Committee approves Cohen rezone with lowest-floor elevation condition

Michelle DeLynn, chair of the Dane County Zoning and Land Regulation Committee, called the meeting to order and introduced a staff recommendation to approve a rezone petition for Stephen and Jan Cohen in the Town of Vermont.

Staff reported the applicants provided geotechnical testing and revised the proposed lot layout, removing an agricultural lot and proposing three residential lots (one with an existing farmstead). The staff recommendation included one condition to set the lowest floor elevation at 834 feet above average sea level to address shallow groundwater and floodplain concerns. "We have the staff recommendation of approval subject to the condition that the lowest floor elevation be set at 834 feet above the average sea level," the chair read when presenting the motion to the committee.

Supervisor Jeffrey Kronig moved to approve the petition with the stated condition and Supervisor David Peterson seconded. Committee members asked staff for clarity about how the elevation condition would be conveyed to future property owners; staff said the rezone action would be linked to the engineering report and site-specific permitting and that the county’s review system would flag the condition.

The committee voted and the motion carried unanimously. The rezone will be forwarded to the county board for placement on the August 13 agenda unless otherwise noted.

The action moves the petition forward while attaching a specific engineering-based constraint to future building permits, and staff said permit reviewers and state agencies will verify septic and other system approvals as the proposals proceed.