Left, Portage Co. Planning & Zoning Director Jeff Schuler with Stevens Point Plan Commissioner Dan Hoppe. (City-Times photo)

By Brandi Makuski

City Plan Commissioners this week got their first chance to sound off regarding updates to the Stevens Point Comprehensive Plan, something city leaders freshen up every ten years.

The plan gives a big picture to the next ten years of city development, including land use and major planned acquisitions and infrastructure projects. Under state law it must contain 9 different areas of focus, some of which are mandated by the state such as cooperation with neighboring municipalities.

Community Development Director Michael Ostrowski in April asked Commissioners to spend a month considering ideas for updating the plan and its procedures. At the Commission’s May 5 meeting he heard their responses.

Commissioner Tony Patton, who also serves as a Stevens Point Alderman and Portage County Supervisor, said he wanted the plan to be as general as possible.

“I don’t want to see anything too specific,” Patton said. “Being on this Commission for a time, it seems we always have someone who wants an exception. I’d like to see it be a little more general so we don’t see so many people or businesses come in that want change it for their situation as time goes by.”

Patton was referring to a series of recent requests which have come before the city from area businesses requesting an exemption to specifications of the zoning code, early all of which have been granted. Patton said it would free up more time for city representatives if developers and businesses are granted additional leniency without having to appear before a committee.

Mayor Andrew Halverson said once the comprehensive plan is complete, city leaders can look to modify items with zoning changes.

“The comprehensive plan itself shouldn’t be very general,” Halverson said. “It should actually be able to provide some pretty clear guidance as to how the community should grow. It should be pretty specific as to how we would want that growth to take place.”

Halverson added the comprehensive plan could help developers decide whether they’ll do business in the city.

Commissioner Jerry Moore said there’s one item he’d like cleared up with the plan’s updates- formalizing what he called “border agreements” with surrounding municipalities.

“I’ve always looked at the plan as a guideline for this body to keep focused on a  direction that has been thought out. And very specifically so in that last (plan); we spent many hours being very specific. One of the things I think we need to look at this time is working out border agreements with our neighbors,” Moore said, adding unclear boundaries and spot-annexations between the city and municipalities like Whiting and the Town of Hull have created a jurisdictional nightmare when it comes to utilities, roadways and police work.

“We have some very unique things that make things very difficult for police, ambulance and our communities in general. I think one of the strongest things that could come out of this would be to clean up our border lines in a way that’s good for everybody,” Moore said.

Commissioner Anna Haines said the city should think outside the box.

“We need to think about the issues that will come at us in the next 10 years or so. We need new ways to think about housing, agriculture, roadways; it may not set in stone but at least we will have thought about it. This is a recommending document, not a zoning code. I think it could contain all those ideas in there.”

Haines said she’d been studying comprehensive plans from other communities and has found lots of room to move in the city’s plan.

“They (other city’s plans) are being pretty creative; some are putting a sustainability component in place, some are putting a health element in, one is talking about food. So I think we can be a little more creative about those 9 elements,” she said.

Ostrowski said the plan is updated every ten years to stay current with the city’s needs and unplanned growth, as well as technology and new data. Updated demographic information from American Community’s Survey and the U.S. Census would be included in the new comprehensive plan, he said.

“Once we have that plan in place, then we can go through and do our zoning code update, which would satisfy a lot of the recent exemptions requested by business and land owners in the city,” he added.

Jeff Schuler, Portage County Planning and Zoning director, said a century ago municipalities followed the county’s comprehensive plan but eventually each city, town and village took over their respective planning. He said in the 1990’s, the 9-point minimum requirement for the plans was “snuck” into a bill under Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Now Schuler said county officials work to implement all municipal plans into the county-wide version of the comprehensive plan, which aids in the planning process for the county’s 70,000 residents.

But he also encouraged the Commission to use an open mind.

“Seriously, think about your future. Developers will travel around the state; one plan may have 2 pages- another may have 400 pages.  You need a way to present your municipality to someone who may want to live there or build there. People want to know what the rules are before they build or move. It should be very easy to read.”

Ostrowski said the Commission would devote a second monthly meeting each month to updating the plan, and could begin in June. Public informational meetings would also be held in the future.

“We want those public informational meetings, especially on a number of the elements like housing and transportation- those are very important elements that will likely gather a lot of conversation,” Ostrowski said.