 And today we're very pleased, actually, a new face to Sheboygan County, Mr. Jim Holbert. Jim is the most recent addition to our management team. He's the new planning director, been with us now for about five or six weeks, and Jim is just very good to have you aboard. Welcome. Well, thank you, Adam. Jim, why don't you begin by sharing a little bit about yourself, obviously being new to the area and new to the planning director position for Sheboygan County. Let our viewers know a little bit about who Jim Holbert is. Sure. Well, I've had two similar positions in two other counties in Wisconsin, Pierce County and Dunn County, and my duties there were essentially the same as what I'm doing here. And I did that for approximately 10 years and really enjoyed that. Other experiences I've had, oh gosh, let's see, I was environmental affairs and sustainability coordinator for the Aveda Corporation. I was a pollution control specialist for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. I've owned and operated my own environmental consulting firm for a number of years and had governmental and industrial clients. And believe it or not, my last job was actually on the island of Guam. I managed a very small environmental consulting firm, and we did work on Guam, Saipan, and Yap. And educationally, I have a bachelor's degree in biology, a minor in sociology, and I've done graduate work under a stipend and fellowship from the U.S. Public Health Service in environmental health with major concentrations in water quality and public health biology. I know that when we went through the interview process, your experience and background obviously just really was impressive. And we just got together prior to this meeting to touch base a little bit, and I was alluding to the fact that though it's only been five or six weeks, it feels so much longer because you've just transitioned so well into the planning department and really have done a nice job. What's your impression of Sheboygan County? Well, first of all, thank you for saying that. And I think the transition has been easy because of you and because of Bill and the wonderful staff of the county and indeed all the citizens in Sheboygan County. My initial impressions of the county, of course, is a very beautiful place. My gosh, we've got the wonderful Lake Michigan, the Sheboygan Marsh, the Kettlemarine State Forest. It's a beautiful mix of urban and rural areas, a good mix of rural land uses and urban land uses. And I think the best thing about Sheboygan County so far are the people. I really enjoyed meeting the people and working with them, and I guess I had a really good time so far these almost two months. Well, good to hear. Good to hear. Now, as viewers who follow this show periodically, they know that we try to touch on each of our 23 departments to give them a flavor of role and responsibilities. And as I mentioned, you hit the ground running and certainly have experience as a director in two other counties. Could you give us a flavor for what are some of the predominant role and responsibilities of the planning department? What are you all involved with? Well, it seems like in this county and most others, the planning department kind of gets things that nobody else wants where they kind of fall between the cracks. We really do a lot of different things. I think the first thing I could think of would be floodplain management. Under both state and federal laws, counties like Sheboygan County have to enforce floodplain regulations. And we do that through zoning. And so people who do things in floodplains have to come into the county and get a land use permit. Under state regulations, Sheboygan County also has to enforce shoreland regulations. And so people doing land use activities by rivers and streams and lakes and so on, they require a permit from us as well. The county also regulates septic systems, individual wastewater treatment systems for sanitary waste from houses and businesses, but industrial waste and hazardous waste, that's really regulated by the DNR. And so again, people wishing to build a home that requires a septic system, they'll have to come in and get a permit from Sheboygan County. We also operate something fairly new and that's a requirement from the state of Wisconsin that we work with people who own septic systems to make sure that their tanks are inspected and pumped out on a three-year basis. And so we really would appreciate the understanding of rural landowners and that we have to make sure that the septic systems are working properly in order to protect public health and the environment. Other things that we're involved in would be smart growth planning, again under legislative direction. All local units of government in Wisconsin are supposed to do land use planning if they do anything regarding land regulation at all. And so we've worked with a number of communities, in fact, I think most of the communities and towns in Sheboygan County and we're helping them along with the University of Wisconsin Extension and some regional planning agencies to do comprehensive land use plans. Other things that we do, my gosh, one of the things that I'm really interested in would be the Sheboygan Marsh for example, the county is coordinating and actually leading the efforts to make sure that the marsh is properly operated and we also maintain and operate boat landings and recreational trails. And I'm also involved in building the new marsh tower as you can see up there on the foam board and I'm proud to be working with the citizens on that. I know we're going to talk a little bit about the marsh tower in a moment but one of the areas that comes to mind that I know is probably more of an on-sung area but they do very, very important work and that's real property listing. Yes, that's correct. The real property listing is also in the planning department and they work both local governments and assessors and make sure that land use maps and parcel ownership maps are done properly and recorded properly. And we do a lot of other things as well so the planning office is very busy. You mentioned, as you said, a number of areas. How many employees do you have? We right now have about 17 employees and I've got to say that I'm really impressed. The quality of people in the planning department is excellent. They're all professionals. They all know what they have to do. They work with the public really well and again I'm just really encouraged by the fact that I'm working with some really good people so I think the citizens of Sheboygan County should be proud of the employees in the planning department. I certainly am. And they've got a tough job to do. As you said, sometimes some of the tasks you have to do are not the most popular whether it's monitoring or regulating septic systems or sending out those cards every three years to let people know that they have to have their septic system checked or some of the other regulations with shoreland and I know that occasionally the planning department has to put that black hat on and has to enforce that and that's not easy. No it's not and you know sometimes we don't really like having the black hat on but nevertheless there are regulations there are state and federal requirements and if we don't do some of these these enforcement actions I guess I'll use that term. There's consequences for the county and so we have to avoid that. Other things that the department does we've created and we implement the fire line preservation plan the natural resources and critical areas plan and also the recreation plan and right now our outdoor recreation and open space plan is almost near completion and so the first draft will be going out to local units of government and some organizations and we hope to have a public hearing on that all in the next month or two I guess. Now I know you have your fingers in all of this and as you said some great staff to work with but in your short tenure here what are a couple of projects that you personally have taken a real leadership role in? Yeah well you're right I do get involved just about everything besides the administrative and budgetary and supervisory things but I've really gotten involved in a few projects that I've I've really found interesting and we've alluded to the Marsh Tower project before and again I'm proud to work with a very fine group of citizens who have had the vision to actually increase the exposure and the education educational potential of the marsh and their vision is to build this tower and it's a tower constructed out of wood and it'll be the largest the tallest wooden observation tower in the entire state of Wisconsin and we've recently sent out our request for proposals we already have interest from several contractors that'll hopefully work with us to build the tower and we'll be opening up the bids sometimes in June and hopefully start construction by late summer and we've got almost 250 different organizations families and businesses and individuals that have contributed gosh I think at last count about 175 thousand dollars towards this project we're still just a little short but we're almost there and so if people still wish to make donations we'd appreciate that people can donate any amount of money they feel comfortable with and for certain amounts of donations we can inscribe their name or you know a saying or some words on a brick on the walkway leading up to the tower they could buy a step or maybe a business or a corporation would like to buy a level or a floor and I think there's one or two of those left so we've had quite a bit of success in our fundraising I know as well you've taken a real leadership role and jumped in with both feet with our non-motorized transportation program and and that effort could you touch on that a little bit sure as the viewers might know Sheboygan County has been really lucky we're one of four municipalities or locations in the country that have gotten this this grant and we've got about 25 million dollars and what this grant would enable us to do would be to take a look at increasing alternative transportation in other words modes of transportation that don't rely on fossil fuels getting away from the automobile for example and increasing the numbers of people who either bike or walk to work or to school we've got excellent staff in that program we have a very wonderful Citizens Advisory and Technical Committee there's I think 30 members of the community involved in that they're doing a wonderful job and overall the whole effort is under the supervision of the Joint Transportation and Resources Committee of the County Board we've just recently gone through a grant award cycle and we've awarded I think approximately 1.1 million dollars of grants to look and you know it's a government and organizations we're in the process now of analyzing additional grants that have been grant requests that have been submitted to us excellent well done thank you Jim you've pretty well talked already about the Marsh Tire Tower anything else you wanted to add regarding that project yeah again I think it's a very valuable addition to the infrastructure at the marsh we have a lot of people coming out there and I think the tower would be a really good addition and it might even be a destination itself for people to come out there but if people might be interested in knowing is that we plan to actually install a video camera on top of the tower with remote controls underneath are at the adjacent marsh lodge so if elderly people or handicapped people don't think they can make it all the way up the 80 feet of the tower they can manipulate the controls and pan and zoom the camera to look 360 degrees all over the marsh and maybe zoom in on something that they're interested in also in our long-term plans we'd like to include a webcam and have that on top of the tower so anybody around the world in the comfort of their own living room can just dial up on the internet and take a look at the Sheboygan Marsh maybe even in China who knows okay now as you said the tower will be in the Broughton Sheboygan Marsh and you've taken a real interest in that what do you think about that as a resource for Sheboygan County yes I have and that's a really good question Bill I think that the Broughton Sheboygan Marsh and wildlife area is a gem I mean it's waiting to be discovered by the outside world almost you know people in Sheboygan County they know about it and you know it's here but it has such a rich paleontological archaeological and historical background I've done a little bit of research and it's it's really an outstanding resource again there's many species of extinct animals that used to live in or around the marsh that might be actually preserved in the marsh itself the marsh area has been steadily occupied by Native Americans for at least 12,000 years and so for at least 12,000 years there's been villages almost entirely around the marsh in fact today there's collections of tools and weapons and points in several different locations numbering in the thousands of pieces that come from this area historically we've got famous figures like Charles Broughton whose namesake is for the marsh he was instrumental in getting the marsh established and under the supervision and funding by the county board we've got John Sexton a very colorful character also that used to live by the marsh and ecologically it's very unique it it's a place that I think scientists people from universities can come and do some studying that might not be possible anywhere else and again it's it should be an excellent tourism destination for people that are interested in this kind of thing so I think we're just at the very beginning and if people have the effort they can really create something here and I'm really happy about that and if people want more information they can either call me directly or go on the county website and we've got more information about the marsh tower or about the marsh itself and if you go on to the county's website you go up to the department's hot button you click that and then you hit the planning link and then under the planning web pages you'll see a lot more information about the tower and about the marsh itself okay you mentioned people could call you don't mean to put you on the spot but you remember your phone number um that's that's gonna be a test bill let's see nine two zero four five nine three seven six five so very good go ahead pass the test another issue is that recently new floodplain maps have been developed for sheboygan county what can you tell us about that process sure um from time to time the federal government through the federal emergency management agency and the state government through the department of natural resources upgrade our floodplain maps as I mentioned earlier we're responsible for making sure that we control and monitor development in the floodplain they've recently um given us draft floodplain maps that are a far cry above the maps that we've used in the past for a long time these new maps are actually um over our aerial photographs and so now we can look at the maps and we can more accurately determine where improvements are like houses and outbuildings and determine if they're on the hundred-year floodplain and the hundred-year floodplain is the regulatory boundary and essentially that means that if you're within the hundred-year floodplain then you're under some fairly restrictive zoning requirements and then lenders usually require that you also have floodplain insurance um right now those draft maps are under review and we're within a 90-day comment period and once those maps are adopted then that's what we'll use for our regulatory decisions and the department was instrumental in hosting a meeting where FEMA and DNR representatives met with citizens developers bankers local units of government and so on to discuss these new maps and I'm pleased that we have them to work with now okay and then finally Jim I see it was a new energetic department head do you see any new opportunities for your department well I do I think um what I would like to highlight in all of my actions is to work with people um better and to develop a team approach um I think if we all work together we'd minimize the use of resources and we might actually get more funding because funding agencies or entities like foundations if we can show that we work together in a partnership they're more apt to fund us also if we pool resources I think we could save money that way I think it's going to be a challenge in the future to provide more services that people demand but yet they expect that to be done with less reliance on property taxes and so that's going to be a challenge for us to live up to the expectations of the people while trying to be more frugal and not relying the property tax levy as much and I I just think that again by working together we can accomplish more other things that I think we can we can accomplish by working together would be land use planning for example and right now the county through the county stewardship fund and the state are giving grants to local units of government to undergo land use planning and so through that process citizens can determine what they want their local area their local community to look like in the future and so through extensive public involvement they work with elected officials and develop a vision of what they want their community to look like and so again most of our communities are currently working in that and I think you know reaching out beyond Sheboygan county we're also impacted by other things you know we've got increasing fuel prices we've got you know more global uncertainty and you know we've all heard about climate change and that sort of thing and all of those things are eventually going to come to bear here and so people might think you know well the price of gasoline is really going to make things difficult and as a consumer or a driver maybe that's true but that also opens up opportunities to us we're lucky and that we're between Chicago and Milwaukee and door county and this gives us an opportunity maybe to make this tourism destination in itself so people will spend more money more time here in Sheboygan county and we've got wonderful wonderful assets here for people to enjoy and visit thank you Jim such a skeptical man isn't he nothing positive on the horizon up there it's it's very refreshing and thank you and it's it's good to hear and you touched on land use planning and the importance of that and and smart growth planning and Dave such our UWB extension agent has been very involved with that and the county has been working closely with the units of government to to get that off the ground and I think from time to time people wonder to themselves oh what is really the difference between land use planning and zoning could you shed some light on that sure that's a really good question I commonly get asked that every once in a while I guess too land use planning I guess could be could be seen as a vision a communal vision for the future in other words how do people in a community want their area to look in the future 25 years maybe 30 years out do they want a lot of development if so where do they want that do they want to protect open space do they want to encourage alternative means of transportation and that sort of thing and a plan can be used by decision makers and elected officials to kind of guide development but that's it that has limitations it's only a guide zoning on the other hand is the legal mechanism zoning is the tool that a local unit of government can use to actually implement the land use plan and zoning really can mediate between property owners I guess zoning sometimes has kind of a bad name or a bad nuance but actually it levels the playing field among landowners so again my personal philosophy on zoning is that I think it's necessary to protect public health in the environment but at the same time I think everybody has the absolute right to do whatever they want with their own property without government intrusion and last however they're going to impact their neighbors that there's any potential to adversely impact how their neighbors can enjoy their property then that's when I think zoning has a role to make sure that everybody has a fair shake and using their land and making sure that one land use doesn't adversely impact somebody else and reduce their property values or make it so perhaps they can't even go outside or play with their children or so on so zoning does have a place and zoning has quite a bit of case law and so it's been supported by the courts I guess the only negative thing about zoning is that you know it can be misused perhaps if the local unit of government isn't really trained and how to handle it and that's that's a nice segue to the next question I like to give Bill Gearing a hard time occasionally because not only is he county board chairman he's a town chairman and also president or chair of the county towns association so I give him a lot of credit for his public service as well as the difficult challenges that he has to deal with at the county level and at the town level and one of the things that I know you just mentioned to me the other day is occasionally you hear people in this community say well the town is going to take the lead and we're going to have our own town zoning and you're never going to see county zoning and some counties as you know have county wide zoning some don't what's your point of view on that well so that's a good question I think Sheboygan County is somewhat unique and that there isn't county wide zoning in fact all the most of the local towns enact and enforce their own zoning regulations and I guess bottom line is it doesn't really make any difference to me it's how the people feel best whatever is best for them I mean if they feel that zoning is best applied through their local township I think that's wonderful if on the other hand people think maybe the county can do a better job I would support that too but it seems to be working here in Sheboygan County so under the system of town zoning I think this could be used as an example of how it can work but again I would I would have to caution that that zoning can sometimes result in controversy as we all know and sometimes controversy results in lawsuits and so if zoning isn't applied equitably and fairly that that could start legal action either against various citizens or against the local unit of government and quite frankly a lot of money can be spent fighting lawsuits that arise from the poor application of zoning I've not seen that here yet by the way and I don't think I will because I've met a lot of the town people when I've gone to the town's association meeting and again I'm impressed with the high caliber of people elected to local office here with land use planning and with the zoning comes decision making about where residential areas are going to be and how you know what the vision is as you touched on and I think a lot of people are under the impression that well the more residential development we have in our area the more growth we have the more property taxes are going to go down what do you think well that's kind of an urban myth or maybe I should say rural myth here there's been many many studied studies dozens or even hundreds that show just the opposite under traditional subdivisions under traditional property development it's usually on large lots and large lots means that you have to have a lot of roads you have to have more miles traveled by school buses more miles patrolled by the sheriff deputies for example and there's more expense involved under these traditional things and also utility companies as another example they have to run more miles of wire or more miles of pipe between customers and so their their costs are higher they have to raise their rates and so actually again all these studies numerous studies show that for every dollar collected from residential property owners in rural areas almost always results in more than a demand from more than a dollar in services and there are ways to combat this however and still allow residential development and I guess my favorite way or I guess the method I would really rely on the most is something called conservation subdivisions and that's where the lot sizes are smaller perhaps and buildings are clustered together and the association or the conservation subdivision might actually own or have title to many many acres of open area forced for example or parkland for the exclusive benefit of the people who live in the housing area and the national association of realtors the national home builders association many other groups as well as people like the Sierra Club all our proponents for conservation subdivisions it's one of these rare things that I found where you've got environmental groups and you know businesses and fairly conservative organizations all agreeing that something is is really beneficial to everybody and that's conservation subdivisions generally the individual lots can sell for more money generally the houses appreciate and value higher and surveys of people who live in conservation subdivisions almost always show a greater happiness of living there and then if they choose to move they can generally turn around and sell their houses or their properties at an increased price so again conservation subdivision is win-win for everybody so growth is not always a good thing but if it's planned well it certainly can be and that's an effective approach to apply in in rural areas well we only have a minute left and I just wanted to ask finally in the the months ahead do you see any key challenges coming your way and I have to emphasize we only have about a minute sure I guess the challenges again would be to try to do everything that's expected of us within budget and I think we can do that and the best way to do that is by working in partnership in teamwork with other departments in county government and all our localness of government and our citizens and I think we can do that and that summed it up right on the head all of us at all levels of government with budget times as they are and resources restraints as they are it's it's becoming increasingly challenging to not only maintain but improve services and programs as people demand them with limited resources and certainly all of our department heads including Mr. Jim Holbert are going to have that challenge but Jim I can't tell you enough how pleased I am to have you aboard I think you're a great addition to our management team and it's just good to have you here in Sheboygan County well thank you very much until next month on behalf of chairman Bill Gehring the full county board and myself thank you for joining us next month we Dave Such the UW extension agent chair will be joining us to talk about UW extensions programs and services and some initiatives in that area so until then thank you for joining us