CALLED TO ORDER:  5:30 pm

PRESENT: John Maltby, Tom Wiemer, Bill Fell, Dan Snyder and Bill Goulding.

Absent: Kirt Ludwig.

MOTION: With technical corrections, the minutes of November 19, 2002 were approved on a motion by John Maltby, seconded by Tom Wiemer.

MOTION: At the request of the City of Burlington, a motion was made by Dan Snyder for a point of reconsideration of the denial, of the appeal, for a 1,511 square ft variance for a substandard lot at 308 Fox St. by John Prill, P.O. Box 747 – Twin Lakes, WI. The motion was approved unanimously.

Tom Kircher, the City of Burlington attorney, presented a Legal Comment; Zoning Variances in Wisconsin by Daniel Olson – League of Wisconsin Municipalities, highlighting recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions which needed to be taken into consideration when deciding the afore mentioned appeal.

David Torgler, the City of Burlington Administrator, appeared for the City in favor of granting a variance that would allow Mr. Prill to build a house on the substandard lot. Mr. Torgler explained that the City had previously denied Mr. Prill the right to expand his business into that lot and by denying the right to build a house on the same, would take from Mr. Prill all economic use of the lot and therefore be contrary to recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions.

Pat Scherrer, the City of Burlington Building Inspector, acting on behalf of Mr. Prill, presented a case that there was an exceptional circumstance in that the lot was original to the City and in fact a house had stood on that lot until just recently. He stated that there was preservation of intent as residential is the permitted use in that district. The preservation of property rights was not spoken to.

RULING: Mr. John Prill, P.O. Box 747 – Twin Lakes, WI did not appear, nor did a representative of the same. No one appeared in favor of nor opposed to the variance request. On a motion by John Maltby , seconded by Bill Fell, the variance was granted unanimously.

OTHER MATTERS: The members of the Zoning Board of Appeals were instructed to appear one hour early for the January 15, 2003 meeting for further instruction as to zoning variance changes.

ADJOURNMENT: The Chair declared that the meeting was adjourned at 6:15 pm on December 17, 2002.

Respectfully Submitted,

Bill Goulding