The council can direct that the hearing be held by the council itself or by a plan committee of the council or the board of public land commissioners. The ordinance should outline what the report of the commission should to include, such as whether the commission is to draft or cause to have drafted the appropriate ordinance terms so that the council will have before it the amendment in a form that can be acted upon. The ordinance should also address whether the commission should recycle through the hearing process if the commission reports out an amendment in a significantly amended form. The general law on this question is that a substantial change in an amendment proposal can require a recycling if the original notice was not broad enough to indicate that such change might be made and if the possibility of such alterations was not discussed openly at the hearing where persons interested in the amendment and its alternatives were able to learn of the possibility and comment upon it. The statutes are silent on the method and timing of the protest petition, but it is unlikely that a city or village could dismiss an otherwise valid protest petition that was submitted to the council or village board at any time before the legislative body was to vote on the amendment.
Ordinances take effect on the day after publication, or later if the ordinance so states.
66.035 provides for the alternative use of a code of ordinances. See also Wis. Stat. 889.04 on proof of municipal ordinances in court proceedings.