March Blizzard of State Legislative Proposals on Land Use

The state legislature has been in session for well over a year. Almost no significant legislative measures effecting the practice of land use planning have passed and only a few bills were even introduced, until early 1998.

Suddenly, in February and March, with the end date of the legislative session in sight and the fall legislative elections on the horizon, a flurry of bills have been introduced and moving.

The flurry consists mostly of bills to reform the substance and procedures of land use management. Most of the bills are under a general heading of "property rights advocacy." There is an organized coalition pushing an agenda of property rights in Wisconsin. There is an opposing coalition of local government and environmental (and WAPA) resisting. There is little genuine dialog. The property rights advocates are moving their issues up the political agenda mainly within the Republican Party. Although there is no evidence of widespread public interest in the question, property rights will be an issue in fall races from congressional to local because the issue now has campaign money behind it.

By the time this issue of WAPA News reaches readers, the content of bills still receiving active consideration may be considerably different than the content before the Senate and Assembly as this is being written. A lot depends on the outcome of special elections for the Assembly and the State Senate being held on April 7.

Generally, the bills move in several directions. One direction is to make it more cumbersome to adopt regulations by requiring, for example, that all forms of exactions go through the impact fee process (AB 800) and requiring that special justification reports be prepared before zoning is enacted to protect environmental lands (AB 808). Another bill that is probably very likely to pass will require proof of opportunity for notification to property owners effected by changes in zoning (AB 807).

Another batch of bills seeks to open access to courts by providing for recovery of attorney fees by people challenging certain forms of certain types of zoning decisions (AB 810). At the moment, those measures only apply to takings and successful appeals of BOA decisions.

A third category of bills allows suits based on a statutory definition of takings, different than the constitutional definition (AB 806) or allows suits to reduce property taxes based on the effect of zoning on value (AB 757).

Other bills seek to pull back state standards on shoreland setbacks and on floodplains (AB 424, AB 862 and AB 757).