Audio from the multi-jurisdictional extraterritorial meeting on July 16 in Cashton.
Turns out the ETZ is not so easy.
Over 50 community members, including local chairpeople and trustees, showed up to last week’s multi-jurisdictional extraterritorial meeting at Cashton Community Hall on July 16.
Village of Cashton President Derek Trescher opened the meeting to introduce Dan Dreesens of Delta 3 Engineering, and to clarify the meeting’s intent, confirming that no decisions or actions would be taking place.
“I can’t say that any of us truly know the ins and outs of it,” said Trescher. “That’s why we have Dan here to educate us on this, to see if it’s something that we feel is feasible or helpful to both the townships and [the village].”
The proposed extraterritorial zone, also known as “ET Zone” or “ETZ”, would be 1.5 miles outside the limits of the Village of Cashton into the townships of Christiana, Clinton, Jefferson, and Portland. If implemented, the ETZ would give the village a voice in land use control and new developments which may affect the village’s future growth.
At the meeting, for the crowd, Dreesens summarized what extraterritorial zoning – also known as ETZ – is, the boundary limits, and why its used.
“It does not have to go all the way up to one-and-a-half miles,” said Dreesens. “For example, if everyone sitting here agreed – this would be the village and the townships – and they just want to go up just one mile, they can do that.”
Dreesens then asked himself the question of the hour: “What exactly is extraterritorial zoning?
“Extraterritorial zoning is doing a zoning that is supposedly going to be for the benefit of the village and the participating township. Not all townships have to participate in it,” said Dreesens. “One can participate. All four can participate. None can participate.”
Dreesens explained that the formation of an ETZ and an ETZ committee allows for the townships and village to talk about what they want the land around the village to be used for.
“It’s going to allow everybody to have a common discussion about those properties, if they were put into the zoning area, about whether [they] want residential, [they] want commercial, industrial, agricultural, conservation, et cetera,” said Dreesens. “So why is this important?”
“The idea here is it’s a smoother transition for rural to urban hearings... it’s to regulate that area in between, so that if somebody wants to do something, say, right next to Cashton, they don’t have to annex in if they don’t want to.”
Dreesens said that an ETZ also protects land and how its used, which could benefit the townships that aren’t zoned – which is all of the surrounding townships.
Dreesens then went into how decisions are made in the ETZ via committee.
Wisconsin state statute chapter 62.23(7a) grants the village the power to initiate an ETZ without the townships’ approval, but any adopted zoning ordinances would need majority approval from the Joint Extraterritorial Zoning Committee, which would consist of at least six members, three members from the townships and three from the Village of Cashton.
“The village doesn’t make the decision. The township doesn’t make the decision” said Dreesens “It’s a joint decision between the village and the township.”
Dreesens said that due to the fact that Cashton is surrounded by four townships, the committee could potentially be made of up three people from each municipality, leading to a 15-person group of decision makers. He said that any decision would only be approved by a majority vote. Dreesens then said the ETZ creates an official collaboration between the village and townships and gives the municipalities the power to discuss and decide the future of how the land is used.
“That’s what the intent here is,” said Dreesens. “To help do some, you know, cooperation between everybody.”
Dreesens laid out the process of how an ETZ is started. He says it begins at the village level.
“They can pass an ordinance and then they put it out to the townships. Then what happens is, is that everybody has to vote on it,” said Dreesens.
Dreesens clarified that it would be the board of each municipality that would vote on it.
If townships approve, they would need to decide how to go about zoning the area. Dreesens said that they can zone and have village rules or there could be special extra-territorial zoning rules.
“It doesn’t have to follow all the village rules, [they] can create their own,” said Dreesens.
The next step would be publication in the newspaper. Town clerks would be notified via certified mail, and then a public hearing would take place, and then the extraterritorial committee would be created.
Dreesens said that the ETZ, and the ordinances created within, would most likely be enforced by the village due to them having the staff to administrate.
“It doesn’t have to be that way,” said Dreesens. “The town and village could come up with their own zoning administrator if they would like to. Typically, the towns defer to the village that they’re adjacent to because they have the infrastructure.”
Dreesens said that the ETZ is like a “planning tool to make sure everything and everybody is on the same page.”
Dreesens went on to describe a situation where an ETZ and its committee could be beneficial in allowing a discussion to happen between municipalities versus how it could happen now.
“From a village perspective to protect themselves from the township in doing something, is someone who maybe proposes a large farm operation right next to [the village],” said Dreesens. “So that’s why the village would be interested in something like that. The township would be interested in something like this because they don’t want the village to come and annex all their property.”
“Someone wants to come in but they don’t want to be in the village but they would like to be a residential property,” said Dreesens. “The township says, ‘well we don’t want that’ and the village says ‘well, you can come and annex in, we’ll take you in a heartbeat.’ And now the township just lost all power.”
Dreesens then said the ETZ would keep the village from annexing, but then allow the village a voice in what happens around it’s borders.
The Record will continue coverage in next week’s edition.
The full audio of the meeting can be found at cashtonrecord.com
