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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Greenwood Township

Survey comments released to settle lawsuit

Comments reveal unhappiness with township decisions, but strong desire to protect the lake

Jodi Summit
Posted 11/24/15

GREENWOOD TWP- After weeks of controversy and a lawsuit by a member of the town board, the written comments provided by residents on last spring’s township planning survey have finally been made …

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Greenwood Township

Survey comments released to settle lawsuit

Comments reveal unhappiness with township decisions, but strong desire to protect the lake

Posted

GREENWOOD TWP- After weeks of controversy and a lawsuit by a member of the town board, the written comments provided by residents on last spring’s township planning survey have finally been made public— and they show strong support for protecting the quality of life on Lake Vermilion, and the lake’s water quality. Residents also expressed general dissatisfaction with township officials and many urged the township to transfer planning and zoning authority back to St. Louis County. Many also pleaded for lower taxes and less regulation.

About 30 comments noted that the survey questions themselves were either confusing, misleading, or not relevant.

By this reporter’s count, 42 commenters expressed their desire to have St. Louis County take over local planning and zoning. The zoning issue was not directly addressed in the survey itself, even the issue has been brought up frequently at town board meetings and the annual meeting.

The Cook Hospital Tax District also garnered many comments, with 22 reiterating their opinion that the township shouldn’t join the taxing district, which levies an annual amount to help fund the Cook Hospital and emergency medical services. In the survey itself, 481 respondents checked “no” in response to having he township join the Cook Hospital tax district, versus 84 saying “yes”, 152 “don’t know”, and 73 who were neutral.

Comments relating to improving and preserving lake quality, including increased attention to invasive species, numbered 38, with 11 other comments specifically asking to keep the lake as is (including not allowing additional dense development). Issues of loud noise, mostly due to power boats but also some regarding barking dogs, tallied 32 complaints.

Other issues that garnered significant responses included about 25 asking the town board to designate the Timberjay as the township’s official newspaper noting its greater readership, reporting on township issues and availability online, 10 in support of more recreational trails (both motorized and non-motorized), 18 in favor of having Bay View reopen (most with limits on when outdoor music is permitted, two other comments specifically were in favor of having Bay View closed), nine general thank you comments to the board, nine not in favor of the idea of warning sirens, and eight asking the town board to take responsibility for private roads in the township.

While the issue of amplified music at Bay View Lodge garnered much town board attention the past three years, the issue of noise from loud, fast boats was one of the more pointed issues raised in the survey comments.

(*this reporter read through all the responses and attempted to tally them into concrete categories; many comments fell into multiple categories; some fell into none at all. The Timberjay will post a link to a pdf containing all the comments on our website this week so readers can also review them).

A copy of the draft copy of the survey results is also available on the township website, www.greenwoodtownshipmn.com/joom/docs/survey.pdf. The survey had a 43 percent response rate (814 returned vs. 1,905 mailed), and 295 of the responses did have written comments included.

Long road to public release

The comments, solicited as part of the survey, had initially only been reviewed by Planner John Klaers, who released several pages of comment snippets in the July 13 draft report of the survey results.

Two steering committee members lobbied to have access to all the comments, but did not gain approval from the majority of the committee. The issue then came to the town board. The town board, relying on advice from the township attorney, decided not to release the comments to either the steering committee members or town board members.

But legal action by Supervisor John Bassing and his wife JoAnn, who sits on the steering committee, forced the township to reopen the issue. The township attorney had noted that there was no legal reason to keep the comments private.

The Bassings had maintained that the town board, which will approve the final draft of the comprehensive plan, needed to be able to read through the comments before signing off on the final draft, which is yet to be released. They also noted that the township, when asking for volunteers to serve on the steering comment, noted they would be asked to review the survey data and public comments.

The town board at their October meeting decided to allow steering committee members two hours to individually review the comments, but not to read them aloud or take notes, after the steering committee’s October meeting. Only a minority of steering committee members stayed to read the comments.

The Bassings were not satisfied with this limited release of the comments, which they felt were public information, and brought legal action against the township. They also had an injunction served on the township, to make sure the copies of the comments were not destroyed.

After two meetings with an attorney assigned to the township by the Minnesota Association of Townships (legal costs were being covered by the township’s insurance policy), the township reached a settlement with the Bassings, finalized at the November town board meeting.

The township agreed to make copies of all the comments publicly available at the town hall, with the names of commenters and any personal information redacted.

How important the public comments will be as part of the final Greenwood Township Comprehensive Plan is still to be seen. The township has yet to hold any public hearings or open house events on the comprehensive plan, though township officials have noted that the public is welcome to attend the steering committee meetings (set for the third Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m.) and give public comments at the end of the regular meeting. The public is also welcome to mail or email comments on the plan to the township, and they will be distributed to steering committee members.

Aug. 7, 2015 article on the draft copy of the survey results

Survey results show strong support for preservation and protection of Lake Vermilion waters

Jodi Summit

GREENWOOD TWP- While the Greenwood Township Comprehensive Plan Committee is still working on the final draft of their long-range plan, the draft version of the results from the survey of township property owners have been compiled and posted on the Greenwood Township website.

The township committee has been meeting monthly to work on the plan with planner John Klaers Planning & Associates.

The survey results, as well as results from a yet-to-be scheduled public meeting, will be used to form the recommendations in the final report, which will be completed later this year. The plan can be used to guide future plans for the township, as well as part of future grant applications for township projects.

Over 1,900 surveys will mailed out to Greenwood property owners and residents in the middle of May, using a list of taxpayers obtained from the St. Louis County Auditor’s office. A total of 829 surveys were returned, though 17 were rejected because they were substantially incomplete or unreadable. The response rate was 43 percent, which is higher than normal for this type of survey. This Tower-Breitung Comprehensive Plan (also underway at this time) had 150 survey responses using an online survey form (not a mailed survey), though the Tower-Breitung planning process included a three public meetings to help set the course for the planning process and check in on the results, along with monthly committee meetings.

Survey respondents were closely split between year round (470) and seasonal (487). The average length of time that respondents and/or their families have owned property on the lake was 33.5 years. The most common household size of respondents was two, with both persons over 60 years of age. Over the 1,975 persons in households of respondents, only 219 were under 18, and 960 were over 60.

The vast majority (93%) had lake access property, with about 80% with road access and 20% with water-only or island access.

Along with the survey results, a total of 268 comments were sent in with the completed surveys. Of these, 240 could be grouped into these categories: keeping property taxes low (56), BayView Lodge music/loud boats/noise (24), official newspaper (34), returning Planning and Zoning to St. Louis County (34), protecting water quality/fish stocking/dark sky (32), negative comments towards the board or comprehensive plan committee (26), comments thanking for opportunity to have input into process (9), comments regarding Cook Hospital District (17), comments saying no changes for the community (4), comments requesting help with a specific issue (10), comments regarding junk/blight/past variances (6), and comments regarding trails/off-lake recreation (19).

Survey results

While analysis of the survey results is still waiting for approval by the planning committee, the results show a clear commitment to preserving and protecting Lake Vermilion water quality. This item had 549 strongly agreeing with the statement and 214 agreeing (total of 798), versus a total of 25 either disagreeing or strongly disagreeing and only 22 answering not sure. Preserving the visual character of the lake also had a very strong response, with 695 agreeing/strongly agreeing, and only 49 disagreeing/strongly disagreeing, and 55 not sure.

When questioned about what to do about nutrient pollution, residents showed strong support for encouraging restoration of native shoreland vegetation on developed lots, seeking alternative wastewater collection and treatment systems for problem areas, and preserving publicly owned undeveloped shoreland areas.

In questions relating to future development, there was strong support for allowing redevelopment but maintaining existing housing density, prohibiting variances from height and setback requirements without screening and stormwater runoff mitigations, and requiring redevelopment to maintain the character of existing adjacent single family properties.

Support for a “Dark Sky” ordinance, regulating outdoor lighting, was mixed with 300 saying the township shouldn’t require, and 299 saying yes, with 209 wishing to apply dark sky lighting regulations to all properties and 88 to only new construction.

Support for controlling aquatic invasive species was very with 539 strongly agreeing and 188 agreeing, and only 35 disagreeing/strongly disagreeing. Strong support was also shown for enforcing regulations for boat motor exhaust systems.

For recreation, a topic that has recently been on the agenda for the township, strong support was shown for the possible non-motorized paved trail between Cook and Tower, with 428 agreeing/strongly agreeing, and 260 disagreeing/strongly disagreeing. Stronger support was shown for off-road hiking and biking paths 507-181), with lower support for winter trail options (317-258). Expanding recreational facilities at the town hall was not supported by the majority, with 323 disagreeing/strongly disagreeing versus 211 agreeing/strongly agreeing. The township is in the process of constructing a tennis court at the town hall, and has also recently completed two bocce ball courts. The township also maintains an outdoor skating rink and horseshoe pits.

While enhancing emergency medical services provided by Greenwood Township First Responders was strongly supported (492-120), joining the Cook Hospital’s taxing district was only supported by 82 respondents, with 481 saying no, 152 saying don’t know, and 73 neutral. A question asking whether or not it was important that the township have a 24-hour hospital and emergency services available was supported by 324 vs. 317, with 26 saying don’t know and 127 neutral.

This question, along with several others in the survey, was seen as confusing by respondents and even some comprehensive plan committee members. Area residents use a variety of area hospitals, getting medical services in Virginia, Ely, and Cook, and the Tower Area Ambulance Service provides round-the-clock coverage for the township.

Almost no support was shown to the idea of having Greenwood become a city, with 542 saying no and 33 yes (167 unsure and 43 of no opinion). Similar lack of support was shown for acquiring land for a township cemetery (505-48).

A large majority showed support for allowing residents to rent out their lakeshore properties (448-181), an issue that has also been on and off town board agendas the past several years. But little support was shown for allowing conversion of single family homes and resorts to multiple family housing with 443 saying no and 128 saying yes. The idea of publishing a township newsletter was supported by 270 but opposed by 303.

The township comprehensive plan committee holds their next regular meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 19 at 1 p.m. at the town hall.

Greenwood Township