By Greg Ambrosius

The Faulks Bros. sand mine permit in the Township of Scandinavia will likely be decided by the Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Committee on Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 1 pm. Yesterday (Nov. 16) the Committee officially announced the date for that meeting, which will be held in the Waupaca County Courthouse in room LL42 (Lower Level).

The Committee already voted to deny the permit 3-2 on Aug. 22, but Chairman Jim Nygaard never asked the board members for their reasoning on their votes and Faulks Bros. appealed the decision on those grounds. By law, the board must explain the reason for their votes so that either side knows why the permit has been approved or denied. That didn’t happen here because Nygaard and County Attorney Diane Meulemans adjourned the meeting immediately after the vote. 

The board then met on Oct. 30 and board member Cindy Hardy motioned for a reconsideration vote, which was seconded by board member DuWayne Federwitz. That allowed the previous denial vote to be wiped from the record and the basis of the appeal to be eliminated. This move had been planned at an Oct. 2 closed door meeting with Meulemans and the five board members after the County received the Faulks appeal.

So now the board will vote again on the permit, and although nothing has changed since the Aug. 22 vote, it’s possible the vote will change this time around. Meulemans was so excited to reset the parameters of the vote at that Oct. 30 meeting that she talked for 20-plus minutes before Federwitz could even officially read into the record what the board would be voting on. 

Unfortunately, she gave the board bad and wrongful advice at the Aug. 22 meeting when she said, “Act 67 has changed the statute to say the zoning board shall approve an application if the conditions currently or will in the future mitigate any concerns, so by not approving the CUP with the 29 conditions attached, this body is not complying with the statute.” 

That is not what Act 67 says. It says, “If an applicant for a conditional use permit meets or agrees to meet all of the requirements and conditions specified in the county ordinance or those imposed by the county zoning board, the county shall grant the conditional use permit.”

In other words, the board must approve the permit if the applicant agrees to the conditional uses and is compliance with all of the conditions in the county ordinance. This permit is still not in compliance with the seven requirements in Waupaca County Ordinance Chapter 34.14.5.1 and thus must be denied according to Act 67. And the County Attorney’s advice to the board must be corrected. 

We will see if that happens on Dec. 5 and if the board sticks to their original vote to deny this permit, ending once and for all this crazy idea of a sand mine in an area surrounded by seven homes.

Everyone is welcome to come to this very important board meeting and to provide public comments before the vote is taken. See you there.