Town of Scandinavia Year 2030 Comprehensive Plan

Does anyone know what the Town of Scandinavia Year 2030 Comprehensive Plan is?

Probably not, but it is VERY important to our discussion and I want everyone to understand it before we get much deeper into the facts. Please take the time to read this:

So in 2003, the state of Wisconsin tasked county leaders and municipal leaders around the state to come up with a 20-25 year plan that would give them direction and a plan when it came to community growth, land use decisions like this one and more. It’s basically a road map that helps the board decide a vision for the town’s future. 

Here’s the exact wording from the Comprehensive Plan: “Waupaca County began a multi-jurisdictional planning effort in 2003 after being awarded a Comprehensive Planning Grant by the Wisconsin Department of Administration. The Town of Scandinavia joined Waupaca County in this effort along with 20 other towns, six cities, and six villages for a total of 34 participating units of government. 

“The Town of Scandinavia Year 2030 Comprehensive Plan meets the requirements of Wisconsin's Comprehensive Planning law, Wisconsin Statutes 66.1001. This law requires all municipalities to adopt a comprehensive plan by the year 2010 if they wish to make certain land use decisions. After the year 2010, any municipality that regulates land use must make their zoning, land division, shoreland and floodplain zoning, and official mapping decisions in a manner that is consistent with the community’s comprehensive plan.” Okay, so all decisions must be consistent with this comprehensive plan.

This is no small plan; it’s 229 pages long and it took four years to complete for Scandinavia. 

This is right from the Scandinavia 2030 Comprehensive Plan: “A comprehensive plan is a local government’s guide to community physical, social, and economic development.” Again, it is 229 pages long and it included public participation in helping to decide a vision for the town’s future.  Not only were there town meetings and surveys utilized, but citizens were directly involved in writing their own local comprehensive plans, as well as the county comprehensive plan and it would lead the direction of the town through 2030.  

As you can see here, the Scandinavia Year 2030 Comprehensive Plan was agreed to and signed in August of 2007 by the board, which included Plan Chairman Gary Marx, who is now the Town Chairman.

This is from the Waupaca County's comprehensive plan.  The information came from the County’s citizen surveys and it’s obvious that protecting our wetlands and natural resources is an overwhelming concern.

I know that the gravel pit isn’t going to be decided by a referendum, but if it was it looks like the majority of people would not want a gravel pit.

Again, this is from the Waupaca County Comprehensive Plan and 60% responded that they discouraged gravel pits, but the 11% who were in favor were for those properties over 500 acres.  Now why would they say 500 acres? Well, 500 acres is preferred because then the gravel pit would not directly affect any neighbors and would likely be well out in the country somewhere.  However, this recent application by the Iola Car Show and Faulks Bros. directly affects many surrounding neighbors in the Iola & Scandinavia communities, with 43 adjacent properties within ¼ mile listed in the operations plan and 220 properties within one mile. 

The Town of Scandinavia Year 2030 Comprehensive Plan is the guide, the road map to land use decisions for the township board and it was created by the people of this area. Leaving this land alone was the will of the people in 2007 and it should be enforced through 2030. There’s absolutely no reason to go against this plan and allow this land to be dug up and harvested. THAT IS NOT what the people asked for in the Town of Scandinavia Year 2030 Comprehensive Plan. Let’s follow the will of the people.