The Sunrise Beach planning commission is recommending changes to the village’s new zoning ordinance just a couple of months after it became effective.
Mike and Mark Maasen attended the meeting in December at which the board of trustees approved the lengthy ordinance. The brothers expressed concern about the zoning for the Hydro Systems property.
The land on Route 5 is zoned C-3 or high impact commercial, however, the business also does some light manufacturing. Hydro Systems could continue its pre-existing uses but future expansion in line with what the business is already doing was in question. The board of trustees sent the issue to the planning commission to consider.
The C-3 zone now lists as a one of the permitted uses — dock/lift assembly sites, not including salvage operations. The commission has recommended changing this to dock/lift assembly and manufacturing sites, but not to include salvage operations. The alteration would allow manufacturing as related to docks and lifts.
Another modification regarding docks and lifts was recommended for the C-2 or general commercial zone. The dock/lift line that is now in C-3 would be bumped to C-2, making assembly permittable while excluding manufacturing and salvage operations from the zone.
The recommendations were scheduled to go to the board of trustees at its regular meeting Monday, Feb. 8. The trustees would then set a public hearing on the proposed changes.
P&Z needs members
While the planning commission welcomed two new members at its Feb. 1 meeting, it is still looking for more.
One of the new members is board of trustees chair Curt Mooney. To help their numbers, he has stepped in to serve until other members are found, such as new member Larry O’Dell, a resident of Cliff Drive.
By state statute, there must be at least seven members on a planning commission. Two of those seven can be trustees.
The Feb. 1 meeting included six of the seven current planners — Mooney, O’Dell, Charlie Bott (the other trustee), Ray Kline, Cheri Mayfield and Dawn Merrill. Patti Embich was out sick.
When rules of procedure were set up for the planning commission in October 2008, the definition of “quorum,” the minimum number of members needed to be present for the board to do business, was deliberately left without a specific number due to the fluctuating membership on the board since its inception in June 2007. Instead “quorum” was defined as a simple majority of the commission.
The board of trustees had authorized a commission of up to 10, but the village has never been able to maintain that number. When planning and zoning had been considered in the past the state-minimum of seven members could not be raised.
Village residents may call Sunrise Beach Village Hall at 374-8782 for additional information on volunteering.
Contact this reporter at amy.wilson@westsidestar.net
