Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Motion to approve.

I have a motion to approve. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item on the agenda, special exemption to town building code, parcel PCT00001, Beulah Sunsets LLC, Matt or Michael Abrams architecture. Come on up and let us know.

So do I need to give you kind of an overview of what we're doing? If you could. So there's a... We received a continuing use permit from the Walworth County to rebuild the structure with their 20% increase in square footage, which we did, which is 197 square feet. The existing structure is roughly 800 or 600. Let's see. and we added 250 square feet. The original structure is 697 square feet, and we added 200 square feet, so it's roughly 900 square foot building. It has this green porch on it, and the total square footage We received the continuing use permit from the Walworth County to continue the use on that property. And also we received the continuing use permit from the village of East Troy.

Town?

Town of East Troy, sorry. For the, to have the structure remain on the property and be rebuilt. The building code of East Troy requires that a new structure, a new residential structure, be at least 1,350 square feet. We would like to just keep the building the same size. So theoretically, if we were to do a 1,300 square foot, or actually with the 1,200 square foot footprint that we have, We could build a 2,400 square foot building house, two stories instead of one. We'd like to keep it at one instead of two. So basically we're here to get a special exemption to not have to build a bigger building. So the building code in the town requires 1,350 square feet. We'd like to keep the structure. There isn't already. The main house, which is the primary dwelling unit, is roughly 6,000 square feet. This is just a little guest house that we would prefer.

And it's on its own parcel?

No, it's all one parcel. This is an old, old structure that is in really bad shape. The foundation is rotting. SO WE JUST WANT TO REBUILD IT ESSENTIALLY AS IT IS WITH THE 190 SQUARE FOOT ADDITIONAL FOOTPRINT THAT WE CAN DO GRANTED BY OR ALLOWED BY THE ACCOUNT.

SO DID THE PLAN CHANGE AT ALL FROM WHEN YOU WERE HERE IN 2022?

that we got the plan from when we got the continuing use, it has not changed.

Can you double check that your mic is on?

That my mic is on?

Thanks. If you said 690 square feet of conditioned, there's this green porch on there that brings the total up to 947 square feet, the footprint, which is what the county cares about. So I think it was a 20% additional allowance and footprint was the additional 199 square feet, which got us to a total of 1146 square feet of coverage. which is not counted as floor area in the East Troy calculation for floor area. So we would subtract that 250 square feet. So of our 947 square feet, which is what the structure is now of conditioned space, we would be required to add almost 400 square feet of floor area living space so we'd have to go up because we can't make the footprint any bigger so which we could do I mean it's just kind of a different request I mean it's not that we couldn't spend the money to do that. It's that we would like to keep the structure small.

What is the intended use of the structure?

It's just a guest house. It has a couple bedrooms and a kitchen bathroom. So it's essentially as its current use.

Shared well and septic?

Not exactly, it is all shared. The well and septic?

Separate.

Separate, okay.

Isn't it two residences on? But I mean, two residences on R1 zoning?

Right, right. Zoning's residential, and that's why we got the continuing use to continue the use as it was to make it official. so it's keeping you from making the footprint bigger the county the county code limits the footprint to the footprint that the structure was plus twenty percent so we're limited to making that the footprint county limits the footprint of the of the structure the town requests a minimum uh... structure

TOWN ORDINANCE IS 1350 SQUARE FEET FOR FIRST FLOOR?

NO, JUST FOR TOTAL SQUARE FOOTAGE. WITH THIS STRUCTURE, FOR EXAMPLE, THAT PLUS THE SCREEN PORCH, WHICH IS 250, WE WOULD HAVE A 1500 SQUARE FOOT STRUCTURE MINIMUM. And we're just asking, can we leave it at 947 square feet?

Any other questions for the applicant?

Well, and just a lot of numbers were thrown out that this exact plan was presented in 2022 when you get the standard zoning approvals and things.

Yep, when we got the continuing use from East Troy and the continuing use from Walworth County, it's the same plan.

Okay. Any other questions for the applicant? All right, thank you.

Sure.

This is, I'm sorry. If you could, that'd be great, thanks. Yeah, and turn your microphone on.

It's a little bit different here. So they did have a really nice, they had a guest house there. Originally there were two parts It's green Hello, Luke So originally this was a separate two separate parcels. They combined them They got they got approval to have both houses on it. So they rebuilt the main house. This was a guest cottage Beautiful guest cottage is dated. So they're gonna redo it and Unfortunately, because there was no permit, they demoed that guest house. And now we don't have a house there. So talking to the attorney, they'd have to go here for a special exception. Now, they could have added on to it, the original one, if it wasn't completely demoed. And we would have no problem. It's it it is true, and they have a conditional use for everything so it so they're in set They have a conditional use for the autonomous try which is great They have conditional use for the from the from the county so there's not an issue here at all The only problem is when when you demo something it kind of goes away So then it goes back to our original square footage requirement. We have done this in the past and not super frequently, but we have. And what they propose is a really good solution. It really helps the property. I worked with the builder. I worked with the architect on the bigger home. Did a fantastic job. Anything that I needed, they took care of. So I'm very confident that this is... So it's kind of like a... If it wasn't, it wouldn't be here if it wasn't demoed without them knowing that they needed a demo permit. So now it's gone.

But if it was demoed, are they back to R1 zoning where they can't have two?

No, they have a conditional use that allows them to have it. So they combine those two parcels into one. And the conditional use allows them to have those two parcels, those two houses on that one parcel. So it's just a technicality. When they came in for the permit, they had already demoed it, to my surprise, but the reason it was demoed, there was someone that was working with the architectural firm, correct me if I'm wrong, you guys were handling the permitting, and he laughed, so there was some confusion from the builder on whether they had the permit to demo it or not. So it was just a little bit of confusion there, but... I have no problem personally with the way they have it set up, because if you look at your plans, it's a beautiful property and a beautiful addition to the property for just a small guest home. It's quite a bit of an improvement from what they had. And it is increased in size. So we're down to this technicality, which is what it really is, to make sure that they're complying with all the conditions of the town ordinances.

So Vince if we did nothing if we didn't act and they were restricted to what their limits are under all the existing approvals they could rebuild a Two-story structure on that they have to go in the current stories two-story structure in this particular case the way they have it I don't know if you've seen it do we have anything for the property, but it's on a peninsula and

And I think one of the reasons why they don't want to go with a two-story is because it's similar to what was there, and the view really is very beautiful with just a single story. You're just going to obstruct the view, basically, if you go with two stories. So.

Any other questions for Inspector Guglia? Thanks for that feedback. I really appreciate it. That's helpful.

Um other discussion amongst commissioners, I guess maybe just a general question and what probably goes back in time when this ordinance ordinance was written But what is the reasoning for the 1350 square foot to begin with?

So the ordinance was written in 2008. I don't have the reasons but I think this came up once before I think it was in 2022 There's a barn dominium project on splisconi road But just a plain reading of this section of the ordinance because it comes up once in a while Ranch home shall contain a minimum of 1,350 square feet of living area, and a multi-level home must have at least 800 square feet of living area on the first level with a minimum of 1,350 square feet total living area. And then the ordinance reads, has some language around minimum number of bathrooms, bedrooms, a layout of a home. I can't speak to why it was written or the intent, but it's just general language around what a typical home might look like.

An answer to the question was, because county really, you only need a minimum of a 22 by 22 foot footprint for county to grant a permit for a single family dwelling. So you really wanna have the small, tiny homes. So I think that's what happened originally when we made the change. So at least, 1350 is more like a starter home instead of having a really small 22 by 22 houses. So that's where that came out.

Makes sense, but to me it seems to be, could use some updating. Times have changed and houses are changing.

I guess my opinion is if they don't want to make it bigger and they don't want to block the view and they don't want to go up, seems like it makes sense to me.

Yeah, I mean, they're navigating between different layers of government and zoning regulations here, so I don't know how you thread that needle perfectly without needing an exception of some sort.

Any other discussion amongst commissioners? At this point, I'd open it up to the audience. Would anybody in the audience like to speak in favor of the proposal? Would anybody like to speak against the proposal? All right, we could maybe make a motion if somebody would like to.

I'll make a motion to approve the special exemption to town building code for W1758, W1762 South Shore Drive, parcel PCT00001.

We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second?

A second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries.

We did a 2050 amendment for the Schaefer property as well as the Taylor property, which was done prior to the October date at county zoning. They were approved on all levels, planning commission, town board, and county level. Now we're just ratifying it with some resolutions.

Any discussion amongst commissioners, questions? I guess I'll go ahead and open it up to the audience. Would anybody in the audience like to speak in favor of this proposal? Anybody like to speak against? And I could take a motion.

Motion to approve resolution ratifying 2050 plan amendments.

We have a motion to approve. Do we have a second?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstained. Six approve, one abstain. Motion carries. Next item on the agenda, is there any other business amongst commissioners?

Can we review the minutes from the Planning Commission from 4-5?

We did.

Did we?

Okay.

All right.

Any other business amongst commissioners? Any other public comment?

I have a comment. Does everybody?

about in the park. On July 5th, there's going to be a farmer's market in the park. So we have food trucks, a lot of fun stuff coming. Everybody knows that.

That's right. That's at the park next door here.

Budget constraints.

This is the first year we've done anything as a town, so I think at least it's something. They are still having the fireworks on the lakes, and they're doing that.

I'm going to have a big party at my house, Jerry. Good.

You have fireworks?

Yeah, I will have fireworks.

Where do you live? I'll bring something.

Any other business amongst commissioners?

You know, a couple of us attended the workshop, was it last month, that the county provided. So they had an individual from the UW Extension come and kind of walk through variances, conditional uses, zoning issues. And one thing I thought was kind of interesting, I think this was brought up a couple years ago, a few others went to the workshop two years ago. But zoning, with county zoning, the ultimate authority does fall to towns. And that's for both zoning ordinances as well as zoning decisions. So we get ahead of that with how it technically works with a zoning ordinance. The county, they might approve a change to the zoning ordinance and then... There's a window where the towns that fall under that jurisdiction have an ability to provide a rebuttal. So if it reaches a certain threshold, if X number of towns object, well, it just doesn't happen. That is also true of a zoning application. It would be highly unusual for a town to object to a rebuttal. county zoning decision so if the county is making a decision to rezone a1 to r1 or something well their policy is to wait for the town decision. So that way, it'd be really unlikely for a town to approve, the county to approve, and then the town to deny. So I think we might be able to get some access to the workshop materials, make that available, and Jen, you might already have it. Okay, so I'll see if I can dig it up.

There was a QR code in the beginning. I don't know if you...

Yeah, I do still have the QR code. I'll see if it's active, but a lot of good stuff in there. But what I learned was, again, let's say the county decides to change the minimum square footage of a residence. Well, that would apply to all townships. So 40% of townships would have to object to cancel it. But with an individual zoning decision for an individual parcel, that 40% township threshold is just the town, which is, in our case, the town of East Tri. So they're not compelled to approve our zoning decisions. So if we approve, they can still deny zoning. If we were to deny, they cannot approve. So it's kind of peculiar and hard to go through. But I'll see if I can get the workshop materials and share that with everyone. So that's all I had. Thanks.

Any other business discussion? I would take a motion to adjourn.

I make a motion that we adjourn the meeting.

I have a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? We're adjourned. Thank you.