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21%11 itr r Dane County Zoning and Natural Resources Committee February 21, 1999 This letter is in reference to Zoning Petition# 7484 and Conditional Use Permit application#1546 by the Virginia Wirtanen Trust. The Wirtanens propose to sell their 154 acres in Section 7, Town of Verona to the Madison Jewish Community Council (MJCC)which wants the zoning change and CUP that would allow them to operate a recreational day camp. This is a condition for their purchasing the property. After reading the MJCC proposal, the Dane County Planning Department staff report and the county zoning/CUP ordinances, my wife and I have some serious concerns about the proposal but we will not oppose the changes if certain restrictions can be placed on the use and operation of the property through the CUP. Our concerns are as follows: 1. The potential for noise that may be an annoyance to all the neighbors including us as a result of the proposed sports fields, snowmobile trails, possible after-darkness • activities and the large number of people that will be using the facility. 2. Possible annoyance from lighting used to allow after-darkness use of athletic fields and other facilities. 3. The potential for trespassing on our property since the fence between us is in extremely poor condition and totally down in a few locations. My wife and I own 60 acres and the fence between us is nearly one-half mile long. 4. The potential for trash to be blown onto our property(located immediately east of Wirtanens)by the prevailing westerly winds. I pride myself on keeping our property free of dropped and blown-in trash. I even pick up the trash in the roadway ditch in front of our property a couple of times a year. 5. The possible loss of wildlife that we now routinely see in our backyard including deer, turkeys (with chicks), pheasants, rabbits, squirrels, songbirds, hawks, racoon and opposum. Our house is about 100' from the Wirtanen property so the noise, lights and continual activity proposed would almost certainly reduce the presence of some of these wild animals. 6. The potential for operating the Wirtanen property as a commercial campground or camping resort as allowed by the conditional uses specified in 10.10(2)(a) of the county zoning ordinances. I talked to Steve Morrison of the MJCC who assured me that couldn't happen since their organization is non-profit. The Town of Verona tells me that the CUP is rescinded if the ownership changes. However I presume that still leaves open the possibility of the MJCC ceasing to operate the property as Camp Shalom, retaining ownership and renting it out to a commercial operator. We do not know how CUP's are worded, never having seen one, but we would like to see it's language in this case specifically prohibit commercial campgrounds and camping resorts if the section (2)(a) uses are permitted. We are opposed to any of the conditional uses specified in sections (2)(b) that would occur after hours of darkness and to the uses in sections (2)(d), (e) and (f).