More From Zoning Meeting

Among the 37 letters and eight live testimonials against the permit application that Faulks Bros. and the Iola Car Show is asking for were two letters from neighboring communities in support of the denial of the permit. Those letters were read into the record at the July 12th Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Committee meeting.

The two local municipalities — the Village of Ogdensburg and the Township of St. Lawrence — asked the board to honor the decision of the Township of Scandinavia and to deny this permit. Here they are:

Jason and to whom it may concern,

The Village of Ogdensburg respects the decision of the Township of Scandinavia with the NO Sand Mine.

Respectfully

The Village of Ogdensburg

**

Dear members of the WC Planning and Zoning Committee,

The Town of St. Lawrence has residents that live and own property directly adjacent to the proposed non metallic mine site, in the Town of Scandinavia.

The Town of St. Lawrence Town Board met on Monday, July 3, 2023 and developed the following comments to be entered into the record for the public hearing on this issue:

Based on the multiple concerns and outcry from the residents , we are in support of those residents in a denial of the requested Conditional Use Permit.

We believe, since the start of the Comprehensive Planning, that a recommended DENIAL from the local Planning Commission and the Town Board should result in the Planning and Zoning Committee ruling a DENIAL of the permit.

The Town Board does understand the need for progress and business doing business. We want to urge the Planning and Zoning Committee to do their utmost to ensure the residents closest to ground zero have compensation for the adverse effects of this mining operation.

Thank you for giving us this opportunity to be a part of the process.

Respectfully,

The Town of St. Lawrence

**** **** ***** ****

There were 50 testimonials given at the July 12th Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Committee hearing, but only five of those testimonials were given in support of the sand mine permit application. All five of those testimonials were given by employees of the Iola Car Show and Faulks Bros. as no other citizen testified in support of the permit application.

But there was one clear and common theme among those five speeches. They chose to paint the Township of Scandinavia Comprehensive Plan as just a guide, while Act 67 was the law and a law that would allow them to receive this permit application. Neither party disputed the fact that they weren’t in compliance with the Town of Scandinavia Comprehensive Plan, but they dismissed that plan as just an unlawful guide that should be dismissed in favor of Act 67.

Joe Opperman, the Executive Director of the Iola Car Show, even said in his speech that the Comprehensive Plan was “outdated” and was written before anyone knew there were minerals in that land. We couldn’t counter that argument at the public hearing, but we will today.

First of all, the plan is called the Township of Scandinavia Comprehensive Plan 2030 for a reason. It was developed and written in 2007 and those guidelines are to be followed through the Year 2030. It’s not outdated. In fact, it took four years of citizen meetings and feedback to write the plan and the next Comprehensive Plan meetings will likely start around 2026, with the next Comprehensive Plan going into effect a few years after that. Chapter 8 is completely on Land Use guidelines and it’s what the Township of Scandinavia uses to make its decisions and will continue to make their decisions until the next Comprehensive Plan is written. It’s a known fact that the three questions on the Township’s Recommendation Form – which were written and provided by Waupaca County – all dealt with being in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan.

Oh, and the Comprehensive Plan was written with the knowledge that there is gravel in the land that the Iola Car Show owns. In fact, there is gravel everywhere in Waupaca County as Ryan Brown stated that there are 77 gravel pits in the county. Helene Pohl worked on the Comprehensive Plan and she wrote in a letter to the Waupaca Post that “Rather than being allegedly outdated, the Plan was visionary: it spoke to the upcoming generations who will need clean air, calm surroundings, and natural beauty found near the grounds of the Iola Car Show.”

In his rebuttal to the board, John Faulks, President of Faulks Bros., agreed that the argument is about location. And he admitted that this site is not a location that his company would normally mine, but the opportunity to work with the Iola Car Show and generate annual funds for this non-profit organization swayed him. Again, even he admitted that this is not a location that they would normally work on, not with seven homes surrounding the entire 58-acre parcel lot and the 500-foot setbacks allowing them to mine less than 22 acres.

Now, to be fair, there was one employee who spoke against the Township of Scandinavia’s decision. Ali Johnson, Media Director for the Iola Car Show, said the Town voted no on all three questions, but she would have voted yes, yes, yes. It was her opinion and she gave her reasons why she felt the land was consistent with neighboring land and why she felt the plan was in compliance with the Town’s Comprehensive Plans, but she missed completely on the third point.

She attacked the Marquette County independent property assessment report that property values would drop and said that this influenced the third question. However, that report had nothing to do with the final question on the Recommendation Form as the question asked “Is the proposal consistent with the Town Goals, Objectives, & Development Strategies as found in the Town of Scandinavia Comprehensive Plan?” Property values, and certainly not the Marquette County survey, weren’t even discussed in connection to this question.

As for Act 67, as I stated at the meeting this is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for the applicants. The opponents need to show “substantial evidence” of harm against the permit and we believe we have. But in 2022 alone, two Wisconsin counties denied sand mine permits even with Act 67 in place. Marquette County – with the help of that independent property assessment – denied a permit application in April of 2022, and in December of 2022 Green Lake County denied a permit.

One of the speakers said it would be unprecedented for the board not to grant this permit. That is not correct. What would be unprecedented is if the county overturned the Township’s denial of the permit and granted it. I don’t know of a single case in state history where a county overturned the local municipality’s decision to deny a sand mine permit and FORCED the Township to take the sand mine. Certainly there is no case in state history where this happened with seven homes surrounding all areas of the mine.

Bottom line: It was a united defense to sway the board to allow the permit application, but it wasn’t an accurate one. The Comprehensive Plan is NOT outdated or useless and Act 67 does NOT give them free access to approval. Those are just the facts.