After he had put politics largely behind him some 204 years ago in 1816, staunch Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson is said to have written to a friend his opinion that the “laws and institutions of a people must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.” It’s on panel four of the Jefferson Memorial off the National Mall in Washington, D. C., for those who may interested in further pursuit.

At any rate, the City of River Falls in Pierce County Wisconsin, was set to make just such a necessary amendment to its local municipal code October 13, after E. W. Homes earlier sought a waiver of the City’s subdivision review authority in the Town of Troy, which authority to waiver authority the City of River Falls holds under City Ordinance 16.10.230, “if more than half of the legal description of the proposed subdivision lies outside of the city’s subdivision review area.” The waiver request from E. W. Homes was recommended for denial by the City Plan Commission back on March 9 of this year, but then the process was delayed due to Covid-19 and E. W. Homes ultimately had their waiver request approved on August 11 of this year. In the meantime, discovery of a court decision that could otherwise affect the City’s review authority meant there was a need for amendment to city ordinances to align with state statute, while keeping municipal review power.

The city ordinance amendment in question and up for consideration on October 13 is to Section 16.10 of the River Falls municipal law code and “would emphasize that the land use is not the basis of the regulation,” after an appeals court decision made against the City of Delavan ruled that the city in Walworth County to the south, could not deny a proposed subdivision plat based on density considerations,” because this would entail “regulation of land use within a subdivision ordinance,” an act otherwise prohibited by state law.

Reviewing the case in question at wicourts.gov, it involved the denial of plat by the City of Delavan to a private developer and turned specifically on how to interpret and apply Wisconsin state statute 236.45(3)(b). A review of the state statute number in question reveals that a Wisconsin municipality “may not deny approval of a plat or certified survey map….on the basis of the proposed use of land withing the extraterritorial plat approval jurisdiction of the municipality, unless the denial is based on a plan or regulations, or amendments thereto, adopted by the governing body of the municipality” under statute 62.23 (7)(c), which deals with the purposes in view when city planning and zone decisions are made. To remain within the above state statutes while retaining its municipal reviewing authority is the essence of the proposed amendment to the River Falls law code, before the City this Tuesday and contained in the council packet. Per the “recitals” section of the amended ordinance, River Falls intent in the amended ordinance is delineated as follows.

“A. The City has effectively assured that extraterritorial subdivisions are not inconsistent with eventual urban development by requiring a 35 acre lot size.

B. The City desires to provide alternate means of assuring good planning and avoiding financial loss due to poor development.

C. The City also desires to make clear that it does not consider the proposed use of land in approving or denying extraterritorial subdivisions.”

So much for city ordinance intent though, what of the actual amended language? Among other details, the River Falls ordinance as it stands reads “…uncontrolled residential, commercial, and industrial development of lands in adjoining Towns…” whereas the amended ordinance would strike out “residential, commercial and industrial” to read instead “…uncontrolled development of lands in adjoining Towns…” The statement of purpose section in the proposed ordinance amendment, would further strike out the words, “to promote development of land which is harmonious to the use of adjoining land,” while subsections, B., E., H., and K. of Section 2 in said ordinance would be struck out completely and sections D. and J. amended, while a Section 3 would be wholly recreated to better delineate subdivision matters.

Should the City ordinance amendment be approved by the River Falls council, it would then be signed by the Mayor and attested to by the City Clerk, thereby updating city ordinance to fit present reality. Tom Jefferson would understand the purpose—he made the Louisiana Purchase, after all. Wisconsin is just east of that boundary line.