Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

so so

What?

Thank you.

Seeing as how at 630 we'll get the meeting started. I'll take roll call please.

Van Campen. Here. Nelson. Here. Baino. Here. Malzahn. Here. Schnelly.

Meyer here, Polda and Smith back is out tonight.

Thank you. Seeing as how we have quorum, we'll move forward with the agenda. Item three is approval of minutes for June 4th of 2026. Is there a motion to approve? We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second. All those in favor of approval signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All those opposed. Motion carries. Moving on. Public appearances, item four. This is an opportunity that we provide to people in the audience to speak on an issue that is on the agenda or off the agenda. We just simply request that you try to keep it to under three minutes if possible. Is there anything that somebody would like to speak on the agenda? Please come forward. If it's on the agenda and it's a public... Then please come forward. You can sashay up if you want to. Please give us your name and address. Sure.

It's Molly Dillman, and my address is 220 Bethel Court.

Thank you.

Yeah. I do have a handout that shows the adorable nature of companion pigs, but our children used all the printer paper, so there's only one, so you'll have to share. We are requesting that you please consider shifting the ordinances to recognize pet pigs, smaller domesticated pigs like Middleton has done and Madison has done. Right now, you currently do not have a distinction, just livestock for livestock's sake. And so we're asking that you please acknowledge that there are very sweet animals that are therapy animals that live on couches and don't do anything too exciting. They mostly live indoors like cats and dogs. They're actually smarter than dogs, but we don't tell my dogs that. And we know that there's common concerns that people have that it would open the door to other livestock. The way that that's been handled in other municipalities is limiting the size and limiting the number and that sort of thing. although I would like a mini cow, but I'm not gonna press my luck. So we're just requesting, if possible, that you would consider changing the ordinances to reflect the difference so that everyone could have the sweetest animal sleeping on their couch. My neighborhood needs a mascot. I know, very pressing subject in the land of many important things you're working on.

Well, one thing also is I forgot to mention I gave the cliff note version is we really can't make any comment back.

You can just wink and go.

No, we can't.

We're recording. No, you can't. I used to work in government, so I know the rules. Thank you. So thank you so much.

Oh, you did a great job. I'll take over, I guess. Item five already.

My name is Paul Larson. Yes, sir. And I am a half of a developer of Autumn Woods subdivision, Fairway Estates. And I wanted to give an opinion on some things because I was a longtime resident here. And I went to school here. And to tell you a few things that you might not know if you didn't, or if you do know, you ask a question, I don't know. That's up to you. First of all, we did our homework when we developed Autumnwood Sparroway Estates with the golf course. We were actually part of a Foxborough golf course. We gave the land. We paid for the tunnel under the road. And we signed off with every idea that we could come up with to protect developing around it. We hired an attorney to do that for us. And that's where it's shown that each lot owner has a voice in what happens around fairway estates. And I was at every closing. And I presented that to all of them. If I wasn't, I had a realtor do that. Because the other part of that was it was a joint effort with the village. And they approved that at the time. And if you read the paper, the contract that was between us, it supports... that we have the right to have the votes before the village would rule on it. Now, the other part is, since we worked with Foxboro to do that, not that, them personally, but we did work with them to get the holes on the side and the lots, the layout and everything else. But my goal here is to get the village to realize they have a beautiful asset with a full 18-hole golf course. It was only a nine-hole course when we worked with Eric Peterson to develop that course. It was the only one in town. We knew another one was coming. I was asked to be a part of it. I turned it down because I was done. It was done with my developing time. And what I wish they would have done on that side, Eric's side, when he decided to develop, was to annex to the city the whole thing, not one street down that had houses on it, and that everybody else on that side had the same rights that the people in fairway states had. So I am really opposed, because I did a lot of work to get it developed to protect people and their houses to what was going to happen behind them. And so I hope you realize I know you represent the people of Oregon. I've been planning board meetings quite a few times. And I know how much work it is. And if you're representing only on the fairway estates roughly 240 people properties, how much are you doing on the other side? Those are people that are already here, that has a course on it. It doesn't need to be taken away. The other thing is we're in a place and time right now where golf is very popular. Now that Bergamot has turned into a private, it has made Oregon, Foxboro, even better. Because not everybody can afford or be a member on Bergamot. So you've got the public or private, not private, public, personally owned, I guess you would say. and that people are coming there. And they're actually making money. If you talk to any of the neighbors, there are players there all the time. Part of it's because he's cheap. I mean, I can't believe the price he is. And he doesn't advertise. But I'm going to show up at every meeting, and I'll tell you more things that I know about Foxborough or what my opinion is. But I would really be disappointed if we gave up an open property that easily could be annexed into the village by the village instead of cut up. Because all that's going to happen is more water. No, I'm not going to go there. But the other question, the other opinion of mine I have is I don't like to see the, when I ask for a Comprehensive plan, I see streets in Foxborough already drawn in. That's not right. I don't think that's been passed by anybody on anything. Where was it public? What was it? Who knew about it? I had property right on it all the time. I never knew anything about it, that it was going to be on that plan. Any questions? Thanks, Paul. Besides, I know Craig forever.

Yeah, well, I was on his commission when you were developing that property.

Yeah.

Anybody else? Okay. We're going to move on then, too. We're moving on. There's no unfinished business. New business. Review and pass recommendation of the Village Board for a master plan for Bethel Green Acre Park, 326 North Borough Avenue. Applicant is the Village of Oregon. Hi.

I'm Stephanie Thompson. I am representing JT Engineering. We are working on this project for the Village. First of all, thank you for that opportunity. Um, our office is on Netherwood, so we're very excited to work on the park project in our hometown. Um, so I'm going to go through the kind of a high level of the master planning process that we went through. So what you'll see, um, is this is one of the concepts that, or this is the final concept that we came up with for, um, the master plan. And this was developed from page 19.

There we go.

There we go.

There we go.

Thank you. Thanks, Rich. You're welcome.

There's a lot of stuff in packets. Yeah.

Okay, so our process for the master plan, what we did is we started with immediate meetings with the village staff. And then going through the park history, had meetings with various stakeholders throughout the community. So prior to a public meeting that we hosted at the park, we wanted to make sure we were getting some really good feedback from individuals who would be using the park and um, those who had, you know, some more vested interest in what, what was happening there. Um, so we had, we went through the public input review concepts, plans, preliminary plans, and then again, that final master plan. So the stakeholder interviews bridge, if you want to go to the next slide, please. We had quite a few, like I said, extensive stakeholder interviews, over 12 hours of focused public input from public safety, education, so the school district. We talked with different community groups, nature and service groups, youth organizations, youth sports, and then impacted neighbors. So from those stakeholder interviews, We developed two concepts and we hosted a public involvement meeting. So to advertise that meeting, we had flyers distributed, um, posters were displayed at the park. So people using the park could see that there was going to be a meeting coming up and to make sure that they were aware and would attend. Uh, we had quite a bit with the staff outreach. The staff was amazing to work with for this project. And then with that meeting, we had over 30 attendees at the public meeting. I think what was most impactful about this public meeting, and I've done quite a few public meetings in Dane County, was the range of age. So most public meetings for infrastructure projects, you know, you see maybe same type of people going to those meetings at the same adult age range. What was really cool about this public meeting is that we had a lot of children that were there. And the children were actively looking at the exhibits and were very excited to see what was possible with the park that they used. But also it was cool to see the parents and the grandparents who could visualize being there with their kids, being there with their grandkids, what was important to them, you know, making memories at this, at this park. Um, so keep going. So it was overall very, we had a lot of good input. We had over 21 individual surveys that were filled out. So we took all of that information. So we looked at what are what's existing conditions. We know we have the railroad wetlands, stormwater issues, existing vegetation. There's some neighboring properties. We took the input from the PIM, which included wanting to see nature-based play, diverse age, and inclusive play. So what I mean by that is the public didn't want a playground or a park that was only going to be used by one age range. And you might see some parks where there is a sign that says this is intended for kids from 0 to 5 or from 5 to 12, you know, there's specific age ranges. People were really looking for a flexible park that would be inclusive to all ages. Looking for event space, so small event space somewhere that somebody can reserve the pavilion for a birthday party or some type of family reunion. And then different interactive, so passive and impassive places. and then neighborhood-based. So all of this input from Historic Society Village staff, the PIM, came into these concept plans. And here you'll see concept A and concept B. Um, they're, they look somewhat similar, but they're a little different. And these are, this is what was shown at the public meetings and what we, what we received input on. Um, so you'll see concept a, there's a walking path that stretches kind of the exterior of the path of the park. The playground is, there's a buffer between the street and the playground. Um, there is some open green space. There's some native space. There's the stormwater channel that's running through, which existing, it already does run through the park. Concept B has the playground area a little closer to the roadway. It has the pavilion in the center of that playground area. The pavilion on concept A is on the north side. It also has a path and different nodes for play. So again, they were somewhat similar, but differences, some specific differences between those two concepts. On the next slide, you'll see the different ideas. We have an architect on the team who looked at working with our landscape architect. What would these pavilions look like? Again, the feedback and need at this location is for some type of pavilion, but also for the restrooms. So here you'll see concept A has more of a circular pavilion. It includes two restrooms and a janitor's closet. And concept B has more of a rectangular shape and also includes two restrooms and a janitor's closet. These would include, you know, again that shelter or that overhang and have space that somebody could, you know, bring, plug in crockpots or It would have water, filling stations, so a space that could be used for different events. So based on the feedback we received, it was pretty unanimously towards concept A. So we did make a few different tweaks to our master plan based on the feedback. So for example, one of the grandparents at the meeting said, well, I like pushing my grandchildren in a swing. And we didn't have swings in the initial plan, so we added those into one of the nodes. that you'll see that goes along the path, one of the nodes closest to the playground. We also added sandboxes in a couple spots. One thing I didn't point out before was making sure that we do have some type of basketball court and instead of a soccer field, having a futsal court. So that would be multi-purpose where that area there would be not just basketball, but could be used as futsal. So it's a It's a different type of soccer that's very popular. One other thing to note is that we looked at what kind of equipment would be different and unique at this park. One thing about making these parks attractive and well used is having equipment that is new to kids that they haven't seen before. and back to the intent and purpose of having a park that can be used by many different types of people, different age ranges and abilities. We landed on this ropes course and then log play. So these are different types of equipment that we do not see in Oregon, but it also will help span the different age ranges that we'll be using this park. And then this is showing what that facility might look like, that bathroom facility. So we were looking at having rounded timber on the outside of the facility. So having more of that, again, natural, rustic look. And this is also just showing some different ideas for what could the colors look like. Um, what could that play those play areas look like? Um, the stormwater channel be natural with plantings, native plantings. There could be some boulders that will be placed throughout the park. You know, again, back to that natural rustic look. Um, I think that is That's the main overview, unless Lauren or Elise, Rich, anything else I should add? We also went through the budget.

Yeah, we can guess that you want us to go back.

Yeah, we'll put that back. So as we were developing these concepts, we kept the CIP budget in mind. So this wasn't just... developed without thinking, is this affordable? Is this within, you know, again, that intent of the project is to have a well-loved memory making park. You know, this is an asset to the community. It helps with property values. You know, I could go on and on with the value of parks as a mom of three. But we also wanted to make sure that we were being mindful of the budget that was in the CIP for the village. This budget does come out to about that $1.5 million. We are now, that's from our master planning phase, So we're now going to be moving into design if this is all approved. And at that point, we will start drilling further into that budget. Where are there areas that we can save some money, but keeping that full intent of the park, wanting to make sure that we're keeping with what we showed to the public for the most part. but with looking at how can we reduce some of the cost if needed.

I just wanted to add, obviously, this is a little bit different process for some of our parks than what we've done recently with creating a master plan and really doing a very robust public outreach effort before we're moving into design we've typically just jumped right into design and kind of done public input along the way but the reason we're bringing the master plan to you all obviously the plan but we um are wanting to incorporate um you know this plan into the adopted documents of the village so that when we have our cip we can refer back to this master plan this is what we're aiming for again knowing that we're going to be narrowing down what do we actually need and want out here and what are our opportunities to save where, again, the goal and intent of the park can still be maintained, but maybe it can function and flow just as well with some different rearrangement of materials and placement of items and things like that. But also wanted to let you know, should this be passed by Planning Commission and then the Village Board, it's already been passed by the Park Board, The construction document creation base would be largely over the fall, and there would be at least one opportunity a site plan review here at Planning Commission for some more comments on design. But if there, that in mind, if there are any directions on design, especially for the structure that you want to just pass forward that could be incorporated as they would move into design development this fall, I think that would be helpful to hear sooner rather than later too. So if you had any initial thoughts on that, we'd be happy to hear those as well.

And one other thing, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention, we did keep maintenance in mind throughout the planning effort. So working with Eric at the park and making sure that this is maintainable, this is going to have longevity as far as the different types of materials. So we wanted to make sure that we weren't going to create a problem with maintenance. So we worked with him to make sure that we were keeping that all in mind on mower deck size, how is he going to access, how do we place native plantings in areas where then it reduces the mowing. So it's not a frustration of seeing this big mowed area that nobody's using. You can have some native planted areas and then some unprogrammed green space that, you know, kids can go play flag football or, you know, throw a frisbee or fly a kite.

Okay. Any questions? Anybody? It's well done. Thank you.

Yeah, it's a great park.

No questions.

I'll just make a comment. I love that it's local, and I think you did a great job.

Thank you.

I have nothing else to say about it, but it's a very impressive project, and it's nice to hear that the firm is here in Oregon.

Yes, and again, we're very excited about it. Thank you for the opportunity.

Graphics were really well done, and yeah. That's conceptually visually for people when you're making these presentations, the hardest part is getting them to honestly agree to understand sort of what they're looking at. And I think that you did a nice job of sort of creating documents that people could understand and read, um, without having to be embarrassed about asking. So well done.

Thank you.

Yeah, sure.

Okay.

It appears everything's great, so we're going to need a motion to recommend the Village Board approval of the final Bethel Green Acre Master Plan.

So moved.

We have a second?

Second.

We have a second. Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That motion carries. Opposed. You're opposed? I'm opposed. Okay. All right. The motion so passes. Thank you for your presentation.

All right. Thank you.

Move on to item 6B. It's a public hearing. Discussion and consider recommendations to the Village Board for ordinance approving zoning text amendments related to Twin Homes driveway with zoning administrator and removal of the ER-1 zoning district. Open a public hearing. Staff report.

All right, these are what I felt were truly low-hanging fruit for zoning tech summons, so hopefully you all agree, and we've reviewed these a couple times now, but these are some cleanup items that we just kind of stumbled across as we were working through really the EDUs and different sections of the code that are affected by If we are adding those tiny homes into the code, so eliminating the year 1 district, we don't have anything that's actually zoned that that's the ex urban residential kind of large lot more rural lots. But really, when we're all lots are coming in, they're going to be annexed and usually plotted right away into different. Other zoning districts, so administrator really just updating pronouns from he to they. The driveway with this has come up a couple of different times. So just clarification on that and then just reducing lot size for twin homes, especially we're seeing some smaller twin home lots on corner lots. So just making sure we have a couple. projects that are kind of waiting in the wings for this to be passed so that they could do a zero lot line CSM. And right now the lot size would not meet the requirements. So there's a bunch of different little parts in different zoning districts that have twin homes allowed. So it's affecting a couple of different districts, but the ordinances that are written here capture all those necessary changes. So Happy to answer any questions, but these are largely kind of cleanup or administrative items, and we'll come back to those more policy-related zoning tax amendments once I get a chance to check in with the board later in July here.

So it appears the staff report petitioners' comments are probably the same, are they not? Yeah. Okay. Public comments. Anybody want to address it from the public? Planning Commission members? Patrick.

No concerns. Okay, buddy.

Okay, thank you.

I think your comment about the pronouns is a good catch. We don't think about it generally, but it makes sense.

Right. For cleaning up other items, it felt like something that we should update you.

Okay, then we will close the public hearing and move on to discussion on possible recommendations of the village board for the zoning text amendments.

So moved.

Approval. Okay. We have a motion. We have a second.

I'll second.

You're going to second it. Thank you. Is there any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Wow. Okay. There's no other new business, correct? Moving on to the communication business. Status of public and private development projects.

All right. I'll just go down the list as usual. Tried to make this one brief. I say that literally every month, I realize that. But this one I actually was trying to cut down. Last year's projects, finally I can say well six is officially online. Final completion of that will be site work, and that'll occur after the completion of the Highlands of Netherwood Phase 4B project, which you can start to see going on right now. I'll touch on that a little later. The Richards Road lift station project has started as part of the wastewater treatment plant project, which is also ongoing. So those will just continue kind of as planned throughout the summer and just keep going through the fall and into next year. There will be another change order coming on that to the village board likely in August or September, but it is a very routine kind of change order based on exciting gifts that people left us at the site. And so nothing too surprising, and we're well within contingency there. For 2026 construction projects between last month and this month, a whole lot has begun. Obviously Alpine CC and East Lincoln Street, both up and going at this point. For those that were paying attention on Monday, the contractor at Alpine and CC did pretty dramatically hit a high pressure gas main. Huge props to Oregon Area Fire and EMS District and Oregon Police Department who responded immediately and Alliant who got crews out there within a very, very short amount of time. I think that the evacuation order, which did affect Village Hall and the library, was cleared within an hour and a half. So really, really good response. Great feedback from the contractor on the fire department in particular and how they handled it. So that project did kick right back up the next day. So moving along really, really well. East Lincoln Street, the setup and the demo work has occurred. They're going to transition that street to temporary water, which is kind of an unusual step. But it is one that they are taking because of just how old and brittle that water main is. So they are going to do that next week. And then they will start in on the sewer and the water work out there. For both of those projects, we are keeping those village websites updated. as soon as we get updates from our engineers. Senior center folks are probably following along with that. Walls, some of them are up now, and construction is moving along pretty well. Gary Dish Park has started. That grading is well underway. They have worked through some clearing and grubbing, taken out some trees, and are really trying to get those grades in place as soon as they can. The Prairie Mounds Cemetery path, that has not started, but has the potential to start quickly within the next couple of weeks, we found out. So we will, of course, sign that and let people know, because obviously the cemetery is a very sensitive place and a place that we don't want people to be running into surprises. So we'll get the word out as soon as we have that confirmation, but potentially starting soon. Design projects, County MM and Wolf Street still moving on the timeline we expected, working through permitting and real estate acquisition right now. Water tower painting and rehab. In design, planned construction or execution, if you will, in 2027. Nothing big there. The water tower and interzonal booster station planning project. Town and Country Engineering, who is working on this for us, I did present some citing alternatives for both of those facilities at the public works meeting in May those will be going to the village board for consideration next Monday on the 6th so some interesting ideas as to where to place those and obviously given especially the size of the towers certainly some considerations as to how it not only functions in our system but fits into the landscape as well so. So that is going to start getting public here on Monday as they consider that. The Public Works Garage Space Needs Analysis, CUNY was hired to do that project and has started. They are moving quite quickly and have indicated that they intend to present preliminary findings to the Public Works and Utilities Committee in July or August. So this is one of those. We really have no idea what it looks like right now. So this will be a very... Interesting revelation, I think, to everybody concerned here, but starting to conceptualize what the needs are and then what that might look like in practice. Private development projects, Greenview Preserve, sanitary sewer and water main have been installed and Alliant Energy is moving in next week to do their work. The Highlands of Netherwood Phase 4, I can finally say, has started. Grading is ongoing, and that is a small project, so construction is scheduled to finish up in late July. And then Phase 5 of that project, still a lot of verbal interest from FDG and Lennar both. Not a ton of actual movement that we've seen yet. And that's it for me.

I have a question.

Yes.

And this is just because I'm nosy about what's going on at the lift stations. Why are we putting in caissons? Why are they drilling and dropping concrete caissons in there?

I would want to ask Town & Country about that because they did the design on that one.

I didn't see it in the drawings. That's why I was wondering. I didn't see the… I'll get back to you. Okay. Just let me know. I'm just curious. Yeah, absolutely. Because the sheet pile is in there, but I just… Yeah. They came in a vertical drill, probably two-foot diameter, and dropped and poured caissons.

Sure.

I'm just curious. Yep.

I'll look into it.

All right. Thank you. Okay, moving on then. Upcoming Planning Commission meetings Thursday, August 6th. I will not be here. Enjoying with a bunch of grandchildren. And then Thursday, September 3rd. Everybody can look at the planning staff meeting agenda from June 4th, 2026. Is there anything else? Yes, ma'am.

Just a question since I've been Molly who was here for public comment regarding the tiny pigs. I asked her to come as sort of an opportunity to start the conversation. Wasn't sure if there would be any interest in discussing that, but I let her know obviously it wouldn't be able to be discussed tonight since it's not on the agenda. But is there any interest in opening up that can of worms as another zoning text amendment at some point down the road or not? Not that you have to vote on it, but just to discuss.

I'll give you my opinion. I think that it is something that's worth exploring, not on its own. So if there's another topic that comes up or if we are set for another re-evaluation of something.

Animal umbrella. Yeah.

Let's not let it turn into the chicken.

We all remember.

All right. All right. Wonderful. We'd like to streamline if we can.

Yep.

OK, anything else? Without objection, we are adjourned.