The Municipal Services Committee met 10/24/2022. One of the items they took up was the modifications to the city’s street terrace policy. These modifications were prompted by Alderperson Israel Del Toro’s (District 4) Resolution 7-R-22 which, if passed, would allow residents to grow vegetable gardens and lay down mulch in the terraces in front of their property. The committee ended up being recommended for approval by a vote of 4-1 with Alderperson Chad Doran (District 15) casting the one dissenting vote.
You can download a PDF of a transcript of the conversation here:
This item had previously been unanimously recommended for approval by the Municipal Services Committee on 08/22/2022. It was then, by a narrow vote, referred back to the Municipal Services Committee by the Common Council during the 09/07/2022 meeting; in fact, a majority of the Council has opposed referring it back, but they had lacked the 2/3rd vote necessary to block the refer back.
The item was then held for 6 weeks until the 10/24/2022 Municipal Services Committee meeting to give city staff enough time to put together a policy that was clearer and less confusing than the previous policy had been.
Committee members and non-committee alderpersons spent a little over 20 minutes discussing the updated version of the policy.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13), who was not a member of the committee, felt that the new draft of the policy was still confusing. The images regarding vision corners were not clear because the pictures did not even show where the vision corners fell on the terraces.
She also thought that rule number 5 was confusing because it started out by saying “For roadways with designated on-street parking, plantings shall not be placed within two feet of the back of the curb or edge of shoulder” but then in 5a it immediately went on to say, “For roadways with permitted parking, plantings within two feet of the back of curb or edge of shoulder shall not exceed 8 inches in height.”
Director of Public Work Danielle Block explained that there was a difference between “designated on-street parking” and “permitted parking”. Roadways with “permitted parking” were merely roads where people had the option to park there, but the public perhaps did not park there all that often. Traffic Engineer Eric Lom further elaborated that “designated parking” would be marked stalls whereas “permitted parking” would be non-marked areas where people were allowed to park.
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2), who was not a member of the committee, appreciated that the policy provided more information and thought some of the confusion Alderperson Hartzheim had mentioned could be alleviated by including more understandable pictures.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9), who was not a member of the committee, agreed that graphics were incredibly important and noted that the street terrace policy in Madison had a significant number of illustrations and a lot of different case scenarios for different types of lots. He felt that the images in the Appleton policy were confusing.
There was also some discussion about how the policy would be enforced. Would residents who did not adhere to the policy receive immediate fines or would they receive letters asking them to bring their terraces into compliance? Inspections Supervisor Kurt Craanen said that if a terrace violated the city’s weed ordinance, they would receive a fee. If they contravened some other aspect of the street terrace policy then they would probably send a letter out rather than an immediate fine.
In answer to a question from Alderperson Schultz, Supervisor Craanen said that he thought that the adoption of this policy would result in the city receiving fewer complaints because they were becoming less restrictive with what they allowed.
Alderperson Schultz also commented on the lack of popular consensus as to what was and was not a weed. In response to that Supervisor Craanen noted that the city did have a section of code about natural landscape which did allow residents to grow a wild yard with wildflowers and other such things that were taller that 8” as long as they followed certain rules, but that section of code only pertained to private property and not terraces.
Alderperson Doran, who was a member of the committee, asked to clarify what was being added to the new policy that had not been permitted under the old policy. Per Director Block, the differences between the old and new policy were that under the old policy vegetable gardens and mulch were only allowed if a person requested a permit and paid an annual fee. Under the new policy, vegetable gardens and mulch were allowed without requesting a permit or paying a fee.
Alderperson Doran said that he had originally supported the policy change, but he felt that the proposal had become longer and more convoluted. If residents could already do all of the things that were permitted under the new policy and the only difference was that they didn’t have to pay a fee or get a permit for a vegetable garden or mulch, then perhaps it would be better to change that procedure rather than draft an entirely new policy.
Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3), who was a member of the committee, felt that either option would have drawbacks and the best advice alderpersons could give residents would be “If you have questions, ask.”
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) who served on the committee, hoped that the city could have an educational campaign in conjunction with the new policy.
The committee ended up voting 4-1 to approve the policy as presented without making any changes. Alderpersons William Siebers (District 1), Firkus, Van Zeeland, and Joss Thyssen (District 8) voted in favor, and Alderperson Doran cast the lone dissenting vote.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=983000&GUID=20F8E24D-BCCF-4480-8A2E-E33675CF68D7
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