Vernon County planning commission adds objective on PL 566 dams, approves comprehensive-plan edits and forwards draft to county board

The Vernon County Planning Commission on a voice vote added a new implementation objective asking the county to "encourage the continued gathering of information and data on the PL 566 dams to assist with future decisions about these structures," and approved a package of edits to the draft comprehensive plan that county staff will forward to the county board for final action.

Commissioners and staff spent the longest portion of a three-hour discussion on how and where to reference the series of federal PL 566 flood-control dams in the draft comprehensive plan. Members agreed to include a descriptive paragraph in the plan’s existing-conditions material and to add a specific implementation objective under the sustainability/resiliency or utilities and community facilities elements directing continued data collection and stakeholder engagement on the PL 566 dams and related watershed studies.

The item drew repeated clarification that the county has accepted federal planning and design funding for a multi-phase effort tied to a planned environmental impact statement (EIS) and a preferred alternative presented in that EIS; commissioners emphasized the county still retains discretion during subsequent design and implementation phases. Commissioners debated whether language in the plan should be directional (e.g., ‘‘support the EIS preferred alternative’’) or more neutral. Several members urged the…