Town of Garfield Plan Commission
Meeting Minutes
September 9, 2010
Meeting called to order at 7:05pm
In attendance: Orval Johnson, Chairman; Marilyn Buckingham, Member; Barry Eklund, Member; Darrell
Emerson, Member; Mark Kopp, Member; George Stroebel, Member; Natalie Trudeau, Member; Nolan
Wall, Planner from Stevens Engineers
Special guest: Jim Alt, Zoning Administrator of the Town of St. Croix Falls
Minutes of the August 12 Plan Commission Meeting were read and approved
Elect a Vice Chairman and Secretary: Buckingham was nominated as Vice Chairman (Johnson/Kopp);
carried unanimously. Trudeau was nominated as Secretary (Emerson/Eklund); carried unanimously.
Jim Alt was introduced to the Plan Commission and spoke about the specifics of his duties as Zoning
Administrator for the Town of St. Croix Falls. The average number of hours spent per week is approx 20 ?
25. It was noted that St. Croix Falls has much more commercial land use than Garfield and that the
average number of Res and Ag?Res Land Use Permits for the past two years was 15 . 20 annually.
Essentially, the Zoning Administrator does most of the .leg work. for the Plan Commission: assembling
application packets, assisting applicants in filling out forms, processing permits, compiling information
and forwarding to the Plan Commission with recommendation for approval or denial. Variance requests
have no recommendation by the Zoning Administrator and are rare, usually only when a permit is
denied, and are forwarded to the Board of Appeals. Conditional Uses are forwarded to the Plan
Commission.
Discussion on Draft Zoning Ordinance public comments received via e?mail:
Nadine Dzubay requested a transmittable copy of the Draft Zoning Map. PC reply: The Map had
not been completed yet, so was not available, and will be made available on the website once
the draft is complete.
James Chevalier questioned why the Town of Garfield needs a Zoning Ordinance when most
other towns in Polk County do not, why the ordinance is so lengthy, and also questioned the
cost of administering said ordinance. PC reply: The Town Board chose to pursue Town Zoning.
Official Town Hearing and Public Meeting were conducted prior to choosing Town Zoning vs.
County Zoning. Citizens present agreed unanimously (13?0) to proceed with Town Zoning. The
Comprehensive Plan notes the intent to preserve and enhance the rural character of the Town,
and zoning sets up a framework of community standards which allow flexibility within that
framework. A weak ordinance would be easy to exploit compared to the detail within the
proposed ordinance. The costs of administering zoning permits exist no matter whether the
Town adopts its own zoning. Costs are kept at the Town level instead of happening at the
County level. This process keeps it local within the community and provides the opportunity to
set lower administrative fees, since it is kept within the smaller infrastructure of the Town.
Ed Mohrsfelder provided comments on specific text within the ordinance. PC reply: Comments
were reviewed and will be modified or left unchanged as appropriate.
Zoning Map Draft finalized.
Zoning Permit Application packet: Reviewed and approved with one edit to page 2 of Conditional Use
Fee Schedule: Reviewed fee structure of Polk County, St. Croix County, and Pierce County. Motion was
made to adopt a fee schedule at approximately 75% of the Polk County fees with intent to review
annually (Eklund/Buckingham); carried unanimously.
Public Workshop: September 30 at 7pm
Public Hearing prior to Town Board Meeting: October 12 at 7pm
Next Regular Plan Commission Meeting: October 14 at 7pm
Respectfully Submitted,
Natalie Trudeau, Secretary