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Vernon County Planning Commission sets 10‑acre trigger for draft land‑division ordinance, adopts nine zoning districts
Summary
The Vernon County Planning Commission voted April 8 to require compliance with a proposed land‑division ordinance for splits of 10 acres or less and approved a nine-district zoning framework to organize development. Commissioners tasked staff with further research and drafting before a future formal proposal.
The Vernon County Planning Commission voted April 8 to apply a 10‑acre threshold to a proposed land‑division ordinance and approved a nine‑district zoning framework intended to standardize parcel records and guide future development.
Monique Hassman, a staff member, told commissioners they currently have "inconsistent acreage records due to information coming from a variety of sources with differing levels of accuracy," and raised practical concerns about how a landowner would know whether a parcel met a minimum threshold without a survey. Commissioners debated whether the ordinance should be triggered at 10 acres or 15 acres.
Supv Kay Stanek moved and Supv Nathaniel Slack seconded a motion "to require compliance with this ordinance on all splits of 10 acres or less." The motion passed with four ayes and two nays. The commission did not record individual roll‑call votes in the minutes; the tally recorded in the meeting minutes was 4 in favor and 2 opposed.
On a separate motion, Supv Nathaniel Slack moved and Supv Sandy Schweiger seconded to adopt nine zoning districts for use in the draft ordinance. The districts the commission listed and approved are: General Residential; Rural Residential; Rural Community Multi‑family; Manufactured and mobile homes; General Agriculture; Farmland Preservation Agriculture; Commercial; Industrial; and Recreational and Natural Resources. The motion carried unanimously.
Commissioners continued to edit and refine definitions in the draft subdivision and land‑division ordinance used as a working guide and noted that, if the county adopts the ordinance, individual towns would not automatically be subject to it but could opt in.
As next steps, the commission directed additional research on lot standards (noted as page 23 in the working document), asked staff to prepare a draft ordinance for review, and to identify the citation authority that would support enforcement of the rules. The commission scheduled its next meeting for May 13 at 2:00 p.m.
The meeting was called to order by Chair Charlie Jacobson at 2:00 p.m., and Clerk Jerry Pedretti affirmed public notice and that the meeting was being recorded. The minutes for March were noted as not yet drafted.
