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The original proposal would have preserved large tracts of prime farmland within a designated “agricultural-production overlay district.”
But details of that proposal — which included creating two sets of development standards for two parts of the county — were deemed unwieldy, based on further analysis and feedback, Planning Director Brian Bender said Wednesday.
“I don’t think we would have support, either from the county government or the populace, to go in that direction,” Bender told members of a task force revising the county’s zoning ordinance.
Landowners in the agricultural-production district would have needed a conditional-use permit to develop more densely than one residential unit per 160 acres, under the now-abandoned proposal.
The new, tentative proposal still would tighten current density standards, which require landowners to obtain a variance to develop more densely than one house per 40-acre section.
Under the new plan, residents would need to own 60 contiguous acres of land to develop without a conditional-use permit. However, as opposed to current standards, landowners wouldn’t need permits to place more than one home on a subdivided 40-acre section.
A complete draft of the revised zoning ordinance should be ready for public review by the end of June.
Meanwhile, consultants and planners will continue to tweak the ordinance based on analysis and input from commissioners and citizens, Bender said.
“It’s a fluid process,” Bender said. “We’re looking at a lot of concepts.”
Contact Mark Sommerhauser at (507) 453-3514 or msommerhauser@winonadailynews.com
