Greg’s Letters to the Board:
June 26th
My name is Greg Ambrosius and I'm one of the concerned neighbors who oppose the permit application from the Iola Car Show and Faulks Bros. in the Township of Scandinavia. I was one of the lead speakers at our two Informational Meetings and at our two Township board meetings.
However, it looks like the format for the County meeting on July 12th doesn't give us much time to speak after you question the applicants, so I hope you don't mind if I email you my thoughts each day going forward. If I'm limited to 3 minutes on July 12th, it will be impossible to give you all the facts involved in this case.
While we fully understand that the County Planning and Zoning Committee has the final say in zoning matters, we certainly hope the board appreciates all that we've been through over the last 8+ months. Since mid-October when Faulks Bros. first alerted us to this sand mine, it has been a very stressful time for everyone in the Village of Iola and Township of Scandinavia. The Village of Iola was spared this stress when it was determined in January that their land was not zoned for mining, but us Township of Scandinavia residents have continued to battle this plan for months. And it has been STRESSFUL.
I hope you know that this proposed sand mine has divided our community in a big way. While many of us still support the Iola Car Show and may even continue volunteering at the Car Show this year, their plan to upend so many lives has exposed their greed. Sand mines have a purpose in our county -- we agree with that -- but the location of this sand mine is less than ideal and just stupid. There are 7 homes surrounding the entire area of this land and our 500-foot setbacks from those 7 homes has forced Faulks Bros to ask to mine only 23.7 acres of this 58-ace lot. As Gary Marx so accurately notes in his decent to this permit, they are trying to "shoehorn" the sand mine between residential properties that have been there for 30+ years.
It's about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION and you can see that on the maps that Gary has sent to you.
Anyway, I want you to know that we have already had almost 14 hours of Informational Meetings and on Jan. 5th we had a lively meeting from 5 pm to 12 pm without any breaks. We had 150+ attendees at that meeting, which had to be moved from the Scandinavia Municipal Building to the Firehouse because so many people attended. As Gary noted, the vast majority were vehemently against the sand mine, and we gave the Board a petition against the sand mine that was signed by 264 people. In a small town, that tells a story.
This was not an easy decision for the Township of Scandinavia Board to make, but after hearing all the facts and answering the questions on the Recommendation Form it was an easy answer. The ICS and Faulks Bros. were nowhere near in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan and even when they had a chance to submit a new permit application knowing that they were not in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan they chose to change nothing.
The elected Town Board unanimously denied this permit application and did so with resounding evidence as Gary Marx wrote in his report. This "shoehorned" sand mine is NOT what the residents want in their community. Please listen to the residents of this municipality and listen to the Town Board. Overruling the Town Board and FORCING them to take this sand mine in a residential area would be unprecedented and would undermine every municipality in the state. It would set a precedent that what the municipalities believe is best for their communities doesn't matter, and it would be an impossible precedent to unravel.
Please do the right thing and follow the Township of Scandinavia's decision to deny this permit application.
Thank you.
Greg Ambrosius
June 27th
I am again writing today in opposition to the conditional use permit that the Iola Car Show and Faulks Bros. is requesting in the Town of Scandinavia. This CUP was unanimously denied by the Scandinavia Planning & Zoning Commission and then unanimously denied by the Scandinavia Town Board because the CUP did not meet the Comprehensive Plan guidelines.
The three questions on the Recommendation Form ALL dealt with the Comprehensive Plan in some way. The two applicants knew that as well because it was part of their original application and they filled it out twice. They knew that this decision would come down to whether their application was in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan or not and they still weren't in compliance in a number of ways.
It was the County that created the Recommendation Form and every municipality fills out this form at the end of Informational Meetings and answers the questions with facts. Gary Marx did that to the tune of a detailed 61-page report. Faulks Bros. had plenty of time to change their plans or find a way to be in compliance but they CHOSE not to change a thing and expected it to pass. They are a reputable company, but even Faulks Bros. and the Iola Car Show have to play within the rules/guidelines.
The Comprehensive Plan took 4 years to write and included citizen input over that entire time. It's the foundation piece for future growth in the community and it should be respected and upheld. It's obviously important to the Zoning Committee if all three questions on the Recommendation Form centered around the Plan.
The Comprehensive Plan should be respected by the County Planning and Zoning Committee and this permit should be denied. As I said at our second Informational meeting, they not only aren't in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan, they are in DEFIANCE of it.
Thank you.
Greg Ambrosius
June 28th
Good morning,
I am again writing today in opposition to the CUP that the Iola Car Show and Faulks Bros. is requesting in the Town of Scandinavia.
The public hearing notice states that each of the five members of the County Planning & Zoning Committee will be making on-site visits before the meeting, which is good. I ask you to take a good, long look at page 7 in the Town of Scandinavia's Recommendation Form before heading out to that property.
You see that piece of land is 58 acres and the applicants would love to mine all 58 acres, but unfortunately there are seven homes that border that entire land and with their 500-foot setbacks the proposed sand mine is reduced to 23.7 acres.
Please notice that property owners who have lived there for 30+ years each are adjacent or abutt this land from all corners. There is Linda Driver on the northeast corner, Kenneth Boyer on the northwest side, Greg Ambrosius on the entire west side, Kenny Mentzel on the southwest corner, Laura Scott on the southeast corner, Matt Palm-Leis on the east side and Clara Bonikowski on the east side.
Look at that diagram again. Nowhere else in the county can you find a sand mine that is "shoehorned" into residential properties like this. You can refer to the maps on pages 8 through 15 for further evidence of sand mines where no homes are found that close to the mine.
It's all about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION as I've said before.
There are 14 properties within a quarter-mile of this proposed sand mine with 2022 Fair Market Value of almost $2.3 million. We believe their home values would drop by the hundreds of thousands of dollars and there is a 2022 Marquette County independent assessor statement on pages 43-46 that backs that up.
For so many reasons, I request that you follow the Township of Scandinavia's recommendation and deny this permit.
Thank you.
Greg Ambrosius
July 12th
(This is the speech that I gave at the Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Committee meeting. I was unable to finish it because the county limited the public speeches to 3 minutes and I was cut off before getting to the last two paragraphs. Read it all here now.)
Today I’d like to talk about Act 67 because we know that Act 67 plays a big part in your decision on this proposed sand mine. We know that Act 67 is a pro business law that was passed in 2017 to convince more businesses to move into Wisconsin, keep all businesses in Wisconsin and help those businesses in Wisconsin grow. Act 67 does that by preventing groups from protesting business expansions unless they have “substantial evidence” of harm.
We understand that and the burden of proof of “substantial evidence” originally was on us. And to be honest, we believe the Township of Scandinavia is pro business. Why wouldn’t they want a current business to grow in their community or have a new business come into the community? And I’m sure Waupaca County is pro business because the county always wants more jobs and successful companies to operate in the county.
But in this case, you can be pro business and against this business plan. It’s a bad business plan. In fact, it’s a terrible business plan. The location of the sand mine in conjunction with so many neighbors – seven homeowners who are within 500 feet of the sand mind and 14 homeowners who are within a quarter mile of the sand mine – makes this a bad business plan. It’s about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION and they just don’t get it. Not only that, but no jobs are being created by the sand mine and no additional tax revenue is being generated. Instead, property values and likely property taxes in the area will go down and down by as much as 25% according to the Marquette County survey. The Township of Scandinavia understood all of this and that’s why the permit was denied.
And it’s not like Act 67 is a get-out-of-jail-free card for businesses. They also have to show “substantial evidence” that they are complying with the Township’s Comprehensive Plan and county ordinances. And Waupaca County wouldn’t be the first county to deny a permit since Act 67 was enacted. In fact, two other counties denied CUPs in 2022 alone. Marquette County denied a CUP in April of 2022 in Packwaukee after they received the independent property assessor’s report and Green Lake County denied a permit in December of 2022.
What would be unprecedented is if the County allowed this permit after the Township of Scandinavia twice voted unanimously to deny the permit. I can’t find another example in the state’s history where a county overruled the municipality’s decision on a sand mine permit and instead forced them to have the sand mine. It would undermine the municipality’s decision-making process to decide what it felt was best for its residents and its community. It would also send a message to all municipalities in Waupaca County that what they decide doesn’t matter because the county knows better.
Please listen to our elected officials from the Township of Scandinavia and agree to deny this permit. Even Act 67 can’t save this bad business plan. Thank you.