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12/2/97 to: Zoning and Natural Resources Committee Dane County Board Board of Supervisors Madison WI avr47/i441 from: Arnold Harris and Stefanija Harris 3427 County Rd P Mount Horeb WI 53572 447Lici 608-798-4833; 608-798-4835 (fax) re: Zoning petition #7046, Town of Cross Plains We respectfully request the Zoning and Natural Resources Committee (ZNR) deny the this petition by Jerome Esser, who has requested rezoning of two small parcels located on County Rd J near County Rd P from A-1 Exclusive to R-1 (0.5 acres) and R-1A (1.5 acres) . In the event that ZNR would decline outright denial on grounds specified below, we request tabling the rezone request until the committee can carry out a visit for purposes of inspecting the two sites. The 1.5 acre site is boundaried on the west and north by a natural stream channel that is part of the headwaterss of the Upper Sugar River. No part of this site is likely to be farther about 50 ft from any building construction or septic system that could be built on the property. This stream channel is part of the headwaters of the Upper Sugar River. The half-acre lot is substandard size for a rural single-family residence. Lot size alone would not be a negative factor if located adjacent to the small residential lots already occupied in the unincorporated community of Pine Bluff. But near the intersection of County Roads J and P, most lots are far larger. The Froelich property on the northeast corner, also a half-acre, is an anomaly created when County Rd P was relocated eastward in 1965. If a third house were built on the half-acre between the corner house and Jerome Esser's existing house to the east, the result would constitute an unsewered and unplanned development of a type that mistakenly have been allowed to proliferate around some parts of rural Dane County, with negative impacts on the environment, infrastructure and sometimes the value and marketability of other existing properties. We remined the committee that owners of most of the neighboring properties have testified before the Town of Cross Plains planning commission and board of supervisors, as well as before ZNR, that squeezing a third house into the small lot between the two existing houses not only would reduce the marketability of the Froelich property but would also negatively affect values of neighboring properties. In addition, there are the hazards of nitrate loading to groundwater and septic sytem-private well cross-pollution. A 1993 environmental study by Byron Shaw, Peter Arntsen and William VanRyswyk of UW-Stevens Point, "Subdivision Impacts on Groundwater Quality" concludes that, in order to keep nitrate-N (nitrates) concentrations in groundwater below a standard of 10 mg/1, unsewered housing densities must be restricted to maximally one house with about three persons per 2.5 acres, and preferably 5 acres. These data are cited for the sandy soil area of central Wisconsin, using average groundwater recharge of 24.6 cm/year; even lower densities are needed in areas with less