Ordinance Amendment # 26 2013-2014

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Allan, Majid From: The Madison Group Consultants & The Marjorie King Studio <dougmargie@tds.net> Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 7:38 PM To: Downing, J Patrick Cc: Miles, Patrick, Matano, Alfred; Bollig, Jerome; Kolar, Mary; Hendrick, John; Allan, Majid; Michele Kittleson; Ken Hefty; Mick Klein -Kennedy; Mary L. Price; Stephanie Sszwettler Subject: RE: Please Approve Ordinance Amendment 26 February 24, 2014 Supervisor Patrick Downing Dane County Board of Supervisors downin @countyofdane.com <downing@countyofdane.com> Hi Pat, We are writing to you as our representative on the County Board to encourage you to approve Dane County Mineral Extraction Ordinance Amendment 26 [OA 26]. We understand that there is a public hearing on the matter on the evening of Tuesday, February 25, 2014. As you know, we live out in the country southwest of Mount Horeb in the Town of Perry, and we are not able to get to downtown Madison at that hour to testify in favor of the ordinance. When you were our Town Board Chairman here in Perry, we really appreciated all the fine work you did to keep out town safe, secure, prosperous and protected from things that would ruin our environment and property values. So please feel free to speak for us if you plan to attend the meeting. We support OA 26 because we are among the property owners here in Perry who live across from, next to and nearby an old quarry that has been inactive for decades. In our case, we live directly across the road. We are 70 years old and happily retired in what will be our last home. We would like to be able to enjoy it and afford to stay here until we die. And if cannot, we need to rely on the value of our home for medical expenses and elder care. It is our understanding that without amending ordinance [OA 26], what will happen is that if quarries like the one across from us are activated in the future, then they will automatically be "permanently exempt from town control in perpetuft�" because if it were to become active again, then section (d) of the ordinance would apply. Whereas, if Ordinance Amendment 26 is approved, then that would delete section 10.21(1)(d), and that would require a quarry wishing to reactivate to come before the town board for a conditional use permit, which the town board could approve, modify or deny. In Dane County, all nonconforming uses lose their grandfathered status when they are discontinued for a year (or more). However, registered nonconforming mineral extraction sites currently enjoy an exemption from this principle that applies to all other noncon ormin _ uses. Ordinance Amendment 26 proposes to remove that exemption by deleting section 10.21(1)(d) from the county zoning ordinance. The exemption that would be deleted says: