By Greg Ambrosius
It’s not surprising that Faulks Bros. is appealing the decision to deny their permit by the Waupaca County Planning and Zoning Committee. Jon Faulks told the Waupaca County Post after the meeting that “The next steps will be important for the community to pay attention to.”
We are now paying attention Jon. But what exactly is happening with this appeal? Let’s examine some points:
1) The case is Faulks Bros. Construction Inc. vs. Waupaca County Planning & Zoning Committee et al. In other words, Faulks Bros. is bringing a legal dispute against the County’s Planning & Zoning Committee over its decision. This is no longer a dispute with the homeowners or with the Township of Scandinavia, they are litigating the County and asking a judge (Judge Huber) to overturn this decision.
2) The Iola Car Show Board voted to join with Faulks Bros. in this litigation. Three members of the Iola Car Show board work for Waupaca County and were part of the vote to bring this appeal against the County.
3) Joe Opperman, ISC Executive Director, has continually said that this added revenue is needed as a “rainy day” fund in case of bad weather or another pandemic. Yet, the Iola Car Show will now be using rainy day funds in a joint effort to hire a Madison law firm to represent them and Faulks Bros. in this case. It’s possible that Faulks Bros. is paying this firm, but the press release states that both parties are in agreement in this appeal, so it would seem likely that ISC is also financially involved.
4) The County’s attorney, Diane Muelemans, is already on record as stating that the Planning & Zoning Committee members would not be in compliance with the Act 67 statute if they voted against the permit and yet three members still voted against it. It’s impossible for her to represent the County in this matter after making that statement, so the County will likely have to hire outside counsel at their expense.
5) Muelemans, Chairman Jim Nygaard and Jon Faulks believe that Act 67 supersedes all Comprehensive Plans and apparently other municipal guidelines. They are acting as if this law, passed in 2017, is the silver bullet that gives them the right to get this permit. However, two other counties already denied sand mine permits – Marquette County in April of 2022 and Green Lake County in December of 2022 – and thus there is already precedence in favor of denying this permit. Waupaca County did exactly what two other counties did while Act 67 was on the books.
6) Faulks Bros. is hanging their hat on this quote from Muelemans at the Aug. 22 hearing: “The statute has changed to say that the Zoning Board shall approve an application if the conditions currently or will in the future mitigate any concerns.” I will talk further about this quote, but trust me, the 28 conditional uses that Ryan Brown and Jason Snyder concocted without consultation of the Township of Scandinavia or the homeowners did not mitigate all concerns. Did Not!
It’s now up to Judge Huber to decide this dispute and how he decides will affect every municipality in the state. Should he vote in favor of Faulks Bros., every Comprehensive Plan in the state would be useless. Meaningless. Townships and villages would have no say over Conditional Use Permits because the County would have a license to overturn every decision in the operator’s favor. It would be a total overreach by the county and state government, while making local governments toothless. So as Jon Faulks said “pay attention.”