County Board to send a letter to the zoning ordinance update consultant, specifying areas of hoped-for improvement

Consulting firm SEH--Colby (formerly "Yaggy--Colby") came in for some more criticism Monday afternoon for the work it has done on updating Winneshiek County's zoning ordinances.

Winneshiek County supervisors agreed to send a letter to the consulting firm which outlines "Items that could be improved."  County Planning & Zoning Commission Chair Wendy Stevens presented the list to supervisors and noted that, while "Sound advice was given" leading up to the recent zoning ordinance changes, there were also plenty of areas where the P & Z Commission would like to see improvement in the future.

The two-page report to supervisors highlighted very poor proofreading by the consultant, but also addressed the need for having a better work timeline, so that more work was done earlier.  It also cited a need to have a smoother process of making changes to the ordinances.

County supervisor John Beard said there had been "a pattern of sloppy work" by the consulting firm, while Stevens stated, "Right now I would not hire them for future work."

However, SEH--Colby still needs to complete its work on suggested zoning ordinance changes involving mining regulations.  So supervisors will send the Planning & Zoning Commission's review to the consulting firm and will ask for answers to the question of how SEH--Colby plans to do a better job in the future.