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Residents tell zoning committee enforcement gaps let hotel-style rental be constructed in Edgewater
Summary
Two Edgewater-area residents told the Sawyer County Zoning Committee that a recently built 14-bedroom dwelling operates like a hotel and should have been routed through zoning rather than treated under the tourist rooming license process. They urged clearer definitions and better enforcement of special-use and planned-development approvals.
Residents from the Edgewater area told the Sawyer County Zoning Committee that recent new construction — described as a 14-bedroom dwelling — appears to function as a commercial lodging operation and exposed gaps in county enforcement and ordinance clarity.
Jenny Chab, who identified herself at the meeting, asked the committee to review the building and the county’s tourist rooming (TR) ordinance, arguing the structure “is clearly not what the ordinance was designed to address” and that the county should define resort/hotel/motel or multi-dwelling development more clearly to ensure new construction in RR1 zones follows the appropriate zoning path.
Linda Zilmer, an Edgewater property owner and former town chair/plan commission member, said enforcement breakdowns let nonconforming commercial activities proliferate: “When one happens then more and more because people see no enforcement,” she said, urging the committee to address special-use permits and planned-unit developments for novel proposals so towns are not used as “guinea pigs.”
County staff acknowledged the concern and said the committee can use the current meeting as an opportunity to examine process issues. Jay Koslowski, presenting the staff report and related agenda items, noted that zoning and Health & Human Services (HHS) perform different roles: zoning regulates land use while HHS may address sanitation and public-health inspections. In the CUP discussions that followed, members asked staff to follow up with HHS to clarify which types of business sanitation fall under HHS review.
No immediate enforcement action or ordinance amendment was adopted at the meeting. Committee members recorded the comments and left open the option for staff to return with process recommendations or for the committee to place ordinance-definition items on a future agenda.
What happens next: The committee did not vote on ordinance changes at this meeting; staff will record public comments in the file and follow up on enforcement questions raised, including contacting HHS for clarification about sanitary inspections when private bathrooms are used by members of the public.
