Last week we wrote about a United States Supreme Court case Murr v. Wisconsin and its impact locally. Since that post, the Petitioner, Donna Murr contacted the author to provide us with an update to her family’s situation.
After the Supreme Court decision in June, legislation was introduced in both the Wisconsin State Senate and the Wisconsin State Assembly. This legislation – among other things – sought to prohibit a state, county, town or village agency from merging a substandard lot with another lot without the consent of the affected property owner.
We are pleased to report that the Wisconsin State Assembly and Senate, both passed the legislation in early November and on November 27, 2017 Governor Scott Walker – with Donna Murr by his side – signed the bill into law. As a result, the Murr’s lots can be developed separately. As Ms. Murr noted in her email “We spent 10 years in the courts and 4 months in the Wisconsin legislature! Crazy right?”
On another note, Aram Terchunian of First Costal Corporation contacted the author and provided a note of caution. Mr. Terchurian rightly pointed out that Tidal Wetlands – Land Use Regulations contains an automatic merger provision for substandard lots. Indeed, at 6 CRR-NY 661.6 (b) the regulation addresses lots within the wetland jurisdiction that are substandard. Under §661.6 (a)(5) the minimum lot area for lots connected to a community sewage system is 20,000 square feet and 40,000 square feet is required for lots not connected to a community sewage system. According to the Regulations, substandard lots as defined above “in the same ownership may be treated together as one lot”.
So know that while a property might not merge because of zoning regulations, it may merge because of wetland regulations.
Thank you to both Donna and Aram for their contributions to this blog.
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