Plan Commission — Minutes

Town of Vinland Plan Commission Meeting Minutes of October 5, 2026 PC meeting was called to order by Chairman Kuehnl at 6:30pm. Roll call was taken. Present were ZA O’Connell, Commissioners Giese, Kunde, Maertz, Pfaendtner, Chairman Kuehnl, and Secretary Brazee. 2 others were in attendance. Motion made by Kunde to approve the minutes of 8/3/26; seconded by Pfaendtner. Motion carried. CSM Application for Valley Popcorn/ 02605850501: Chairman Kuehnl asked ZA O’Connell to give background on the application. O’Connell indicated that the bldg on Lot#3 meets all the proper setbacks. Driveway for Lot 2 is already established on County Rd GG. ZA indicated that he was not sure who would own the driveway between Lot 2&3 if it’s evenly shared, but noted it would be better to have driveway on one lot and have an easement granted for the other Lot. County will be responsible for approving the driveway. Easement will need to be filed w/ the Register of Deeds. O’Connell noted that the prior CUP for this property was noting an expansion on the storm water pond located at the rear of Lot 1 building. Since the expansion did not occur then, O’Connell would only suspect that the County will be expecting some Stormwater Pond expansion on the site. Mike Freundl noted that Martensen & Eisle are working w/ County on that. His new proposed bldg is for office space and distribution. He does not do any manufacturing. He will store and distribute popcorn kits. He will not have any semi traffic to or from his bldg. Current semi traffic enters from Dixie Rd and exits on County Rd GG. Bldg size is projected to be 72x166. Jack w/ Martensen & Eisle is working w/ County on the Stormwater Erosion Control pond location and size. Chairman Kuehnl questioned how product is being delivered. Freundl noted that all of his deliveries are in a high roof van, no semi. And inquired on the loading dock location. Freundl noted the loading dock will be on the east side of the bldg w/ an elevated ramp- not a loading dock. No dumpster will be onsite. O’Connell informed Freundl that the Stormwater Pond needs to be submitted before the Board can rule on Oct 26th Town Board Mtg. Motion made by Pfaendtner to approve CSM with creation of Lot 3 as submitted/seconded by Kunde. Motion carried. CSM Application for Breezewood Yard LLC/ 026005101, 102 and 103: Property owner- Steve Liermann is looking to retire his salvage yard business, (part of 02605103, 026005004 and 02600500101). He would like to clean up the odd shaped lots of 026005102 and 026005101 to create his own lot. He would like to do get a CUP for the newly created Lot 1 for RV and boat storage, once the other lots are sold. Liermann is looking to get the CSM completed, so he can address where to get the driveway access for the newly created Lot 1, but does not anticipate doing any changes for a least another year. ZA O’Connell noted that the building on Lot 1 on the south end is directly on the property line and is non-conforming to the Town’s setbacks. The building has been there for decades, and ZA will only require conformity to the setbacks, if Liermann decides to do any modifications to that building. Liermann does not have a current buyer for Lot 2 and other parcels, but will have a new well installed if the sale goes thru because the properties currently share a well. Kuehnl confirmed that the 3 lots (026005102, 026005101 and 026005103) will be turned into 2 lots. No additional questions or comments. Motion made by Maertz to approve CSM as submitted/seconded by Giese. Motion carried. Chapter 410-29; A-1 Farmland Preservation: ZA O’Connell noted that Winnebago Co pulled out of the A-1 Farmland Pres program and removed tax credits. O’Connell wants to verify if there’s any interest w/ property owners to change back to A-1 zoning or get out of A-1 zoning before we update the code. Town of Nepeuskun is still enrolled in Farmland Pres. O’Connell noted 2 questions we need to determine: 1. Do we want to pursue re-enrolling into the state farmland pres program 2. How do we want to define “farms, agriculture and farming activity” If the answer to question number 1 is “no”- the we should just update the code and remove all references to the tax credit in the ordinance. But in updating the code we also need to answer question 1, as A-1 and A-2 basically regulates commercial farms by providing livelihood and generating an income. ZA feels the PC decision on the Oppermann application were inconsistent to the Town Code. If we have a similar application comes in for a hobby farm, he will still recommend a CUP. ZA feels that we need to update our code to avoid having the same issue occur for hobby farm applications, and more easily allow the process without a CUP. We need to start down a path to make our code more understandable and less open for interpretation. Kunde noted that we need to determine the level of interest for the A-1 Farmland Preservation. O’Connell will draft a letter to send for A-1 and A-2 zoned property owners and send it to Attorney Koehler for review before the office sends out. Motion made by Maertz: Pending feedback from town counsel, if positive response is received from attorney, then send out notice to land owners. Board can establish a meeting for landowners to determine interest level in A-1 zoning/seconded by Pfaendtner. Motion carried. O’Connell noted that the PC and Board will need to review A-2 zoning to determine whether to allow recreational hobby farms or keep the process as is. He noted of equine communities in the Town of Freedom and the Town of Neenah that we could probably review their zoning categories. Kuehnl also noted that the A-1,2 zoning also lists the number of allowable employees, which can be updated or removed from the zoning code. Chapter 167-16 Animals, fowl and insects NOT permitted in Town: Discussion ensued to determine that chickens were added to R-1 zoning, but this section of the Ordinances was missed. Animal type/count can be updated in each respective zoning district. Motion by Pfaendtner to remove this section (167-16) in its entirety/seconded by Maertz. Winnebago Co Zoning Chapter 16; Sanitary Code draft: ZA O’Connell displayed the red-line version from the County. ZA noted that change came into play as “man caves” have been popping up. After review of the changes proposed and discussion of such, motion was made by Maertz: Recommend not supporting the current Co Chapter 16 Sanitary Code due to non-specific POWTS fee/seconded by Pfaendtner. Motion carried. Winnebago Co Zoning Chapter 23; Moratorium on data centers: ZA noted that we could piggy-back the County’s development of their ordinances on data centers. ZA also noted that moratorium timing is important because if we are first to have the moratorium and write zoning ordinances based on little information that is out there, but if we hold off- we wait and see what the consequences of these data centers are. Downside of waiting too long is that you may be short of any regulations because you don’t have a moratorium or ordinances in place. ZA displayed the sample ordinance that we recd from Attorney Koehler. ZA will verify w/ Attorney what the advantages/disadvantages of putting moratorium duration at 12 months vs. 18 months. Motion made by Maertz to approve the Moratorium with correction of typos (Dupont references) and clarification from town counsel if we can change duration from 12 months to 18 months (which duration is in the town’s best interest)/seconded by Giese. Motion carried. Motion made by Pfaendtner to adjourn/seconded by Giese. Meeting adjourned at 8:35pm Submitted, Karen Brazee _______________________ PC Secretary Joe Kuehnl, Chairman