Story originally printed in the Coulee News or online at www.couleenews.com
Published - Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Annexation still in limbo
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The Wisconsin Department of Administration last week issued an opinion finding the proposed annexation of 378 acres to the village of West Salem is in the public’s interest, despite opposition from the city of Onalaska.
But a potential move by a church recently annexed into the village could throw a monkey wrench into the plans.
Officials in West Salem say they’re prepared to move forward with the petition once developers present them with a timeline and at least a rough draft of their eventual plans for the land contained in the annexation.
“We still have no idea what they’re planning to develop out there,” said West Salem Village Administrator Teresa Schnitzler. “We’d need to see (a timeline and plans) before we even come close to drafting an ordinance. We’re not in any hurry.”
A March 30 meeting of the West Salem Planning Commission has been scheduled, where members may decide to authorize the village attorney to draft such an ordinance. To become legal, the full board would need to adopt the ordinance, which would then be submitted along with other documents to the DOA.
Last week’s nod of approval came after the DOA’s rejection of an earlier request to annex 218 acres, with most of it owned by Wes Sal-E.S.T. The current petition includes an additional two properties comprising 160 acres owned by Sara and Roger Manke and Dorrene and William Heider.
The addition of the Manke and Heider properties, the DOA opinion stated, corrects the so-called “balloon on a string” that would have been created through the first proposed annexation.
In October, the city of Onalaska filed a letter of concern with the DOA and went so far as to threaten legal action to block the annexation.
West Salem Village Board members voted in November to cease cooperative discussions with Onalaska.
Onalaska Mayor Mike Giese said the city’s Common Council resolution to “assert their concern and protest through legal means” was still in effect. However, he said his personal view is that given the current economic climate it wouldn’t be advisable to incur additional legal costs pursuing the matter.
Giese said future negotiations on those lands identified in both muncipalities’ comprehensive plans can’t been ruled out.
“We will continue to offer to come to the table to negotiate with all of the municipalities involved,” Giese said.
A DOA letter to the municipal officials involved, dated March 18, stated that the engineering studies submitted with the most recent petition show how the village can provide services to the annexation, and also states that because the petitioned territory lies within the West Salem School District, future land use and development could be synchronized with the district’s needs.
It was noted that the territory lies in a corridor between I-90 and Highway 16, land identified for future development in the comprehensive plans of both West Salem and Onalaska.
The DOA said its decision to find in favor of the annexation should not preclude future negotiations between the two, especially concerning the upcoming Wisconsin Department of Transportation project to expand Highway 16 to four lanes from Onalaska to West Salem.
Fly in the ointment
Threatening to undermine Wes-Sal developer Ted Thompson’s redoubled efforts to garner DOA favor, Prince of Peace church in West Salem has said it will seek to detach its property from the village after receiving a quarterly stormwater utility bill.
If the village were to allow the detachment, it could have an impact on the DOA’s position on the proposed 378-acre annexation petition, village officials said.
Prince of Peace, which was annexed in 2007 to make a 380-home development contiguous to the village, is sandwiched between the village and the territory proposed for annexation in the latest application. Its detachment back to the town of Hamilton would recreate the “balloon on a string” that Wes-Sal corrected in December with the addition of the Heider and Manke properties to the petition.
A Prince of Peace spokesman said the church was assured in or prior to 2007 that it would incur no costs when being annexed to the village.
“There’s no storm sewer out there; there’s no nothing,” said church trustee Lyle Anderson. “I’m an old farm boy, and that doesn’t seem fair.”
The church pays $400 per year in stormwater utility fees. Because of the church’s exempt status, it also pays no other taxes to the village.
The Prince of Peace church is not connected to the village water, sewer or storm sewers.
“There’s nothing you’ll have to pay, you don’t have service,” Anderson recalled the village official telling him in 2007. “I don’t think the water can run up the hill through the river and into the village.”
When groundwork was being done for Prince of Peace’s annexation, Anderson said he was assured by a person, whose identity he cannot remember, who said the church would not have to pay to become annexed to the village.
“When you’re a church, poor as church mice that’s just another expense,” Anderson said.
The design of the village stormwater system is to keep rainwater and runoff from flowing directly into waterways. The fact that storm water from the Prince of Peace parking lot flows directly into the river is a wholly different matter, said Schnitzler.
The church, said Schnitzler, “can either work with us or he can work with the DNR.”
Because, as Anderson said, it would be unlikely that the village could extend its stormwater system across the river to Prince of Peace, its runoff water would therefore have to be contained on site. The church would bear the cost of building a retention pond or similar structure.
Schnitzler said the most likely scenario would be the village working with the church, giving the church a credit once an on-site structure is built, rather than attempting to extend stormwater services beyond the river.
West Salem is not governed by Department of Natural Resources stormwater improvement mandates due to the area’s low population density. The village instead is trying to be “proactive” having put its utility together in 2007 as a way to keep the expense of the system out of the general fund, Schnitzler said.
“We are going to start managing our stormwater before we are ordered to do it,” she said.
Despite the church’s reaction to contributing to the stormwater utility, and net-zero effect it has on the village tax rolls, Schnitzler said she doesn’t want the church to go back to the town of Hamilton.
“I’d rather work with them than have them leave,” she said.
Anderson said he and other Prince of Peace representatives plan to address the West Salem Village Board at its next meeting, which is slated for April 6.
All stories copyright 2006 Coulee News and other attributed sources.