Certiorari Remedy

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WI Court of Appeals – District III

Case Name: Douglas Kurtzweil v. Sawyer County Zoning Board of Appeals

Case No.: 2022AP001577

Officials: Stark, P.J.

Focus: Certiorari Remedy

Kurtzweil owns property in Sawyer County that is adjacent to a property known as Old Arrow Resort. The Old Arrow Resort property consists of two cabins on a single lot. These cabins predate a Sawyer County zoning ordinance “prohibiting more than one habitable structure on a lot” and are therefore “legal nonconforming structures.” The cabins were used sparingly from 1978 to 2017. Beginning in 2017, the cabins were rehabilitated to be used as short-term rentals operated by a newly incorporated entity, Old Arrow Resort, LLC. On July 20, 2021, Kurtzweil requested “a written determination from the Sawyer County Zoning Department as to whether the rental of multiple dwelling units on the Old Arrow Resort property constitutes use as a ‘resort’ under Sawyer County Zoning Ordinances.”

This case addresses the procedure that a litigant may use to seek a certiorari remedy in the circuit court. The Sawyer County Zoning Board of Appeals (“the Board”) appeals an order granting default judgment to Douglas Kurtzweil. The court granted Kurtzweil default judgment after the Board failed to timely respond to Kurtzweil’s complaint seeking certiorari review of the Board’s denial of his appeal of a decision by the Sawyer County zoning and conservation administrator (“the administrator”). The Board argues that no answer or responsive pleading was required, and that by applying “regular civil procedure rules to a certiorari proceeding,” the court “did not apply a proper standard of law.”

Affirmed

Decided 07/25/23

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