CARPC you ask? Its the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission. Not helpful, try this.
The function of the Commission is to serve as the regional planning and areawide water quality management planning entity for the Dane County region, consistent with §66.0309, Wis. Stats. and state Administrative Code NR 121. The Commission is charged with the duty of preparing and adopting a master plan for the physical development of the region, and maintaining a continuing areawide water quality management planning process in order to manage, protect, and enhance the water resources of the region, including consideration of the relationship of water quality to land and water resources and uses.
Wnat more? More info here. The Commission is composed of thirteen Commissioners appointed by the Mayor of the City of Madison (4), the Dane County Executive (3), the Dane County Cities and Villages Association (3), and the Dane County Towns Association (3). It costs the county 3/4 of a million dollars a year to run it and they have little control over the budget.
Anyways, here’s the County Executive’s thoughts.
DATE: February 2, 2012
TO: Dane County Cities and Villages Association
Dane County Towns Association
FROM: Joe Parisi, Dane County Executive
RE: Reforms to the Dane County Capital Area Regional Planning CommissionIn the wake of recent correspondence from the Department of Natural Resources regarding a proposed urban service area amendment rejected six times by the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission, I’m more resolved in the need to achieve overdue reforms to this agency.
There is an upcoming public hearing on this project and its potential impacts on the Sugar River and Badger Mill Creek. I remain hopeful the DNR will ultimately act in the best interest of these sensitive watersheds and in accordance with the regional concerns expressed with this proposal several times. This process has been a reminder of the limitations that exist with a planning agency that’s constrained to an advisory role.
As County Executive, I’ve heard near consensus on the belief that an effective CARPC could be helpful in managing our county’s rapid growth while balancing the needs of our more than $3-billion a year agricultural industry and protecting our natural resources. In this ideal role, it could help facilitate boundary disagreements between our 61 unique cities, towns, and villages and look at the county as a whole to identify areas for future growth and other infrastructure needs that result from developments.
There will be continued discussion by some about eliminating CARPC entirely. At a minimum, we owe our citizens a CARPC with a refocused mission and enhanced authority to evaluate development proposals.
I’ve met with representatives of the Department of Natural Resources and they have indicated they would be much more deferential to decisions made by CARPC should it be officially recognized as a “Designated Water Planning Agency.” This was identified as one of the original goals when CARPC was reconstituted in 2007 and was one of the easy-to- achieve reforms I proposed shortly after becoming County Executive.
I respectfully ask our partners with the Dane County Cities and Villages and Dane County Towns Associations to pass legislation encouraging the state to assign the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission this designation. I will work with the Dane County Board to secure a similar resolution. Together, there’s no reason why these resolutions couldn’t be approved by July 1st of this year and doing so will help guide this summer’s budget discussions.
If we’re willing to commit resources of Dane County taxpayers to fund the countless hours of work this agency does on reviewing urban service area amendments, we should be willing to strengthen its authority. As we’ve been reminded by this most recent proposal affecting Badger Mill Creek, the absence of this water planning designation greatly undermines the credibility and effectiveness of CARPC’s current process. We can and should do better.
Dane County cannot afford in this day and age to spend $755,707 a year to simply advise the DNR. We either need to give CARPC the appropriate authority to accomplish the goals of this work or have the DNR pursue alternatives less reliant on our taxpayers.
As elected officials, especially given our current budget restraints, it’s our responsibility to be careful stewards of the public’s money.
It should give all of us pause to think how much good the $755,707 in county tax levy spent on CARPC could do if invested into helping the growing number of children and families living in poverty, our veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan or confronting the ravages of heroin abuse in our communities – – as just a few examples.
Absence of support for this water planning designation would raise new questions about the cost benefits of this agency. I ask that communities consider this important reform prior to this summer’s work on CARPC’s 2013 budget. Other regional planning commissions have secured this designation and avoided drawn out conflicts with the DNR over development proposals. We should follow their lead and trust the judgment of the bright minds of those appointed to CARPC.
Additional reforms should also be discussed in the months ahead.
CARPC staff and members of the Commission have expressed interest in moving the agency’s offices. This will result in higher than budgeted expenses for 2012. The county currently hosts the agency at the City-County Building and provides valuable information management services at no additional cost to taxpayers. Without a similar arrangement, this would presumably change with any new lease or purchase of other space and speaks to the need for greater CARPC budget oversight by the Budget and Personnel Panel. We cannot take lightly the reality that decisions made by the Commission affect taxpayers. Because of that, I’m directing the Dane County Department of Administration to investigate whether the county can negotiate with CARPC to keep them in a county owned facility.
Efficiencies and new revenue opportunities discussed during the past several CARPC budget processes shouldn’t continue to languish. It’s been stated many times that our partners with the cities and villages are open to reviewing a per acre fee mechanism to recoup the costs associated with reviewing proposed developments. This is especially true since it is undisputed that reviewing these proposals is one of the most time consuming and costly responsibilities that CARPC performs. Currently, nearly all of that cost is born by county taxpayers. A mechanism to secure this non-taxpayer revenue source needs to be in place in advance of what certainly will be another challenging budget process for 2013.
We further need to pursue better collaboration with agencies like CARPC and the MPO. For example, better coordination may have helped better plan for costly transportation improvements now being pursued as a result of rapid growth experienced in recent years on the southwest side of Madison and Verona. Proposed upgrades to two county highways impacted by this rapid development could run upward of $35 million to our taxpayers in the coming years. This doesn’t include the ongoing costs to maintain and repair these roads.
I have in the past suggested ways to combine these and other groups important in the consideration for how our county grows. Given how residential and commercial development, transportation, and economic development are intertwined, continued consideration should be given to the potential consolidation of these agencies.
Thank you.
Joseph T. Parisi
Dane County Executive
