ARENA PLAN COMMISSION

September 6, 2011

PRESENT: Bill Gauger, Dave Lucey, Terry Denruiter, John Wright, Bob Murphy, Rod Anding, Sheryl Schmidt, Wayne Schutte, Mary Lockman, Dick Lockman, KayDee Maxwell, Ingmar Nelson, David Sears, Darius VanFossen

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm by John Wright.

Anding motioned to approve the minutes from August 1st and August 4^th meetings. Schutte seconded, motion passed.

David Sears - Rezone 2 parcels. 2 acre field out of Ag into Residential. ½ acre from Residential into Ag. Swapping some in and some out. The residential site will be 6.13 acres and 40.01 acres for the Ag land. There are 5.85 acres to the house site now. Schutte motioned to approve the rezoning of _ arcres from Ag to Residential pending clarification at the Town Board meeting. Anding seconded, motion passed.

Darius VanFossen (realtor, First Weber) - 8861 Frame Road, 2 parcels. Parcel 1 is 80 acres (5 acre homestead, 75 acres of vacant land). Buyer wants documentation that there are 2 building sites. Both parcels are zoned Ag. Anding motioned to clarify that there is 80 acres on parcel 1, so there are 2 building sites total (1 existing and 1 left). Joel Kurth owns the land now, it was bought from Steve Buetter. Schmidt seconded, motion passed.

Discussion-- if the town board should be present at the planning commission meetings? The town board wants to be present at the meetings so they can all hear and interpret the information. This eliminates confusion of what was actually heard. Dave suggested that we downsize the planning commission to two members and add them to the town board. This cannot be implemented till the next term and we would need two public meetings on this. Statue 62.3. Lucey and Gauger's personal opionion is that they like it the way it is. Anding said that 80% of the time the board runs the meetings and it is supposed to be the planning commission's meeting. The board can be present at the meeting and doesn't need to be paid. Schutte doesn't want to see this disission come down to dollars. Changing the town board to 5 might be a good idea, but there needs to be reasons. He thinks the planning board is working. Wright would like to see it stay the way it is. Denruiter stated that the communication is more important than the little money it cost.

What about not having to have the 5 acre minimum for a building site, said Lucey? The taxes and income in the town would go down though. Leave it how it is now.

Food Pantry in Arena - contact Jerry Dorscheid. Open 4-6 the second and fourth Wed. of the month at the Village Hall. 753-2708. Should we put it on the website? Yes.

Schutte motioned to adjourn. Murphy seconded, motion passed.