Homeowner prevails in town lawsuit over garage

An Ozaukee County Circuit Court judge this week ruled against the Town of Saukville in a dispute with a homeowner who built an apartment over his garage, saying the town’s ordinances were too vague to be enforced.

But Judge Steven Cain reserved harsh criticism for homeowner Reed Horton, who he said was “purposeful” and “playing fast and loose” by building a living space far beyond what the plans he submitted to the town showed.

The town sued Horton in July 2018 after he and his wife Jeanne built a two-bedroom apartment with kitchen facilities above a garage they constructed at 3150 Highview Rd., alleging the apartment violated town zoning codes that prohibit second dwelling units on agriculturally zoned properties.

Horton’s original application in September 2015 showed he proposed putting a single “bonus” room and a bathroom in the upper story of the garage.

The Hortons, who live in Spring Green in southwest Wisconsin, bought the property along the Milwaukee River as a retreat for their extended family, which once owned the land decades ago.

The apartment, Reed Horton said, was meant to add space for when large numbers of people came to visit.

On Monday, Cain ruled in the Hortons’ favor, saying the ordinances that the town cited are “old, clunky and challenging to understand and apply.”

He said the unit is clearly a living unit with “high-end finishes” and is “very nicely done with a higher-end kitchen.”

“If we simply take the top floor and removed it and placed it next to the garage on the ground level, it would be a ranch-type home with an attached garage,” Cain said.

But the fact that it is above a garage, which is an accessory structure, complicates the issue, he said.

Town supervisors Don Hamm and Mike Denzien, who testified during the trial, were “doing their best to apply this code,” Cain said, but the code is “extremely dated” and ambiguous.

“That ambiguity leads to situations like this,” he said.

In such cases, “Wisconsin law favors the free and unrestrained use of private property,” Cain said.

Cain reserved harsh words for the Hortons, however.

“It’s crystal clear that what the Hortons requested was entirely different than what was constructed,” he said.

“The town certainly did nothing wrong here. If anyone’s hands are unclean here, it’s Mr. Horton’s.” 

The Town Board met in closed session Tuesday night to discuss the issue but took no action in open session.

Asked if the town planned to appeal Cain’s decision, Town Attorney Sara MacCarthy declined to comment.

The town is in the process of rewriting its zoning ordinances.