SHELL LAKE -- A lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Association of Campground Owners (WACO) in 2023 against Washburn County regarding the county's revised campgrounds and resorts ordinance was heard on Tuesday, Sept. 2, and WACO's petition for writ of certiorari was denied.
Washburn County's Zoning and ad hoc campground committees worked on amendments to the Chapter 38, Division 24 Campgrounds & Resorts Ordinance after hearing concerns the old ordinance was outdated when it came to accommodating larger-scale RV and park model home campgrounds being built in the area. The County Board approved the amendments in August 2023.
In September 2023, WACO filed a civil dispute against the county, seeking a certiorari opinion from circuit court (which is a request for a lower court to deliver its record in a case so that a higher court may approve it). The petition was filed on the grounds that the county does not have a comprehensive plan, which is necessary to make zoning amendments so they are consistent with the plan.
At the hearing last week in Washburn County Circuit Court, oral arguments were heard. WACO's attorney Mark Hazelbaker said the statute for counties having a comprehensive plan is not a mandate, "which has been an issue that the county has had over and over again."
Hazelbaker said Wisconsin counties don't have to have a comprehensive plan by law, but if there is zoning, then a plan is required so the county can make amendments, and Washburn County is not complying with the law with its revised ordinance.
Comprehensive planning began 25 years ago in Wisconsin and Washburn County had originally studied creating one, but they opted not to have a comprehensive plan. Hazelbaker said WACO is asking the court to find that, since Washburn County doesn't have a comprehensive plan, this under the law makes the revised ordinance invalid if they do not adopt a plan.
Washburn County Corporation Counsel Bill Johnson said that the comprehensive plan statute is, at most, directory. He said there is no penalty if a county chooses not to adopt a plan, so the language is clear.
Johnson said that if a county has no comprehensive plan, then it cannot be seen as a mandate for zoning to be consistent with it.
He noted that four other Wisconsin counties didn't adopt a comprehensive plan.
"It's not a mandated requirement issue," Johnson said. "The court should deny the petition because there is no mandate."
Also, Johnson said, there is no evidence any WACO member owns a campground in Washburn County, even though the association has stated there is at least one member who owns one in the county.
In his rebuttal, Hazelbaker said he was "deeply troubled" by the fact that a county attorney was saying the matter of having a comprehensive plan for zoning changes could be ignored.
"The Legislature's language is absolutely clear," he said.
He reiterated that zoning must be consistent with comprehensive planning and a "county's defiance" is not an excuse.
Judge Daniel Tolan denied the writ of certiorari petition, which maintains that the county is in compliance, and Johnson will draft the order.