April 13, 2006
Plan Commission Vetoes New Geneva Ridge Plan

The Lake Geneva Planning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend to the city Council that the current Hummel plan to develop the 710 acres formerly called Geneva Ridge be denied. If the City Council doesn't override the Plan Commission, it would mean developer Hummel can't bring back a plan for one year, unless it is substantially different than the one submitted.

The Plan Commission was preceded by a presentation of the current plan by Hummel's land planner, Nick Petera of Teska Associates, followed by a 1 hr 45 min. public input session. The room was packed. I was the first of about 15 speakers, and I indicated our history of monitoring and commenting on the project, and pointed out that the current plan is scaled back in both scope and design partly due to our input to the developer. I further indicated that this and other current major development proposals in our area point to the need for better community and regional planning for the area's future, more pro-active agricultural conservation, and the need to consider conservation first, and not last, in planning. All who followed expressed opposition to the plan for various reasons. One particular suggestion that came from a few citizens is that Lake Geneva develop a plan to acquire the site and preserve a large part of it.

All Commission members, including Mayor Shepstone, in their session that followed, made negative comments about the plan, focusing on these themes: 1) the proposal density is too high, 2) the impacts on the lake have not been measured, and 3) the impacts on the Lake Geneva community have not been assessed.