Vernon County planning panel adds PL 566 dams to plan, urges continued data-gathering

The Vernon County Planning Commission agreed on Feb. 1 to add language about PL 566 flood-control dams to the comprehensive plan’s existing-conditions section and to include an implementation objective encouraging continued information-gathering to guide future decisions.

Commissioners debated whether the plan should merely describe existing conditions or also direct next steps. “You don't have to come up with a solution,” a committee member said during the meeting, urging that the plan can set direction without prescribing an engineering fix. Several members emphasized that the EIS process already identified a preferred alternative for certain watersheds but noted that only initial design funding is in place and later decisions will require further review and congressional funding.

The commission settled on a concise objective wording that reads, in part, “Encourage the continued gathering of information and data on the PL 566 dams to assist with future decision-making regarding the structures.” Staff said the paragraph will include an excerpt from the county’s Land & Water Conservation Plan as background and will reference the county board resolutions that addressed the EIS preferred alternative (adopted in August 2024).

The discussion acknowledged technical and political complexities: some members cautioned that supporting the Flood Mitigation Alliance objectives could be read as committing to maintaining certain PL 566 structures, while others said the county should call for additional study and community engagement before any final decision. The commission directed staff to draft the recommended text and to include citations to the Land & Water plan and relevant resolutions when the existing-conditions paragraph is inserted.

Next steps: staff will prepare the insertion language and citations for the comprehensive-plan draft, and the commission voted to forward the revised plan for the county-board packet.