Plan for additional time when needing a zoning change when in a township and for building in clusters of development as La Crosse County looks to implement its soon-to-be Comprehensive Plan in June.
The “Envision 2050 Plan: Many Voices, One Plan” strives for sustainable living over the next 10 years by planning for:
- land use
- cultural and natural resources
- utilities and community facilities
- equity
- housing
- farmland preservation
- intergovernmental cooperation
- sustainability
- economic development, and
- transportation
“One of our recommendations to the overall County Board is going to be to develop in the areas where sewer already exists,” said Farrell-Steward to members of the La Crosse Area Builders Association. “Some of those areas, because of some of the environmental issues that are happening, we’re trying to create clusters of developments.”
The County zoning administrator said she’s trying to identify how to incentivize the cluster development.
Lecher further identified the differences between the old and new comprehensive plans. Before, the County Board adopted the Towns’ plans as part of their own. Now they will remain separate. “If you’re looking to change something, it will be a two ‘yes’ situation, which would take more time. Some of you will need town approval so you will need to plan further ahead.”
The zoning supervisor said when changing from agriculture, “Plan ahead. Get your applications in months before, or at least initiate conversation months before you break ground. There are deed restrictions and other administrative things built into our code that need to be attended to before we can actually issue permits. Same thing with septic designs.”
DEVELOPER ROUNDTABLES
The County is looking to create meetings with those developing land as part of their changes.
