Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By ZACHARY MARANO
Hurley — At its Feb. 15 meeting, the Iron County Comprehensive Planning/Land and Zoning Committee considered a request to change the definition of a lot in the Iron County shoreland ordinance. Iron County Board Chairman Joseph Pinardi asked Land and Zoning Administrator Erika Roeder to compare their definition with that of other counties in the state. Roeder shared her findings with the committee at their meeting on Tuesday.
The request came from Wayne Riebe, owner of the Gateway Lodge and Resort in Mercer, who said he wants to expand his lot beyond a public right of way. However, the county’s ordinance says that a lot cannot be divided by a right of way. Since the land and zoning committee does not have the authority to grant variances on this ordinance, Riebe asked the board to redefine lots so they can be divided by rights of way.
Roeder researched the other 71 counties in the state and found that only two counties — Rusk and Sauk counties — define a lot as continuous even when it is divided by a public right of way. She said that 40 counties define a right of way as a lot line or dividing line, like Iron County. Nineteen counties have lot definitions but do not mention public rights of way, and 10 counties do not have ordinances online or do not have definitions of lots.
Roeder said that she and Assistant Zoning Administrator Gerry Nasi couldn’t find a way that redefining lots in the shoreline ordinance would benefit many people in Iron County, except in the fact that the land owner’s impervious service calculation would go down because they now have more lot area to include in the calculation.
Nasi added that there are 15,000 tax parcels in Iron County and the land and zoning committee should think about how changing the definition of lots in the shoreline ordinance would affect all of them, not just the one owned by Riebe.
Riebe appeared at the meetings in February and on Wednesday. Riebe shared messages from his lawyer, Fritz Schellgell, with the committee. According to Riebe, Schellgell noted that the counties in Wisconsin did not agree on their definitions of lots. Riebe said that his lawyer called the ordinance’s definition of lots arbitrary because a public right of way does not change the use of a lot. Schellgell also said that Iron County took his land rights when they adopted the ordinance, Riebe said.
Committee member John Sendra asked Riebe why he didn’t just direct his expansion to the other side of the road. Riebe said that his use of the lot is “very limited” by swamp.
“The closest that this would get built would be 205 feet or so from the water,” Riebe said. “This is a vacation/resort area. We have that and logging. And these people who might have been up here vacationing years ago — I don’t know too many people who just came to Iron County and bought a house without staying here first.”
The committee meeting on Tuesday was well attended by area residents. Some wanted to support Riebe’s request to redefine lots so he could expand his lodge and resort, while others wanted the committee to not allow such an expansion as they said it would disturb the Gile Flowage.
“I don’t think this is going to be the end of your discussion, Wayne, but I think this will have to go to the board of adjustments or circuit court or something,” Pinardi said. “I understand what you’re doing. I am in favor of progress, I really am. The more buildings you build down there, the higher your tax bill is going to be and that’s what we live on. I’m not trying to shut that down, but I’m just saying what we had (Roeder) look into it and it’s black and white.”
Pinardi made a motion to leave the definition of lots in the shoreline ordinance unchanged, which was approved by the committee.
The committee also:
—Allowed the expansion of an existing accessory building at 4196W Branch Road in the town of Sherman.
—Allowed the operation of a tourist rooming house at 2050W Bidwell Road in the town of Oma.
—Allowed the construction of accessory buildings at 2198W Pine Forest Road, 5210N West Lake Road, 5712N Rice Lake Road S and 4851W Carlson Road in the town of Mercer, with the conditions of no habitation or business use for the buildings.