The Village of Waukesha Planning Commission and Village Board discussed a petition from Tall Pines Conservancy to add a new permitted use called “Land Preservation and Education” to the A‑1 agricultural district for a 269‑acre property on West 270 South (5745 River Road).

Staff member Sean outlined the proposal and its history, saying the conservancy now owns the parcel and that more than half of it lies in wetland, floodplain or environmental corridor. He described the draft ordinance as focused on “land preservation and stewardship activities, and then the administrative offices for the landowner for the purpose of carrying out land preservation and stewardship, the education center and educational programming,” and noted the draft caps administrative and education uses at 20,000 square feet and requires a site plan/plan of operation review for operational details.

Rebecca (Becky) Fedak, representing Tall Pines Conservancy, said the donor who gave the land is a former educator and described the principal goal as restoring the barn into “an education center focused on conservation, preservation, [and] agriculture.” She told the board the conservancy intends to house stewardship staff on site and use the property for demonstration projects such as a recently planted 15‑acre agroforestry system.

Trustees and commissioners broadly supported the preservation and education aims but pressed for clearer limits to prevent the ordinance from becoming a vehicle for large commercial venues or unfettered storage. Commissioners and residents asked about event sizes and parking; Fedak said typical stewardship events have been small (about 50 people) and that parking concepts, including grass parking or permeable surfaces, are only conceptual at this stage. Several trustees asked for explicit prohibitions on heavy commercial storage and construction‑equipment yards and suggested restricting seasonal storage to a short winter window or limiting the percentage or square footage of buildings available for rental storage.

Staff and the petitioner said they would tighten the draft language. A motion and discussion resulted in direction to staff and the village engineer to revise and return with refined ordinance language and to bring the item back conceptually before setting a public hearing.

Next steps: staff will revise the draft ordinance to narrow storage and event allowances and return the revised language to the commission/board for further review and a future public hearing.