this July & the City’s rezoning may be exempt from fees).  Putting more restrictions in our EA zoning district requirements doesn’t seem to be a solution. Muskego has taken the position, via the new 2020 Comprehensive Plan, to allow development of farmland if an owner requests, not further restrict it. The 2020 Comp Plan encourages farmland preservation as well, but also allows a rural density to be developed if the owner wants. Lastly, the 2020 Comp Plan promotes the future development of farmland in a conservation subdivision way should the owner desire.  The existing EA property owners haven’t indicated a need to retain the EA zoning. With direction from COW, he would initiate the rezoning of the EA zoning districts by Fall of this year once we know the changes to the conversion fee from the State’s newly proposed budget. A public hearing would be part of the process which might bring forth more information from our EA property owners. Alderman Schaumberg questioned whether the farmers would be subject to the conversion fee if the City did the rezoning? Director Muenkel stated the City would wait for the results of the state budget and would not move forward if the penalty was still in place. Alderman Fielder questioned that if the conversion fee goes away why not let the individual farmer come forward if they want to be rezoned? Suggests sending out another letter stating that the conversion fee is not an issue and if only one farmer wishes to retain EA zoning we should leave it be and not force everyone to rezone. Director Muenkel said the City will allow them to rezone A-1 zoning if they meet all the requirements. After much discussion it was decided to wait for results of the State budget and the possibility of the conversion fee being eliminated before going forward. If the conversion fee is eliminated staff will bring forth a public hearing for rezoning all the EA lands to A-1 and a public hearing for amending the EA zoning code text to be more restrictive. From the results of those hearings we should be able to figure out what direction Muskego wishes to go. COMMUNICATIONS AND MISCELLANEOUS BUSINESS AS AUTHORIZED BY LAW ADJOURNMENT Ald. Snead moved to adjourn at 6:52 p.m. Seconded by Ald. Fiedler; motion carried. Minutes transcribed by Cindy Schweitzer Committee of the Whole meeting page 3 May 24, 2011 CITY OF MUSKEGO Staff Report to COW May 24, 2011 Meeting To: Committee of The Whole From: Jeff Muenkel, AICP Subject: Exclusive Agricultural Zoning Date: May 8, 2011 Background Information: As you may know the City of Muskego has had a zoning district known as EA Exclusive Agricultural. The zoning was instituted back in the early 1980s. Farmers have always had to have this zoning category present in order to apply for Farmland Preservation Tax Credits. The zoning district is restrictive as far as size requirements as lots have to be 35 acres or larger and at least 1,275 feet in width. The City of Muskego has always honored rezoning requests out of EA to our RCE or A-1 zoning districts since these two latter districts meet our Comprehensive Plan’s Rural Density categories. Things have changed over the past few years with the EA zoning: First off, farmers wishing to rezone out of EA to another zoning category have to pay a conversion fee. The conversion fee is based on the WI Dept. of Revenue Use Value Guidelines for Agricultural Land Assessment. The fee changes from year to year and is calculate by multiplying the Grade 1 Agricultural Land Assessment value by three (3). The 2010 fee for Muskego is $879 an acre. Secondly, the Farmland Preservation Tax Credits are a lot harder to come by for farmers. At the end of this year a farmer would have to be zoned EA by Muskego, but Muskego would first have to adopt a more restrictive EA requirement ordinance. Also, the farmer’s lands would then have to be recognized in Waukesha County’s Farmland Preservation Plan and a farmer would have to enter into farmland preservation agreements stating they wouldn’t intend to develop for up to 15 years. Staff recently sent out a letter to all properties zoned EA in Muskego telling about the changes to the Farmland Preservation Tax Credits and we requested their initial feedback about the EA zoning and the tax credit program. Those that responded indicated that they don’t intend to take the tax credit program anymore as it doesn’t provide them much benefit and they don’t want to be under more restrictions in order to get the credits. Further, they all believed that being rezoned to A-1 makes more sense since it already meets the 2020 Comp Plan. In all, staff would like to move forward with a rezoning to replace the EA districts in the community with A-1 Agricultural zoning. The following reasons support this:  The A-1 District allows farmers to continue agricultural practices and meets the obligations and densities of the Comprehensive Plan.  Farmers were originally told that being in the EA zoning district would not impact them at all and now the State’s conversion fee actually does hamper them (Note: State is Committee of the Whole meeting page 4 May 24, 2011 looking at removing this fee per the new budget this July; Further, City rezonings may be exempt from fee).  Putting more restrictions in our EA zoning district requirements doesn’t seem to be a solution. Muskego has taken the position, via the new 2020 Comprehensive Plan, to allow development of farmland if an owner requests, not further restrict it. The 2020 Comp Plan encourages farmland preservation as well, but also allows a rural density to be developed if the owner wants. Lastly, the 2020 Comp Plan promotes the future development of farmland in a conservation subdivision way should the owner desire.  The existing EA property owners haven’t indicated a need to retain the EA zoning. With COWs direction, staff will initiate the rezoning of the EA zoning districts by Fall of this year once we know the changes to the conversion fee from the State’s newly proposed budget. A public hearing would be part of the process which might bring forth more information from our EA property owners.