Representatives go after Smart Growth

By Elizabeth Putnam
For the Journal


The movement to stop Smart Growth has gained the support of area state representatives who helped introduce a bill last month to repeal the land-use statute.

Rep. Jerry Petrowski, R-Stettin, Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, and a dozen bipartisan Assem-bly members say Smart Growth, the state mandate that requires each county and municipality to have a comprehensive land-use plan by 2010, is a top-heavy measure that limits local government control of development.

In Portage County, the town of Linwood and village of Rosholt have pulled out of the Smart Growth planning process. Other municipalities have raised concerns about involvement in Smart Growth.

Ninety-four of the state's 1,922 municipalities and counties have completed land-use plans. About 600 governments are working on plans.

The repeal bill was introduced in late July in response to complaints from some rural communities that have refused to establish a Smart Growth plan. Several northern Wisconsin counties, including Taylor, Price and Rusk counties, have passed resolutions asking the state to repeal its mandate.

Town of Cleveland Chairman Ed Schnelle, 72, said he does not think Smart Growth will benefit the town of 1,160. "I don't want the state telling us what to do," Schnelle said. "We have a planning commission that can do it."
Bevent, a town of about 1,100, also is refusing to do a land-use plan, as is the town of Hamburg, a community of fewer than 1,000 people.

Bevent Chairman Onofry Kuklinski, 64, said town zoning is enough. "Having rural towns do this is wrong," Kuklinski said. "Why do we go into zoning then?"
While proponents of Smart Growth say the mandate will give residents more input on land-use decisions, Suder said it's not the state's place to mandate how counties and municipalities use land.

"This was crafted and passed behind closed doors, and it didn't have proper public hearings," Suder said. "Although planning is good, the last thing I want to see is state-run government planning."
Suder said the tight economy is making it hard for the state to fund the Smart Growth initiative.

"It has caused so much confusion. It needs to stop to be reworked or completely thrown out," Suder said.