- All right, good morning. I'm going to call to order this work session in Monroe County Board
- of Commissioners. It's Thursday, February 5th. We have one item on our agenda, which is Ordinance 2026-05.
- Director Jelen from the Planning Office. Good morning. Oh, you're muted.
- TSD, she used to be a presenter. There we go. Hi, Commissioner, sorry about that. Yes, thank you. Let
- me go ahead and share my screen. Today I have before you an ordinance
- that has been passed on by the Plan Commission. It's Ordinance 2026-05 and some of the main high level
- points of this ordinance amendment are in the description on the agenda. But I'll go through these just
- for you quickly and see if you have any questions. So also as a note, we have the
- revisions page, which is helpful to kind of track over time any changes that we've made to our ordinance.
- So this is a good quick place for people to check and see what's been changing. So like I mentioned
- in the revisions page, there are just some scriveners errors, things that need to be corrected from
- the prior ordinance to the current ordinance, such as correct labeling table numbers, things like that.
- There were
- some errors in the eco chapter, but we did work with the plan commission and the ordinance review committee
- because we are tracking the variances and waivers that have been coming through our office. If they're
- approved consistently, we like to make amendments to our ordinance to be as efficient as possible for
- the public and for our office as well.
- One of the changes that we're making is to help people who are in the environmental constraint overlay
- to allow them to have an exception for potentially building accessory structures and or in addition
- to their residence if it's on completely flat ground, but they just are not able to comply with some
- of the measures such as if their lot does not have enough lake shore frontage,
- or if their lot does not contain over an acre of contiguous buildable area, things like that. But this,
- again, would only apply to structures that otherwise would be building on a completely flat area. So
- the exception states that the total footprint of the proposed accessory structure shall not exceed 1,000
- square feet and or, in the case of an addition, both total footprint of the addition to the home shall
- not exceed 1,000 square feet.
- and that the lot still must have at least 0.25 acres of contiguous buildable area around the single-family
- residence. So this applies to lots where you have a single-family residence and someone wants to build,
- for instance, an accessory garage or pole barn under 1,000 square feet. They would be able to apply
- for this exception. And if it's on otherwise flat ground and they have at least 0.25 acre of contiguous
- buildable,
- they will no longer need a variance. We also added in here after discussions that it would not apply
- though to accessory dwelling units. Since those do need their own septic in another review level, we
- decided that that should still require a variance in the case that they don't meet those standards that
- I mentioned earlier.
- And then we realized that we did not have a definition that was helpful for footprint in measuring the
- 1,000 square feet. So we've proposed adding that as well and work with our legal department to do so.
- And then based on some state code changes, we have had to amend our software for permitting and separate
- out from the building department what used to be an integrated process. We're working with the public
- to do so, but some of these changes have to be reflected in the code as well. So we're making sure that
- people understand that there's a pre-design prerequisite for getting a permit application. And we've
- been working with people to make sure they have a complete application so that we do not have to send
- them a notice of an incomplete application. So we're trying to make things easier on the public based
- on the state code changes that have impacted them.
- And then the next change is on the wireless communication facility. If there are small changes within
- a fenced area of a wireless communication facility that already exists, we're no longer requiring that
- they do a full site plan. And then a Scrivener's error change here to match the state code and also
- Scrivener's error to add the word not. This is an error from the transition from the old code to the new code.
- And with that, that's all that I have. I do have some examples of the eco accessory structure. If anyone
- would like to see how that might apply in real time. I have some that, you know, we'll show that the
- exception would apply and then others where if applied, it still would require a variance. And I'm happy
- to talk through that. If you have any questions. Thank you so much. Comments or questions, commissioner?
- I just had a question on the ILP pre-design requirement. Is that a requirement of state law now that
- they have this pre-design? If I understand you correctly? That's a great question. So that is not a
- requirement. The requirement is that we have to make sure they have a complete application by the time
- they apply to us.
- So the pre-design sets out the checklist for what they need to apply. People used to rely on us to,
- they would apply and then we would tell them, hey, you need a driver permit, septic permit, and then
- some other authorization. Now we have three days and we have to deny their application if they don't
- get that before they even apply for the permit. So before they apply for the permit, we're using the
- pre-design to give them a notice of what they need to be able to efficiently
- apply for the permit and not get that initial denial or incomplete letter. It's been very challenging
- and I really wish that we could go back to the way it was before. People have all told us that, but
- the state code basically required us to separate it out and do it this way. We're working with the best
- that we can. Excellent. Thank you so much for that explanation.
- It has made life much more difficult. So I appreciate all of the work being done. We continue to edit
- and clean up a very large and technical document. So thank you for that. I believe we have the sliding
- scale. Well, we continued it to next week. So could we also do this next week as well? Would that work for you?
- Okay. All right. Let's go ahead and put this on the agenda for next week. And, and then we can we can
- hear it here at the regular session. Okay. Good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anything else? Alright,
- great. With that we are adjourned. Thank you, Katz. Thank you, TSD.