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Builders, developers voice support for bill overturning land-use decisions

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//October 17, 2017//

Builders, developers voice support for bill overturning land-use decisions

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//October 17, 2017//

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After hearing from the U.S. Supreme Court that the law would not let them sell property they own in St. Croix County, a Wisconsin family set about on Tuesday trying to have the law changed.

Donna Murr and her siblings were told by the Supreme Court in June that they were prohibited by a local ordinance from pursuing their plans to sell one of two parcels of land they owned along a section of the St. Croix River lying east of the Twin Cities. And that wasn’t all. In the same ruling, the Murrs learned they were entitled to no compensation for the prohibition on selling their land.

“Until I experienced this for myself, I didn’t even know this was possible,” Murr said at a legislative committee meeting held in the state Capitol on Tuesday. “I can’t tell you how much I wish a law like the one proposed today was on the books years ago.”

Lawmakers look at wiring-code reviews, easement requirements Besides Senate Bill 387, lawmakers also heard testimony on Tuesday about legislation that would have the state Department of Safety and Professional Services take time every six years to review provisions of the state’s electrical wiring code that apply to one- and two-family homes.

Senate Bill 488 would also prevent the DSPS from making changes until it had consulted the state’s Uniform Dwelling Code council and any other committee or council that advises the DSPS on the code.

Separately, SB 488 would add to the existing exceptions to requirements for recording property easements. Under current law, documents that are used to modify titles to land and that are recorded in real-estate records must contain a full legal description of whatever property that is being affected.

The current exceptions to these rules apply mainly various types of utilities and railroads. The bill would add sewers the list of exceptions. Should the bill get a favorable recommendation in committee, its next stop would be the full Legislature.

In voicing support for Senate Bill 387, Murr was joined by groups of builders, developers and realtors. The two authors of the bill – State Rep. Adam Jarchow, R-Balsam Lake, and Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst – have said that the bill, which they have referred to as the “Homeowners Bill of Rights,” is meant to restore property rights that have restricted over time by decisions handed down by the courts.

Separately, Senate Bill 387 would overturn the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision, made in May, to uphold a Trempealeau County environmental and land-use committee’s denial in 2013 of a conditional-use permit to open a frac-sand mine in Arcadia.

County officials had denied the application for a number of reasons, citing concerns about the mine’s likely effects on the environment and the health of nearby residents.

AllEnergy, the company building the mine in Arcadia, had asked the court to review whether the evidence in the record supported a denial of the permit.  The company also encouraged the court to adopt a new rule that would require a conditional-use permit to be granted when all ordinances are satisfied and additional conditions can be added to deal with adverse effects of granting the permit. The justices declined.

Now, supporters of those proposed changes have pinned their hopes on the state Legislature.

“If a person agreed to meet all the conditions of a conditional-use permit, I believe they should get that permit,” said Tiffany.

But not everyone is of the same mind. Groups representing local governments have said they opposed the bill because it would undermine the principle of local control.

At the hearing on Tuesday, Jarchow and Tiffany said they plan to answer some of those criticisms with an amendment to their bill. They said the proposed changes would be made public in the coming days.

Several critics of the bill said the attempts at compromise have not allayed their concerns. One opponent accused lawmakers of trying to codify 95 years of case law – a truly daunting task.

“If we put it into statue we now make that foundation very shallow because we are now giving the courts deference to statutes and not as much access to court-made law,” said Kyle Christianson, director of government affairs for the Wisconsin Counties Association.

Tuesday’s testimony was part of a public hearing before the the Senate Committee on Insurance, Housing and Trade. Members of the Assembly Committee on Housing and Real Estate also sat in on the hearing.  Should the panel recommend the bill for adoption, its next stop would be the full Legislature.

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