How Ace Became Ace

The City of Lake Mills was criticized recently because of a site plan that was approved that enabled the construction of a building that may become a hardware store at the entrance to the City. This criticism seems to be focused on why the City would do this to the detriment of existing businesses already located in the downtown. In response to such critics, I hope to assure readers that the City had no choice but to apply its codes to the site in question. If the requirements are met, administrators have to grant the approval.
The decision to approve the site plan is like many of the other land use decisions the City makes, such as whether to grant approval to a homeowner seeking a permit for a new addition or deck, or to a store owner who is applying for a permit to erect a new sign. Like nearly all cities in the United States, Lake Mills regulates land use through its police powers to promote and protect the public’s health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare. The City is granted zoning powers by the State.
Zoning was upheld as constitutional and within the government’s police powers with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1926 decision in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. Since then, the limits of zoning have been further refined through federal and state case law. Zoning becomes a balancing act of the right of the individual to use their property as they wish and the interest the community has in the use of private property. When cities control land use, it does it primarily through its zoning codes, which restrict the use of private property for the benefit of the community as a whole.
The purpose of the City’s zoning ordinance is to lessen congestion in the streets, provide for fire safety, and to provide adequate standards of light, air, and open space, while also preventing the overcrowding of land by creating a rational land use pattern between residential, business, commercial, and manufacturing uses for the mutual benefit of all. Dimensional standards apply to any structures built on lots within each zoning district, and typically take the form of setbacks, height limits, minimum lot sizes, lot coverage limits, and other limitations on the "building envelope".
The use of zoning regulations means that if you want to locate a use within the city, you need to check the zoning map and code. Constructing a building on a site where the use is permitted means you only have to worry about "building envelope" issues. In the case of the new building, the site selected by the owner was zoned several years ago to allow for many kinds of businesses in the planned business district.
On the site of the new store, many other different uses could have occurred there as a matter of right. If a proposed use fits the rules for a particular zoning district, the only way the City can control the use is by applying its design standards, building codes, and set back requirements.
In approving the site plan for the new building, the approval is withheld until the parking, landscaping, and setbacks meet code requirements; and that the design of the exterior of the building is of appropriate materials and character. The same sorts of considerations were made several years ago when the construction of the convenience store at the gas station near the hardware store’s location and the construction of the drugstore next to the building in question were approved.
But, the law does not allow prohibiting the builder from receiving approvals and permits because there is already an existing hardware store downtown. That would be a clear abuse of zoning powers. To make such a demand with respect to granting the hardware store permits would be no different than telling someone who is complying with all of the pre-established zoning requirements that we already have enough three-bedroom homes in your neighborhood, so change your plans for your property and build a larger or smaller house, and then the city will grant a permit to you.
No city in the nation would be permitted to make such demands. If a property has been zoned for a particular use, anyone who wishes to buy such a property has a right to operate any of the permitted uses and construct whatever the owner wants to construct, provided all of the regulations are met. It may be that the critics of this approval and this project are confusing our present situation with the examples they may have recently observed in neighboring communities regarding the location of a large retail store that critics vowed to prevent by fighting the location of this business due to concerns over the future viability of existing, smaller retailers after the giant mega-store is permitted to build in the community.
Please be assured that although our situation may look to casual observers to be the same as what has occurred in neighboring communities, the situation with respect to the mega store is different. It is not different because the types of businesses are different. It is different because the site where the hardware store is being built was already zoned for this and many other kinds of uses at this location. The owner of the property was not seeking permission to annex or the granting of a type of zoning that would permit the construction of the hardware store. Instead, the owner of the property bought a property that was already zoned for uses that were compatible with what the owner wished to construct. So the only approval opportunities left for the City in our situation were ones that would make sure that all of the previously established regulations were being followed.
In the district where the building is being constructed that may have a hardware store, many uses were possible, it was not within the rights of the zoning administrator to dictate which of the previously permitted uses could be allowed and which would not be allowed, because the ordinance in place allows the use in the zoning district. Some of the other possible, permitted uses at the location were: general merchandise stores, food stores, garden stores, apparel stores, furniture and home furnishing stores, travel agencies, and office supply stores.
Besides these types of stores, the owner of properties within the zoning district could also allow real estate, financial, insurance or legal services to be provided, or where medical facilities, barber shops and similar uses could be operated. This particular location also could provide for such institutional uses such as churches, or civic, social and fraternal associations. Even service stations, drive-in or drive-thru restaurants, car wash facilities, auto banks, and similar uses could also be constructed. Most of these uses would be in competition with businesses already in Lake Mills. In each of these other possible uses for the property in question, the City would be restricted from demanding that some uses could be used and others could not.
Zoning is simply a limited system for dividing a city into several districts so that land use conflicts will be minimized. One would not put a house in the middle of an industrial park, and a factory cannot be located next to a drug store. Zoning ordinances regulate uses of land in detail so every owner of land and every potential buyer of a property will know what is permitted and required on the particular property, and also on the properties nearby. Despite the critics, zoning really is good for protecting what’s already there and for preventing nuisances, but once someone is seeking to operate within the established rules, no one can say to a prospective business owner that we already have a business like yours, so either pick a different business or go to some other community to build what you have in mind.
While zoning certainly can be criticized, the careful and evenhanded administration of a thoughtfully drafted zoning ordinance remains one of the best ways to implement the community comprehensive plan. Zoning makes an important contribution to the livability, efficiency, and attractiveness of the City. The City of Lake Mills has developed a vision for the whole community and sometimes specific objectives of the vision may seem mutually exclusive, but the City’s zoning is a legally defendable plan that ties diverse aspects of a community together.
Instead of blaming the zoning or those who administer it, maybe it would be more useful to consider that it may actually be the case that people and their purchasing habits are driving the resulting business economic options more than zoning regulations or those required to administer them.