Randall Town Board receives new fees plan from Plan Commission

The Randall Town Board accepted a new, wide-ranging  schedule of fees from the town Plan Commission Thursday.

The new fees plan was under study by the Plan Commission since July 2011, said Commission Chairman Charles Gitzinger. The new unanimously approved fees will be made official when the town undergoes a re-codification of its ordinances in the future.

Many of the fees relate to building and construction functions and many of those are now tied to the Wisconsin Uniform Building code. The Plan Commission also studied what nearby municipalities charge for similar fees.

The acceptance of the commission’s recommendations had two exceptions — pier slip fees and agricultural land rental.

The commission proposal included a recommendation of raising the yearly pier slip fee to $600 for Randall property owners and $1,200 for non-property owners.

After a little discussion the Town Board agreed to leave the fees at the current level of $500 for town property owners and $1,000 for non-property owners with an annual  consumer price index plus 2 percent increase. This appeared to be mostly because the board enacted  stiff increases in the fees in October 2011.

The board also decided to continue to negotiate each year with a farmer that grows crops on town-owned land rather than set a rate.

Plan Commission member Paula Soderman said she objected to the commission’s proposal for  a rate for pool installation inspections being based on pool cost. She said such a structure amounted to a luxury tax. Instead Soderman, who owns a pool, said she would prefer a flat fee, like the $25 each fee now required for a pool electrical and plumbing inspection.

The Commission’s work drew praise from the Town Board.

” I think the work done by the Plan Commission was very thorough, very complete and well done,” said town Chairman Bob Stoll.

In fact, perhaps the commission did such a good job that they almost immediately acquired a new research project — this one on the town’s nuisance ordinance.

When Stoll first proposed having the Plan Commission make a study of what nuisances needed to be regulated, Gitzinger objected, saying the topic was outside of the commission’s expertise.

But Stoll said a general look at what nuisances should be regulated was exactly the kind of big picture thinking appropriate for the commission.

Gitzinger acknowledged that the Town Board had the authority to delegate any such project to the commission. However if the group is to look at nuisances, he asked for a written list of expectations, a timeline and some budget for compensating members for extra meetings.

Stoll said the Town Board would develop the requested guidelines at future meetings. Separate motions to have the Plan Commission study the nuisance ordinance and pay each member $25 per extra meeting both passed unanimously.

 

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