By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
ASHWAUBENON – Changes to the village code as it relates to density, intensity and dimensional standards for property were approved Tuesday, Oct. 27, by the village board.
Community Development Director Aaron Schuette said the staff-requested amendments were the result of a number of conflicting items within the standards and current home improvement trends.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Schuette said many village homeowners are choosing to reinvest in their homes with additions, decks, patios, pools and related accessory structures.
“They’re running into issues in terms of our dimensional standards… as they’re currently set up, whether it’s impervious surface requirements, frontage requirements, so on, so forth,” he said.
Schuette said the changes streamline the dimensional standards and address the impervious surface requirements to create more consistency among the different zoning classifications and a more administratively enforceable ordinance.
“The requested changes are meant to create better flexibility for the residents in terms of how they can improve the value of their homes,” he said.
Schuette said the Realtors Association of Northeast Wisconsin sent a letter to the village in support of the changes.
Rather than having to determine how much impervious surface someone has, he said the changes incorporate a minimum 25 percent green space requirement.
Schuette said other items cleaned up in the code included minimum lot size and frontage for the R-1 Residential zoning district.
He said the requirement for 100 feet of frontage and 12,000 square feet of lot size for an R-1 Residential lot was changed to 90 feet of frontage and 10,000 square feet of lot size to provide some additional flexibility for any redevelopment that may occur in the residential areas.