Court Opinion

ID: 9706162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:33:09.718246+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:19.820673
License: Public Domain

DYKMAN, P.J.
(dissenting). Today, the majority has expanded considerably Wisconsin's definition of *556the term "zoning," and has added much to the matters that a municipality must submit to its plan commission. As I read the majority opinion, the reason why the Heitman ordinance failed was because the Mauston Common Council could not have adopted the ordinance without first submitting it to the Mauston plan commission. I do not see this as an impediment. The city council could have submitted the Heitman ordinance to the plan commission. But that begs the question of whether the Heitman ordinance required submission to the plan commission in the first place.
Although zoning ordinances are enacted under a municipality's police power, all ordinances enacted under the police power are not zoning ordinances. In Gordy Boucher Lincoln-Mercury Madison, Inc. v. City of Madison Plan Comm'n, 178 Wis. 2d 74, 503 N.W.2d 265 (Ct. App. 1993), we concluded that a county peripheral area development plan constituted zoning. But not everything a city council does that somehow pertains to land or somehow regulates the use of land is zoning, and not everything pertaining to land use must be referred to the city plan commission. In Rath v. Two Rivers Community Hosp., Inc., 160 Wis. 2d 853, 861, 467 N.W.2d 150, 153 (Ct. App. 1991), the court noted that by construing § 62.23(5), Stats., broadly, "[t]he result would be that any action taken by a city council concerning any real property would have to be referred to the city plan commission."
Matters that must be submitted to a city plan commission are set out in §§ 62.23(5)1 and 62.23(7), Stats. *557I do not read the majority opinion as concluding that the Heitman ordinance must have been submitted to the plan commission because that was required under § 62.23(5). Rather, I read it as holding that because the Heitman Ordinance was either a zoning ordinance or an amendment to a zoning ordinance, it could not have been adopted by the Mauston Common Council without prior submission to the plan commission, and therefore was ineligible for § 9.20 adoption.
Section 62.23(7), Stats., is a comprehensive statute that outlines the procedures a city must follow to enact a zoning ordinance or an amendment to a zoning ordinance. The majority concludes that the Heitman ordinance was a "pervasive prohibition on the uses of land," and therefore was a zoning ordinance subject to § 62.23(7).2 I believe that this definition is overly *558broad, and brings within the definition of "zoning" many things that previously were considered common exercises of the police power. Some examples of pervasive prohibitions on the uses of land follow.
If I wish to use my land in the Village of Oregon to plant a box elder tree, the village municipal code prohibits me from doing so. See Oregon Municipal Code § 10.03(6)(b) (1976). If I own a self-service laundry facility in the City of Madison, my patrons and I are prohibited from using that property to smoke a cigarette or a cigar. See Madison Gen. Ordinances vol. III, § 23.05(3)(1) (1998). I am prohibited from using my property in Mt. Horeb to sell liquor and beer, unless I obtain a license. See Municipal Code of Mt. Horeb § 10.04(2) (1986). I am prohibited from using my tavern in Milwaukee for public dancing, unless I obtain a permit from the City of Milwaukee. See Milwaukee Code of Ordinances vol. 1, § 108-2(1) (1996). The City of Monona prohibits the use of anyone's property in the City of Monona as a gambling house or bawdy house. See Monona Code of Ordinances § 11-6-4(a) (1994). All of these ordinances are prohibitions on the use of land. If "pervasive" has a meaning in this context, all are also pervasive prohibitions. I find it difficult to conclude that all of these prohibitions are zoning ordinances that require the approval of the appropriate plan commissions.
A more common definition of zoning is described in 1 E.C. Yokley, Zoning Law and Practice § 2-1 (4th ed. 1978), as a " 'general plan to control and direct the use and development of property in a municipality or a large part of it by dividing it into districts according to the present and potential use of the properties.'" Id. (quoting State v. Huntington, 143 A.2d 446 (Conn. *5591958)) (footnote omitted). The author further states that:
The essence of zoning is territorial division in keeping with the character of lands and structures and their peculiar suitability for particular uses, and the uniformity of use within the division. The genius of the constitutional and statutory zoning process is the regulation of land and buildings by districts according to the extent and nature of their use.
Id. (footnotes omitted).
The ordinance proposed by Heitman read:
Secured treatment facility prohibition. The City of Mauston shall not approve or permit the location of a Secured Treatment Facility for Sexually Violent Person Commitments as defined in Chapter 980 of the Wisconsin Statutes on lands in the City of Mauston or on lands owned or annexed by the City of Mauston.
When Heitman filed his petition, there was nothing in the Mauston zoning code concerning facilities under ch. 980, Stats. There was the usual provision for hospitals and clinics, but a ch. 980 facility is, in effect, a prison containing a treatment facility for sexually violent persons. When the Mauston Common Council and plan commission first adopted Mauston's zoning code, it could not have considered a ch. 980 facility as a hospital or clinic, in the same way that people usually interpret these words. I am aware that after the Heit-man petition was filed, the Mauston Common Council adopted a change in its zoning ordinance that permitted ch. 980 facilities, but I am not convinced that after-the-fact zoning can defeat a petition under § 9.20, STATS. Were that permitted, city councils that found *560§ 9.20 petitions to be an annoyance could simply adopt competing ordinances after a § 9.20 petition was filed, and thus foil the petition. Even the League of Wisconsin Municipalities' amicus brief concedes that there is merit in Heitman's claim that a municipal governing body should not be able to enact a contrary resolution or ordinance that would nullify or defeat a proposed ordinance or resolution properly initiated under § 9.20.
I therefore conclude that at the time Heitman filed his petition, Mauston had no policy as to whether its citizens favored a ch. 980, Stats., facility within the city. The Heitman ordinance was certainly not a territorial division of the City of Mauston. It did not deal with division at all, nor did it add ch. 980 uses to a particular district. It did not create a ch. 980 district. Instead, like other ordinances enacted under a city's police power, such as ordinances prohibiting box elder trees, prohibiting smoking in laundromats, prohibiting public dancing, and prohibiting gambling houses and bawdy houses, the Heitman ordinance prohibited ch. 980 facilities. If Monona can prohibit gambling houses without having the ordinance approved by its plan commission, why cannot Mauston prohibit ch. 980 facilities without the approval of its plan commission?
Were I writing for the majority, I would use the more common definition of "zoning" that I have quoted earlier. Although Mauston advances other reasons that the Heitman ordinance is invalid, I find these reasons without merit. Thus, I would reverse and remand to the circuit court with instructions to direct the City of Mauston to adopt the Heitman ordinance or submit it to Mauston's electorate.

 Section 62.23(5), Stats., provides:
MATTERS REFERRED TO CITY PLAN COMMISSION. The council, or other public body or officer of the city having final authority thereon, shall refer to the city plan commission, for its consideration and report before final action is taken by the council, *557public body or officer, the following matters: The location and architectural design of any public building; the location of any statue or other memorial; the location, acceptance, extension, alteration, vacation, abandonment, change of use, sale, acquisition of land for or lease of land for any street, alley or other public way, park, playground, airport, area for parking vehicles, or other memorial or public grounds; the location, extension, abandonment or authorization for any public utility whether publicly or privately owned; all plats of lands in the city or within the territory over which the city is given platting jurisdiction by ch. 236; the location, character and extent or acquisition, leasing or sale of lands for public or semipublic housing, slum clearance, relief of congestion, or vacation camps for children; and the amendment or repeal of aiiy ordinance adopted pursuant to this section. Unless such report is made within 30 days, or such longer period as may be stipulated by t he common council, the council or other public body or officer, may take final action without it.

 The majority uses the term "pervasive prohibition." The term "pervade" is defined to mean "to become diffused throughout every part of." Webster's Third New Int'l Dictionary 1688 (1993). I am not convinced that the use of the word "pervasive" adds anything to the word it modifies, "prohibition."