Common Council Approves Updated Street Terrace Policy Allowing Residents To Plant Vegetable Gardens In Terraces

The Common Council met 11/02/2022. One of the items they took up was the request to approve modifications to the City of Appleton Street Terrace Policy. The main modifications being voted on were to allow residents to plant vegetable gardens up to 36” high and lay down mulch in their terraces and to be able to do that without having to pay a $40 annual fee to the city.

This item came before the Municipal Services a couple of times. The first time it was recommended unanimously for approval, and the second time it was recommended for approval by a 4-1 vote.

During the 11/02/2022 Council meeting, the item was approved by a vote of 11-2 with Alderpersons Chris Croatt (District 14) and Chad Doran (District 15) casting the opposing votes.

I’ve put together a transcript of the full discussion for your downloading pleasure.

Three members of the public commented on the item.

Bill was opposed to the policy changes because he thought it would make the city look trashy and cause safety issues by blocking the line of sight for drivers, possibly resulting in children being hit by vehicles.

Megan was in favor of the policy changes and seemed to have the impression that not enacting the policy changes would result in plantings on terraces being banned. She mentioned that she had people dealing drugs in front of her house, a situation she had called the city multiple times about, and was frustrated that the city was now spending time “trying to ban flowers.” She spoke about the benefits of being able to grow food and native flora in terraces. [Note: not passing the policy changes would not have resulted in all terrace plantings being banned.]

Joan was also in favor of the policy changes. She was a big proponent of No Mow May and believed that since an increased number of children had not been hit by cars during No Mow May that it would probably not be an issue if the terrace policy was modified. She thought allowing terrace gardens would help improve mental health.

The Common Council spent about 30 minutes discussing the policy changes. Although Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) was not present at the meeting, she had contacted Council President Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) about a potential amendment aimed at making the policy a little clearer. Alderperson Van Zeeland felt the amendment was good and made a motion to amend. As originally formulated, the motion to amend removed item A-4 from the policy and rewrote item A-5 so that it more clearly delineated how high plantings could be next to roadways with different types of parking.

While the council members did not take issue with the changes to A-5, Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) thought that item A-4 in the policy was beneficial, so she made a motion to amend the amendment to keep A-4 in the policy. A-4 detailed line of sight requirements around vision corners, street corners, and private driveways. There had been some discussion during the 10/24/2022 Municipal Services Committee meeting about the confusing nature of the diagrams. These concerns were raised once again during the Common Council discussion. Those concerns were mainly allayed when City Attorney Christopher Behrens told the Council that the images could be updated even after the policy was approved and that it was staff’s intention to make them more understandable.

The Council went on to keep item A-4 in the policy but to update item A-5 as recommended by Alderperson Hartzheim.

Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) made a motion to amend item B-4 to remove the words “and vegetable” from the policy. As written the policy had said “The following conditions ARE acceptable uses of street terraces under City Policy and Code, NO permit required: […] 4. Home gardens under 3-feet in height, which include flower and vegetable gardens, which would meet sight distance requirements listed in item A.4. above.” His amendment would have removed mention of vegetable gardens thus, presumably, making the policy only allow flower or non-vegetable gardens. He indicated that he made that amendment as of way of speaking for all of his constituents. The amendment failed for lack of a second.

[Frankly, it was kind of a weird amendment given that one of the main reasons the policy changes had been brought forth to begin with was so that residents could plant vegetable gardens in their terraces without paying a $40 fee.]

Alderperson Croatt expressed concern that they had turned a half page policy into a two-and-a-half-page policy. He also wanted to understand how the policy would be enforced.

Director of Public Works Danielle Block said that the Inspections Division would handle complaints as they do for any other tall weed type complaints. Depending on what the complaint was, they would visit the address, take a series of photos, and work with the property owner from there on whatever the issue was.

Alderpersons Croatt and William Siebers (District 1) both expressed concerns that the policy changes would result in increased work for city staff.

Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) felt that the Appleton community was generally tolerant of neighbors doing their own thing as long as it didn’t cause too many issues. He could think of multiple terraces in his district that had plantings which had not received any complaints. He did not think the changes would result in too much work for staff.

Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) thought the policy changes would provide a good opportunity for residents to get involved in gardening, meet their neighbors, and talk about things they had in common.

The Council ended up voting 11-2 to approve the policy with only the small changes to item A-5. Alderpersons Croatt and Doran cast the dissenting votes.

[I really wanted to get into this because policies about terrace gardens is what small town government should be all about. Having said that, the fact that the discussion focused on diagrams illustrating sight lines resulted in it all being slightly more boring that I would have hoped for. With a little tweaking, however, I think the public comments and Council discussion would have made a good scene in a Waiting For Guffman type movie.]

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=997432&GUID=1675D6C6-136E-4C49-B5DA-C665A7FBF628