Town of Prairie du Sac Master Plan Update               November 1999

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The master plan was developed by the members of the Land Use Planning Committee:

Bob Weiss-Chairperson
LaVerne Kindschi
Ken Noltner
Cheryl Schneller
Fritz Wyttenbach
Dennis Porter
Ron Lins
John Lichtenheld

 

 

INDEX

INTRODUCTION 

POLICIES    

LAND USE PLAN
        Population
        Zoning
        Natural resources
        Land use plan

IMPLEMENTATION

PLAN AMENDMENT PROCEDURES

APPENDIX
        Survey Results
        Extraterritorial Plan

TABLES

        Table 1   Sauk County Towns Population Growth 1990-1998

FIGURES

        Figure 1   Existing Development
        Figure 2   Current Zoning Map
        Figure 3   Slopes Over 12%
        Figure 4   Wetland Areas
        Figure 5   Floodplain Areas
        Figure 6   Prime Agricultural Soils
        Figure 7   Combined Natural Resource Features
        Figure 8   Land Use Plan

 

INTRODUCTION

Summary

The Prairie du Sac Town Board voted to adopt the Sauk County Zoning Ordinance in 1964 originally utilizing the Agricultural Zoning District as its base zoning designation.  The Agricultural Zoning District, which has a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet, was seen by many individuals as a cause for scattered residential development within the Town.  As a remedy, in 1984, the Town of Prairie du Sac entered into the State of Wisconsin’s Farmland Preservation Program.  This program provides active farmers with a farmland tax credit but sets a minimum lot size of 35 acres for any new residential construction.  In 1984, the Town and the County jointly adopted a master plan called Town of Prairie du Sac Development Plan.

In March 1998, the Prairie du Sac Town Board formed a citizen land use committee to review and possibly amend the Town’s 1984 Development Plan.  During this process, the committee reviewed the policies of the plan, conducted a public opinion survey of town residents and encouraged the participation of invited technical experts and local residents to provide input on the planning process.

By early 1999, the planning committee began to formalize their ideas and presented the Town Board with a draft revised Master  Plan.   In June 1999, the Town Board held a public hearing to present the plan and seek input from town residents.  Upon the completion of this meeting, the Town Bard voted to adopt the plan and to forward it to the Planning, Zoning and Land Records Committee to begin the procedure of County adoption of the plan.  In August , 1999, the Town was notified that a public hearing for the plan was scheduled at the Sauk County Planning, Zoning and Land Records Committee’s November, 1999 meeting.

Background

In 1984 the Town of Prairie du Sac and Sauk County adopted a land use plan for the township.  As a part of this plan, exclusive agricultural zoning was designated in the majority of the township.  The goal of the plan was to preserve the agricultural land and protect farm operations in the town by reducing the speculative pressure for creating small parcels for residential development.  Pre-existing tax parcels and existing lots of record were exempted. The exclusive agricultural zoning designation requires that a parcel must be a minimum of 35 acres in size in order to be considered a buildable lot.  The intent of the requirement was to discourage the subdivision of land for development and encourage the continuation of agricultural uses in the town. 

Since the adoption of the plan, the majority of the available parcels that are under 35 acres in size have been developed.  As this has occurred, the Town Board has received a number of individual requests to create additional residential lots, which would be a departure from the Town’s adopted land use policies.  In the majority of cased, the Town Board has opted not to approve these requests, feeling that all residential development within the town should be directed to the adjacent villages or their extra-territorial areas.

One issue that has frustrated the Town Board and has limited it s ability to execute its land use policies is an exception that allows new residential parcels to be created that are under 35 acres.   This practice, that has historically been allowed by the Sauk County, stems from a State of Wisconsin Attorney General legal opinion that has allowed residents to create lots smaller in size than is prescribed in local zoning districts in those cases where substandard parcels are divided by navigable waterways or roadways.  It has been the contention of the Town of Prairie du Sac, other towns, and is an adopted policy of the Sauk County 20/20 Development Plan, that this practice severely limits local units of governments ability to implement land use policies and therefore should be discontinued.

In an effort to review the existing land use plan, in February of 1998 the town board placed a moratorium on any further land divisions until an update of the master plan was completed.  In March, 1998, The town board established an ad hoc planning committee consisting of two board members and 6 town residents to review the existing land use plan and recommend revisions to the town board for adoption.   The committee met a minimum of once a month through June, 1999.

In April, 1998, the planning committee distributed a survey to all those owning property in the town.  Of the 464 survey questionnaires that were sent out, 246 were returned, a return rate of 51%.  The results of the survey are summarized in the appendix.  The survey as well as input from the regular committee and public meetings were used to assist in directing the master plan review process.

As a part of its efforts to establish a general direction for the land use plan, the planning committee reviewed the existing master plan policies.  This plan includes goals, objectives and policies.  A goal is a general statement of desire.  An objective is more specific than a goal, and usually is an expanded description of a particular aspect of a goal, or desired end situation.  Finally, policies are specific courses of action designed to achieve a particular goal or objective.  Policies imply a relative consistency of action, and serve as a guide to the making of specific decisions.  The following policies are adopted as a part of the Town Master Plan:

PLAN GOAL, OBJECTIVES AND POLICIES

Goal.  Preserve agricultural land, protect farm operations, and maintain the rural character of the township.

Objectives.

1.  Encourage the maintenance and growth of family farm operations

2.  Preserve productive farmland and natural areas including wetlands, woodlands, and beautiful scenic views while discouraging incompatible land uses.

3.  Provide for future development by promoting an orderly development pattern that will be economical and efficient for the provision of public services.

4.  Petition Sauk County for a more restrictive agricultural district than the current agricultural policy in effect.

5.  Provide more flexible options for land transfers and maintaining agricultural land and open space.

6.  Provide safe access to all residences for public safety and utilities.

Policies.

1.  Agricultural

a.  The town shall encourage the continual use of land for agricultural purposes by discouraging the division of the land for residential development.

b.  Those land uses and activities that could conflict with agricultural use or adversely affect the long-term investment in the land and improvements in agricultural areas shall be discouraged.

c.  The owners of land in the exclusive agricultural district shall be allowed to build additional dwelling units that serve as places of residence for owners and employees of farm operation only.

d.   The minimum parcel size for subdividing acreage in the exclusive agricultural zone shall be 35 acres.

e. Discourage the current county policy of allowing residential development on parcels less than 35 acres when the parcels are existing tax parcels or divisions of land by natural boundaries such as streams and roads.

2.  Development

a.  Encourage residential development to locate in the appropriately zoned extraterritorial (ET) areas bordering the villages of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac.

b.  Residential subdivisions shall not be allowed.

c.  The town shall cooperate with the county in the use of cluster development and transfer of development rights for future land divisions.

d.  Home based businesses shall be allowed as long as they do not employ more than two people outside the family ownership.

e.  The town may grandfather existing agricultural related industries and allow them to expand.  No new industrial uses shall be allowed.

f.  The town shall not allow future commercial and industrial development.  Such development shall be encouraged to locate in the villages or ET areas.

g.  The town shall limit mineral extraction operations to rock quarries only.  Only one such permanent operation shall be allowed to operate in the town at any one time.

3.  Natural Resources

a.  Those lands with natural features including bluffs, wetlands, animal habitat, steep slopes, woodlands, and flood plains shall be preserved and protected.

b.  The preservation of open space to maintain the rural character of the community shall be encouraged.

c.  The township shall conduct an inventory of its natural features including bluffs, floodplains, wetlands, wooded areas, steep slopes, and soil types.

4.  Transportation

a.  The town shall preserve the rural character of its existing roadway system.

b.  The township shall regulate the location and design of driveways.

c.  The town shall encourage the continuation and improvement of the Sauk Prairie Airport.

d.  The town shall reserve a future bypass corridor for USH 12.

e.  The town shall discourage the use of billboards and roadside signage.

f.   The town shall encourage the maintenance of railroad right of way in Sauk County.

LAND USE PLAN

Population

The Town of Prairie du Sac encompasses approximately 6 square miles west of the Villages of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac.  The population of the Town of Prairie du Sac has increased from 1105 in 1990 to 1195 in 1998 for an increase in growth of 8%.  Of the 22 townships in Sauk County, the Town of Prairie du Sac ranked as the ninth fastest growing township (Table 1).  The current distribution of the population of the town is shown in Figure 1, which shows each of the fire numbers in the town.

Zoning

The town is primarily zoned exclusive agriculture with a 35-acre minimum parcel except for five areas in the town that are zoned either residential are general agriculture.  These five areas include Harlow Acres, Rahl Road, Pine Acres, the area near the intersection of STH 60/CTH O, and the area on Sauk Prairie Road west of USH 12.  There is an area in the northwest corner of the town that is zoned general agricultural and has a conditional use for a stone quarry operation.  The current town zoning districts are shown in Figure 2.

The Villages of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac have established a joint extraterritorial (ET) zoning area within a mile and a half of the village boundaries.  This area is regulated by the local jurisdictions through an ET Committee represented by the town and the villages.  The ET Committee recently adopted an updated master plan and zoning ordinance.  The plan continues to restrict the development in the ET area unless it is annexed into the village and provided with public services.  A copy of the ET master plan and zoning plan are included in the Appendix.

Natural Resources

The town has retained the majority of its natural features by virtue of its intensive agricultural use and lack of development.  A number of features are natural constraints to development.  These features include steep slopes in the western part of the area, which are shown in Figure 3, the majority of which are wooded.  In the southern part of the town, the area adjacent to the Wisconsin River contains an extensive amount of wetland as shown in Figure 4, and flood plain areas as shown in Figure 5.  These natural features lend themselves to limited uses other than open space and agriculture uses in flood plain areas. 

The best areas for agricultural use based on prime soils conditions are in the eastern part

of the town.  The area of prime class 1 and class 2 soils is shown in Figure 6.  This is also the area of future growth for the villages as they expand to the west into the town.

Combining the mapping of each of the individual resource features provides a composite map that shows all of the natural resource and agricultural features of the town as shown in Figure 7.  This includes flood plain, wetland, slopes over 12% and prime agricultural soils.

Land Use Plan

The recommended land use plan has four major components; Agricultural Preservation, Natural Resources/Open Space, Quarry and Rural Residential.  Each of these designations is shown on the land use plan.  The plan focus is to maintain the agricultural viability and the natural/open space features of the town.  The natural resource designation includes areas of flood plain, wetland and slopes over 12%.  The agricultural preservation area includes areas of prime agricultural soils and those under current agricultural practices.  The areas designated for rural residential are currently zoned either residential or general agricultural.  There are no new areas designated as residential.  The land use plan is shown in Figure 8.

IMPLEMENTATION

It is the intent of the town to continue with the Sauk County zoning regulations and maintain the town under its current  zoning designations.  In the interest of providing further strength to the county ordinances, the town is supplementing current regulations with the following ordinances:

The ordinances shall be adopted and enforced by the town.  It is the intent of the ordinances to implement the goals and objectives of the master plan.

The town shall also create a planning commission.  The planning commission shall be appointed by the town chairperson and approved by the town board.  The planning commission shall meet on a regular basis and review all requests regarding land divisions and development.  The planning commission shall be responsible for making recommendations to the town board for their review and action.

PLAN AMENDMENT PROCEDURE

The following outlines the procedure for amending the town master plan.  The planning committee may also review and update the town master plan.

                            
Appendix

                   

Survey Results

Extraterritorial Plan  

Extraterritorial Zoning

 

Table 1

Sauk County Town Population Growth  1990-1998

Town Name

90

98

Numeric

Percent

 

Census

Estimate

Change

Change

DELTON

1,599

2,005

406

25.39

LA VALLE

1,005

1,189

184

18.31

MERRIMAC

737

858

121

16.42

DELLONA

768

888

120

15.63

SUMPTER

747

844

97

12.99

BARABOO

1,503

1,696

193

12.84

FAIRFIELD

826

922

96

11.62

SPRING GREEN

1,329

1,467

138

10.38

PRAIRIE DU SAC

1,105

1,195

90

8.14

EXCELSIOR

1,194

1,277

83

6.95

WINFIELD

649

684

35

5.39

IRONTON

585

614

29

4.96

GREENFIELD

758

793

35

4.62

WOODLAND

584

607

23

3.94

WASHINGTON

798

828

30

3.76

TROY

867

886

19

2.19

BEAR CREEK

521

532

11

2.11

REEDSBURG

1,367

1,385

18

1.32

HONEY CREEK

725

733

8

1.1

FREEDOM

422

423

1

0.24

FRANKLIN

668

669

1

0.15

WESTFIELD

578

545

-33

-5.71

 

Town of  Prairie du Sac 1998 Land Use Survey    6/13/98

There were a total of 464 survey questionnaires that were sent out during the middle of April, 1998.  By May 7, 1998 , 246 surveys were returned, a return rate of 53%.  The following is a summary of the survey results:

Survey Questionnaire

1.  Do you think the township is growing too fast or too slow (the township population increased by 9% between 1990 and 1995)?  Circle one:

Too Fast (100) 41%  

The current rate of growth is fine (126) 51%

Too Slow (20) 8%

2.  Most of the lots in the current town subdivisions are built upon.  Should the township allow the creation of additional new subdivisions? Circle one: 

Yes (118)  49%                            

No (124)   51%

3. If you answered yes to the previous questions, where should the township allow these new subdivisions? Circle one:

Anywhere in the township (21) 18%     

Near existing development  (73) 63% 

In the area circled on the enclosed map (22) 19%

Generally designated areas 2,4 and 6 next to the villages

4.  Should the township allow development in agricultural areas?  Circle one:

Yes  (86)  38%          

No  (138) 62% 

5.  If you answered yes to the previous question, what type of development should be allowed in the agricultural areas?  Circle one:

Farm related development only (15)  16%          

Residential Development (38)  43%

Business Development (9)  9%

Any type of development that is requested (28)  32%

6.  Would you be willing to pay additional taxes in order for the township to purchase land and prevent it from being developed?  Circle one:

Yes  (58)  27%

No (156)  73%

Demographics

o Are you currently a town resident? Circle one: 

Yes (177)  80%

No (12) 6%

I live out of the area but own property in the town (31)  14%

o Based on the attached map, what area of the town do you reside or own property? Circle one:

Area 1
(60)
 26%		 Area 2
 (47)
 21%		 Area 3
(44)
 20%		 Area 4
(43)
 19%		 Area 5
(19)
 9%		 Area 6
(10)
5%

o How long have you lived in the township? Circle one:

Less than a year (7)  4%

Less than 5 years (23)  11%

More than 5 years (41)  20%

More than 10 years (32)  17%

More than 20 years (97)  48%

 o  Do you have any  comments or concerns you would like to see addressed in the land use plan update?

Comments

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