Decorah City Council approves first reading of a policy which will make it easier for the council to override a Planning & Zoning Commission decision

The Decorah City Council Monday night took the first step towards changing the number of city council votes needed to overturn a Planning & Zoning Commission recommendation.

Right now, the city council needs six votes to overturn a P&Z ruling, but on a 4-3 vote, the city council approved the first reading of a new policy which would lower that requirement to five votes.  City council members Randy Schissel, Andy Carlson, Ross Hadley and Kirk Johnson supported the change, while Dan Bellrichard, Steve Luse and Johanna Bergan opposed it.

The city council vote came after six members of the public spoke about the proposal.  Lee Zook said "making it easier to override the (P&Z) Commission would be unfortunate."  Former city council member Tony Larson said members of the P&Z Commission were not elected, as city council people are, so he favored the change.

Decorah resident Sharon Del Vento spoke to what seemed to be the reason for the proposed change--the application by Menards to build in the Freeport floodplain, which the Planning & Zoning commission denied.  "It is not wise to turn a floodplain into a commercial development," she said.  Bob Naslund agreed, saying, "We all know it's the Menards thing," urging city officials to "do it right--otherwise we'll be in court again."

Decorah resident Mark Donhowe apologized for disagreeing with his former coach, but said the elected officials should have more power.  WCDI Board member Mark Jensen also supported the change, saying it would put more checks & balances into play.

Following the public hearing, city council member Dan Bellrichard asked how many applications have been denied by the Planning & Zoning Commission and was told by City Administrator Chad Bird that since 2011, 16 rezoning requests have been submitted and 15 have been approved.

That led Bellrichard to say he thought the move to change the rules was "reactionary" and the city council should take other approaches.

City council member Steve Luse said there was no data showing this issue needs to be fixed.  But Decorah Mayor Lorraine Borowski, who submitted the proposal, said plenty of people in the community talked with her about the requirement after the Planning & Zoning Commission denied the Menards application.

In the end, city council member Ross Hadley cast the deciding vote, saying he believed that requiring five votes to overturn a Planning & Zoning Commission ruling was a strong enough protection of P&Z rulings.