Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Assemblies topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
ERC advances assemblies ordinance 12.04 with higher threshold and parking guidance moved to application
Summary
After public comment from dairy breakfast organizers, the committee voted to recommend amendments to 12.04: move parking-layout diagrams to application guidance and pursue raising the special-event threshold from 3,000 toward 5,000 attendees.
The Environmental Resources Committee on Jan. 7 advanced a revised assemblies ordinance (12.04) after hearing public comment from dairy breakfast organizers and staff recommendations.
CPZ staff member Laurie summarized changes to 12.04 and said the work group considered keeping the existing 3,000-attendee threshold or increasing it to 5,000, a figure used in Wisconsin Department of Health Services guidance for mass-casualty planning. Dairy Breakfast representatives who testified during public comment said many events typically plan for up to 3,000 people, and some urged keeping or raising the threshold to avoid burdening volunteer-run community events.
A second focus of committee discussion was parking language. Staff and the highway department supplied a parking-layout diagram and dimensional guidance to calculate adequate on-site parking; committee members expressed concern that prescribing specific dimensions in ordinance text could be overly prescriptive and run afoul of free-assembly considerations. The committee agreed it was preferable to retain a simple ordinance requirement (a minimum of one parking space per four attendees) and include detailed layout figures and acreage examples in the application materials and guidance documents rather than in the ordinance itself.
Sheriff Bill (public safety) told the committee that aligning the threshold with DHS guidance (5,000) made sense based on the county’s experience with larger events, and several supervisors said they preferred raising the threshold to reduce regulatory impacts on established local events that routinely see 2,000–3,000 attendees.
Supervisor Kroll moved to recommend approval of the draft 12.04 with the committee’s omnibus amendments (including parking language moved to application guidance and the attendee threshold raised toward 5,000); Supervisor Schoenborn seconded. The motion carried on a voice vote. The ordinance package will proceed to the Infrastructure and Public Safety committee for additional review.
What happens next: staff will incorporate the committee’s amendments into the draft and bring materials to the next committee-level review and to Infrastructure and Public Safety; public engagement will continue, and the County Board will consider final action in a later meeting.
