TOWN OF MENASHA — Fred and Char Steenis own one of the last buildable parcels on Little Lake Butte des Morts.
However, their home at 2175 Butte des Morts Beach Road also lies within three miles of the end of a runway from Outagamie County Regional Airport in Greenville.
They are among dozens of town residents and business owners concerned with looming future development restrictions if Outagamie County follows through with its plan to extend airport overlay zoning into Winnebago County, specifically portions of the towns of Menasha and Clayton.
"This is a beautiful lot," said Fred Steenis, 71, of the 1.4-acre parcel that includes about 100 feet of lake frontage. "And it's money (if sold) we can have for retirement. If we can't build on it, it's useless."
On Wednesday, the town's Planning Commission expressed its dismay for the proposed Outagamie County airport overlay zoning but acknowledged that — based on legal opinions — it was mostly powerless to do anything about it.
Still the panel voted unanimously to recommend denial of the airport overlay zoning.
The Town of Menasha Board will take up the panel's recommendation Monday night, but any action it takes is only advisory.
Town officials and most residents agree with the need for height restrictions and avoidance of stormwater ponds where waterfowl might congregate, causing a threat to aircraft jet engines. They also agree that it doesn't make sense to allow uses such as churches, schools or apartment buildings that would increase population densities in the runway extensions.
But they're mostly upset with their homes being labeled nonconforming and the need to sign what's called an avigation agreement, pledging not to sue the airport over noise issues in order to get permission from another county to rebuild their homes if they are destroyed by fire or other natural disaster.
"I think that's wrong," said commissioner Morris Cox. "We should be handling our own business in Winnebago County and Outagamie County handle their own business and (they) should not be imposing those restrictions on our residents."
"The real issue is the desire for the airport to not have the residents around the airport not file suit over noise issues," Cox said. "The airport should take care of their noise issues on their own. They should not have an impinging issue on each one of the properties."
"The worst part is Outagamie County, they're not elected by us," said Alvin Bellmer, commission president. "That's really hard to swallow. I don't know why we have to call a structure nonconforming."
"We are concerned about this labeling that is naturally going to devalue the property that we have," said Stroebe Island resident Beth Vercouteren.
"We're already protecting the airport to a certain extent through our own zoning without having the overreach from Outagamie County," said commissioner Kris Koeppe. "And the noise isn't an issue."
Outagamie County already has airport overlay zoning in place in the towns of Grand Chute and Greenville. But when Outagamie officials tried to extend them into Winnebago County about 10 years ago there was a significant backlash from town residents so they dropped the issue.
An Outagamie County special committee started exploring the issue again over a year ago and invited officials from the towns of Menasha and Clayton to participate in the process, which is now headed toward public hearings and possible adoption.
"I've never heard of one county being able to control another county," said David Schuler, who lives on Stroebe Road. "My recommendation to the board is to fight this with everything we have."
In a related matter, the commission unanimously approved some site plan changes for Touchmark, a $20 million retirement community at 2601 W. Prospect Ave., to guarantee that it will be able to build out future phases and could ultimately double its value.
"We have been a little worried about the airport overlay ordinance," said Bill Belanger, senior vice president of Touchmark. "We want to make sure if the airport overlay ordinance passes that Touchmark is protected to develop as it was originally approved to develop."
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