Authorizing towns located in populous counties to withdraw from county zoning; requiring certain towns to enact a zoning ordinance and a comprehensive plan; removing plat and certified survey map approval authority from a county if the town in which the subdivision or land is located has withdrawn from county zoning; farmland preservation ordinances of towns that withdraw from county zoning and eligibility in those towns for the farmland preservation tax credit; and prohibiting restrictions on land that is not shoreland or that is not within a floodplain. (FE)

Under this bill, a town board that is located in a county with a population of at least 485,000 may enact an ordinance withdrawing from coverage of a county zoning ordinance and a county development plan. A town board may enact the ordinance during 2017, or during the one-year period every three years after January 1, 2017.

Such an ordinance may not take effect unless the town notifies the county clerk and one or more officials of the other towns in the county of the proposed ordinance and the town enacts, and sends copies to the county clerk, a town zoning ordinance, a comprehensive plan, and an official map. The zoning ordinance that the town must enact must be either essentially identical to the county zoning ordinance that is in effect when the town begins its efforts to withdraw from county zoning, or it must be a model ordinance that is developed and recommended by a group of towns in a county that have all begun an effort to withdraw from county zoning. In addition, the ordinance must preserve nonconforming uses. A town that enacts an ordinance based on the county ordinance may amend it, and the model ordinance may be amended by a vote of the majority of the towns that have enacted the model ordinance. With regard to the type of zoning ordinance that applies in a town, the town may switch back and forth between having the ordinance that is essentially identical to the county zoning ordinance apply and having the model ordinance apply. County board approval of a town zoning ordinance is not required if the town has withdrawn from county zoning.

If a county clerk receives notice from a town before July 1 that the town intends to withdraw from county zoning, the bill authorizes a county board to enact an ordinance, before October 1, to repeal all of its zoning ordinances, other than shoreland and floodplain zoning ordinances. The county must notify all of the towns that are subject to its zoning ordinances that it intends to enact an ordinance to repeal those ordinances. The county ordinance to repeal its zoning ordinances must have a delayed effective date of one year. If a town is so notified, it must enact a zoning ordinance, comprehensive plan, and official map to take effect on the effective date of the county's repeal of its zoning ordinance.

Under current law, one of the eligibility requirements for the farmland preservation tax credit is that the claimant's farmland is either covered by a farmland preservation agreement or is in a farmland preservation zoning district under a farmland preservation zoning ordinance certified by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). This bill provides that if a town that withdraws from county zoning adopts a farmland preservation zoning ordinance before it withdraws, the town's farmland preservation zoning ordinance is considered to be certified by DATCP until DATCP certifies, or denies certification of, the ordinance, but not for more than 18 months.

Current law specifies whether a city, village, town, or county has the right to approve or object to a plat (the map of a subdivision) or certified survey map.

Generally, the location of the subdivision or land determines which local governmental unit or units have the right to approve the plat or certified survey map.

The bill provides that if a subdivision or land is located in a town that has enacted an ordinance withdrawing from coverage of a county zoning ordinance, the county in which the subdivision or land is located has no authority to approve or object to a plat relating to the subdivision or to a certified survey map relating to the land, but may object to any portion of the subdivision or land that is shoreland, or that is in a 100-year floodplain, in the county.

Under current law, a county must enact a shoreland zoning ordinance for all shorelands in its unincorporated area. Current law defines a shoreland to be an area within a specified distance from the edge of a navigable water. Current law also requires a county, city, or village to adopt floodplain zoning ordinances within one year after certain hydraulic and engineering data becomes available. If no ordinance is adopted, the Department of Natural Resources, upon its own petition or upon the petition of an interested state agency or municipality, must adopt a floodplain zoning ordinance applicable to the county, city, or village.

This bill specifies that the law that requires a county to enact a shoreland zoning ordinance does not authorize the county to impose a requirement, condition, or restriction on land that is not shoreland within the county. The bill also provides that the law requiring a county to adopt a floodplain zoning ordinance does not authorize a county to impose a requirement, condition, or restriction on land that is not within any floodplain in the county.