EAGLE RIVER — The Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a public hearing at the Horizons School, in Mohawk, to be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The purpose of the hearing is for county residents to voice their opinions on zoning and zoning ordinances.

“What do the people want?” Board Chairman Don Piche said in discussing the hearing.

“The board is at a crossroads with zoning,” said Piche. “The meeting is for the public to provide input on if they want zoning, do they not want zoning, do they want the townships to enact their own zoning.

“What does the public want? That’s what we’re having the meeting for,” he said.

The purpose of the hearing is for the board members to learn directly from the county residents their thoughts and wants regarding zoning. Piche said he wants this to be an informal meeting with no arguing, it is just a discussion in order for the county board to learn firsthand what the residents want.

The issue came to a head at the board’s regular July meeting Wednesday when Piche read the resignation letter of the most recent zoning commissioner, effective Aug. 2. Among the reasons for her resignation, she stated in her letter to the board: “However, the workload is more than the time I have to work here each week and be successful.”

During the meeting, Piche, said the Board has got to do something, because the current system of zoning administration is not working. For instance, the county’s Master Plan, which is required by Michigan law to be updated every five years, is nearly two years late, primarily due to arguments over regulations on short-term rentals. Most of the arguments against STR regulations are presented by owners who do not reside in the county, while stances in favor of regulations come from local residents.

After the meeting one county official said privately that many Keweenaw County residents have purchased property in adjacent Houghton County to build a garage.

“We’re losing tax revenue because the Keweenaw County (Zoning) Ordinance is 300 pages long,” he said. “and no one on earth is going to read through that.”

Board member Randy Eckloff stated his preference for dissolving the Planning Commission and returning the responsibilities of zoning to the individual townships.

“Let the townships decide for themselves if they want zoning,” Eckloff said, “or if they want any zoning at all.”

Piche said that while the Planning Commission can’t be dissolved, he agreed that the townships should be deciding their own ordinances, because a cookie-cutter approach is not beneficial to the townships.

“Allouez Township’s needs are different from Grant Township’s or Sherman Township’s,” Piche said. “But some people don’t want any zoning at all, none of the townships except Eagle Harbor Township want the responsibility, and without it (zoning), it’s going to be the Wild West out there. But it should be up to the townships.”

Planning Commission member AJ Kern stated a similar opinion at the February PC meeting, when discussing the ongoing disputes over short-term rental issues.

“It’s turning into a headache, frankly,” Kern said. “I’m just saying technically, that’s where it should be.”

Kern commented at the February meeting that STR regulations and ordinances are not a county matter but are the concerns of the individual townships and suggested the township governments be tasked with drawing up their own, as Eagle Harbor Township did a couple of years ago.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Piche commented that Eagle Harbor Township enacts their own zoning and ordinances.

“And we haven’t heard a peep from them,” he said.

County Treasurer Eric Hermanson told the board that the county cannot afford to hire a full-time zoning administrator without having to make budget cuts elsewhere.

“We’re not broke,” Piche said in a telephone interview Thursday, “but the way you run your general funds, you have to have a balance there. And if we would hire a full-time zoning administrator with a benefit package, that would become a tipping point.”

Piche said the intent of next Wednesday’s meeting is not to dissolve the PC, as some board members want to do.

“No, no. no. It’s not to dissolve the Planning Commission,” Piche said. “The Planning Commission will always be there.”

Piche said the question is what to do in regards to zoning.

The Michigan Municipal League states: Planning and zoning are the tools available to local decision-makers to balance the interests of private property rights against the need to protect the public interest, often creating competing interests that lead to conflict.

“Dealing with each of these conflicting perspectives is simply not possible,” the MML states, “and the intent of planning is to avoid conflicts that arise. Instead, zoning follows some basic principles and procedures designed to treat each person, property and point of view in a fair and consistent manner.”