County OKs development rights panel

By Steve Sharp of the Daily Times staff
Wednesday, March 14, 2007 12:33 PM CDT

JEFFERSON - With six supervisors dissenting Tuesday evening, the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors agreed to creation of a Farmland Preservation Commission that will work toward developing a “Purchase of Development Rights Program” for land in the county.

The county's Land Preservation Work Group requested the resolution calling for the formation of the commission. Its chief spokesman Tuesday evening was county board member Steve Nass.

The resolution acknowledged that agriculture is an important economic force in the county, providing nearly 11,000 jobs or 23 percent of the county's economic activity. It also accounts for 1.51 billion in economic activity and contributes $442.6 million in local income to Jefferson County residents and pays $40.2 million in local property taxes, not including aid to schools.

The resolution writers from the work group acknowledged Wisconsin is losing an estimated 24,000 acres of farmland every year and the pressure to develop Jefferson County farmland is increasing due to the county's location between Madison and Milwaukee.

The formation of the work group itself was commissioned by the county board and it was charged with identifying ways to preserve farmland in the county. This is also a goal that has been identified in the current Agricultural Preservation and Land Use Plan of the county. The work group members said they have received strong support from landowners and farmers who want to see agricultural land preserved.

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The resolution states there are Jefferson County landowners who could receive new federal tax benefits from donating easements restricting future use of their land to agriculture if this more visible local process were in place.

John Kannard of the board made a successful motion that stressed the purchase of development rights be something that can only be entered voluntarily by the landowner. Kannard, however, was among six members of the board who eventually dissented to approval of the resolution. The others were Vic Imrie, Rick Kuhlman, Howard Wiedenhoeft, Donald Reese and Gregory Torres.

Nass stressed the true meaning of Tuesday's resolution was rooted in the fact it only approves the creation of the commission and does not call for any expenditures, or for the approval of such a PDR program. Nonetheless, many supervisors consumed a substantial portion of the latter half of the meeting discussing the matter. He said, at this point, the county is in a position in which its development plans indicate the county should be preserving a portion of its farmland. He said he and his colleagues want to receive some input from the public on how best to do this and then perhaps develop some funding sources to do so.

John Molinaro has worked with Nass on the project so far and spoke in favor of it. He noted, without a commission in place, the county will likely find it difficult to receive governmental funding to aid the workings of the program locally.

Randy Mitchell of the board said the segmenting of the Pabst Farms in Oconomowoc should be enough of an indicator to supervisors that a Purchase of Development Rights Program is desirable in Jefferson County.

Nass said the county should have a good balance of industry, agriculture and quality residential living, and this program would allow for that. He also acknowledged Jefferson County contains some of the best agricultural land in the world and this should be preserved.

In reply to a concern registered by Wiedenhoeft, Greg David of the board said it was his opinion that the program would preserve a person's “right to farm.”

The commission will be staffed by the county zoning and planning department with staff support from other departments such as land and water conservation, land information and the county administrator.

The commission will work to develop the PDR program with the assistance of the Jefferson County Economic Development Consortium, University of Wisconsin-Extension, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and other key organizations and stakeholders. The program would likely be based on existing PDR programs found to be effective in such places as Dane County's town of Dunn, and in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

According to a fiscal note attached to the resolution, the 2007 county board budget provides $20,000 for land preservation, which can be used to fund the development of the PDR program and the work of the commission.

In another item, popular and well-known member of the county board Kathleen Groskopf resigned her position as supervisor representing District No. 19 in the city of Jefferson. She told the Daily Times this morning, the resignation was tendered for “personal reasons.”

“But what I really want people to know is that it was an honor and a privilege to be on the county board and I enjoyed every minute of it,” Groskopf said.

During her more than one decade on the board, Groskopf served on the fair park, land conservation, UW-Extension, zoning and parks committees. She became a member of the board in 1996 after retiring as a real estate agent for Century 21, serving Jefferson and Fort Atkinson.

In other business, the board recognized former board member Yvonne Duesterhoeft of Watertown for her efforts and heard annual reports from Treasurer John Jensen, Register of Deeds Staci Hoffman, Coroner Patrick Theder and County Clerk Barbara Frank.