Oshkosh advisory board adopts redlined native-plant ordinance, flags zoning code updates

On Monday, the Oshkosh City Sustainability Advisory Board voted 6-0 to adopt a redlined Native Landscaping Areas ordinance as presented and discussed related changes to Chapter 30 of the city zoning code that officials say were approved in 2022 but did not make it into the code text.

The vote took place after staff reviewed edits and a redline prepared for the board. Staff summarized the main drafting changes as renaming “native landscaping areas” to “native plant area,” removing a buffer subsection, and replacing the phrase “landscaping management plan” with simply “management plan.” A staff member said, “staff met internally about SAP’s recommended, like, edits to the native landscaping ordinance” and that city attorneys “didn’t really see any big issues.”

Board members said the edits clarify wording and alignment with other code chapters. The board removed a now-obsolete subsection A and added a subsection intended to “solidify some things,” according to a member during discussion. Members also asked for one final read-through before voting.

Separately, staff brought forward a previously approved planning-commission change to Chapter 30 — the city’s landscaping requirements — that staff said had been approved by the planning commission in 2022 but did not make it into the official zoning code text. The staff member said the 2022 update expands the list of approved native species and increases point values for some perennials (for example, items that previously scored 1.0 may score 1.1 after the update). Board members discussed whether the modest point increase (about 10 percent) meaningfully incentivizes developers to choose native perennials and whether the points-per-20-plants metric is applied uniformly across projects.

Discussion touched on implementation details: how points are allocated across a development (foundation plantings, medians, tree counts), the role of planning commission and staff in site-plan and administrative reviews, and whether biodiversity requirements should be tightened so a developer cannot meet a points requirement with a single species repeated many times. Staff and board members agreed to compare the updated Chapter 30 list with a supplemental native-plant list provided by UW Extension/Winnebago County and to return with recommendations for point allocation, biodiversity language, and any zoning changes.

Board members also flagged maintenance and public-land issues raised during public comment (see related article). Staff said the detention-pond spraying concern falls under a different city department and that staff would seek more internal information before bringing the matter back for discussion.

The board’s motion to adopt the redlined ordinance passed on a roll-call vote of 6-0.