2-5-26        Planning Commission Mtg Minutes

Mtg was called to order by Chairman Ken Roman at 5:03 PM.

Those present were Planning Commission members, Sean Presnail, Ken Roman, Mike Mondloch, Nancy Moye   Others preset were TOB Supervisors Gordon Anderson and Paul Ehlers, and Matt Lazorik, TOB Chairman. Community member John Anderson was also present.

The December meeting minutes were approved unanimously as written in motion made by Moye and seconded by Roman. There was no January mtg.

Chairman Roman reviewed the details of the contract sent to the town by Northwest Regional Planning Commission for consulting costs associated with the update of the TOB Comprehensive Plan. The meeting today reflects a decision made at the January TOB Board meeting where discussion led to the Board wanting more information about the details of the contract .There also seemed to be questions about the  status of the process of where the PC is with the creation of the update to the TOB Comp Plan before they would approve the contract at hand. That price is $15,848.00

John Anderson shared that he had done a review of minutes of the Plan Commissions and TOB Board minutes to note that the minutes for both groups strongly reflect support of engaging the NWRPC to help the local Planning Commission update the Comp Plan to meet regulation and reflect the community values based on data from the community survey. John Anderson questioned why the TOB Board now is questioning the contract cost when the budget has an item approved to cover the cost.

Matt Lazorik responded with an explanation of how the budget process works with building a budget for needs but does not require a strict commitment to the amt budgeted. Matt also explained that the board had an understanding that the PC would be doing as much of the work for the Plan as they could as a cost savings measure and seeking consultation where needed to develop a plan that met standards and community values for making recommendations for the TOB decision making on issues as they arise.

Ken Roman shared the breakdown of the contract identifying items that needed additional clarification and the possibility of utilizing technology for some meetings with the consultant vs physical travel. He has not had success in his attempts to reach the person assigned to assist us from the NWRPC

Moye shared some historical review of what PC has done with the process since 2019. She created a electronic folder of completed works done and a couple of items which are works in progress and offered to share them with Board Members.  She hopes the plan is done to meet legal challenges but be written in a user-friendly readability.

Ehlers expressed his hope that we could get some activity started on the work needing to be done.

Presnail presented a question and some comments about the complexity of changing individual portions of the current plan and the impact that could have on later items. This was in going through a list of 214 issues noted in reviews of the comprehensive plan done within the last 18 -24 months by Moye, Roman and J. Anderson. He also suggested that we revisit the cost-based materials part of the contract.  Noting that some of the plan is very site specific and needs to be done by local input.

Mike Mondloch, who has background in developing similar documents, sees the help from consultants comes from assembling the data for the elements, but the site-specific information be done by the Planning Commission. He has attempted to look at census data that would be specific to local needs and found it difficult to get down to the Town level. He  feels that the consultant who has more experience and expertise would be more efficient at this.

Ken has identified that he can start with Bayfield County to gather the maps needed to include in the Plan.

Matt Lazorik asked what the PC needed from the Board at this time?

Gordon Anderson stated that the updated plan needs to be concise.

Moye offered a motion to have Chairman Ken Roman contact the consultant to discuss the concerns identified at this meeting and try to get some answers.  This motion was amended by Presail to “PC Chairman contact NWRPC to discuss feedback from the joint meeting of the PC and Town Board members to discuss the contract specifics and costs”.  Mondloch seconded it and the motion was carried