Developer to pay for town to investigate zoning change

A planned unit development zoning code might come to the Town of Saukville. After developer and Fine Line Carpentry Co-owner Nick Suddendorf’s proposal to build business barns in the town was stalled by a tied rezoning vote, he offered to pay for the town’s exploration of PUD zoning, town Chairman Kevin Kimmes told the Plan Commission on Aug. 8.

“He would pay the fees for Cedar Corp. to do that work on our behalf,” Kimmes said. “He will pay the fees to walk us through adopting a PUD consideration. No guarantee. If we don’t want to have it at all, we don’t have to.”

A PUD would allow the town to curate individualized restrictions for the property; it wouldn’t have to allow for all the uses outlined in a commercial, agricultural or residential zone, according to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.

The original ‘business barn’ proposal was to create a collection of luxury sheds for small businesses to operate out of — a similar development by Suddendorf found success in Port Washington. While the town’s Plan Commission was supportive of the ‘business barn’ idea, it was not supportive of all the business uses listed in the commercial zoning Suddendorf wanted for the agricultural Northwoods Road property. This resulted in the zoning change from agriculture to commerical being stalled by a tied vote at the July 12 Plan Commission meeting.

Chairman Kevin Kimmes voted against the zoning change because he originally thought commercial zoning included manufacturing, but after Josh Miller, the town’s consultant through Cedar Corp., went through the town’s comprehensive plan and found that commercial zoning does not include manufacturing.

Miller said the town’s comprehensive plan is very detailed and lengthy with  more than 400 pages compared to other municipalities having roughly 150 pages, which makes it easy for something like this to be overlooked.

During a roundtable discussion about  bringing PUD zoning to the town, every Plan Commission member was in favor of exploring it except Tom Ravn, who said he needs to look at it further.

“I don’t think it hurts us to take a look at it,” member Marcia Nosko said. “There’s no commitment.”

The commission’s lack of hesitation to  consider PUDs doesn’t mean there are no concerns. Several members are worried about what could happen if PUD zoning is an option for future administrations.

“If we get an administration in here that is PUD happy, I can think of a lot of areas where people would love that PUD because they could make huge bucks,” Ravn said.

“Maybe some (future commission) would be more amenable to putting in a lot (of PUDs) and then they could transform the town in ways we didn’t anticipate,” member Todd Korb said.

Kimmes said the town would join a growing PUD trend as every Ozaukee County village and city has a PUD zoning option.

“The Town of Cedarburg and the Town of Grafton absolutely have it,” Kimmes said. “Every village and city has it guaranteed.”