Proposal restricting yard storage could become citywide law soon

ANTIGO — A proposal to add a section to a housing ordinance that would limit the number of vehicles residents can store outside on their properties passed a Finance, Personnel, and Legislative (FPL) Committee vote at City Hall Wednesday.

If approved at next month’s April 10 common council meeting, the change would limit the number of recreational vehicles and structures that can be stored outside at a residence, other than in a driveway, to four. Included in the category of “recreational vehicles and structures” are buildings for ice fishing, campers, recreational vehicles, snowmobiles, boats, ATVs, personal watercraft, off-road bikes, go-carts, and lawn mowers. In addition, a single residence would only be allowed to store one camper, and other than in the driveway, no storage would be allowed in front or side yards adjacent to streets.

According to the last portion of the amendment, machinery and heavy equipment — including tractors, farm equipment, logging equipment, skisteers, bulldozers, backhoes, bucket trucks, commercial/industrial equipment trailers, lifts, forklifts, amusement rides, and other similar vehicles — could not be stored outside at all.

City of Antigo Building Inspector and Zoning Administrator Beth McCarthy gave a short presentation about the potential changes.

“Initially I was approached with this idea and I was kind of on the fence with it, because there’s a lot to consider when you try to pass something that puts this much restriction on a person’s private property,” McCarthy said.

“But then as we kind of dug into other cities’ ordinances, and actually myself and my assistance Terry Kubiaczyk, from the time we first brought this idea up until present, we’ve really paid attention to how many items really are in people’s yards, what it really looks like, and to be honest with you, four is pretty liberal.”

McCarthy said many cities in Wisconsin restrict outdoor storage far more tightly.

“One community is two, some communities down by the valley are zero and you can’t have anything that’s not in the garage,” she said before going on to show a slideshow featuring photos of overcrowded, sometimes unsightly properties throughout Antigo.

“You’d think four would seem restrictive, but honestly mostly what we saw [in Antigo] was like one boat, a boat and a camper, a boat and a camper and an ATV. When you start getting more than four items, it does actually look pretty congested and it’s hard to make it look neat with the size of the yards we have here.”

Though the FPL committee supported the change, several present expressed issues they believed could result, including Fourth Ward Alderman Tom Bauknecht.

“In a way, you might be forcing people to sell some of their stuff just to comply with the ordinance. Some of these didn’t look that bad. Some of it’s worse than others,” Bauknecht said in reference to pictures on McCarthy’s slideshow. “But some people have a lot of toys, a lot of stuff.”

McCarthy countered that in the majority of cases she has observed throughout the city, once more than four vehicles are being stored in a single yard, it often seems to be “a hoarding issue.”

“This is just keeping things that aren’t being used for no reason,” she said. “They just sit there. They’ve sat there for years. There’s no attempt to use those things. We have no way of telling them they can’t have them. The neighbors call about it constantly. They don’t like how it looks, but how can we force them to get rid of anything? They can just fill the whole yard up with things.”

“But I think you might be putting the police guys on the spot. They’re going to go out there and say, ‘Hey, you have to get rid of all these vehicles. You have to get rid of one of these or two of these to comply,’” Bauknecht said.

Indeed, at several junctures of the discussion, Police Chief Dan Duley did raise questions about several of the amended ordinance’s particulars. “No one wants to see a junked up yard, but at the same time, I think enforcement’s going to be difficult.”

McCarthy said that if a resident is cited after the ordinance goes into effect, she and other city officials would not enforce violations heavy-handedly.

“We work with everybody on every type of violation,” she said. “If someone needs 30 days or 60 days to get rid of a junk vehicle, we work with them and just have them update us. It takes usually someone to completely ignore a situation or to be blatantly opposed to complying where they actually would get a citation.”

Mayor Terry Brand, who has actively supported other measures to enhance the outward appearance of properties in the city in the past, suggested the proposal is ultimately about improving the city’s image.

“They have no incentive to find another place to store their things or give a second thought to picking up another four wheeler and parking it in the backyard. In some municipalities, it’s nothing — you can’t park anything other than in your garage,” Brand said. “So what do we want our community to look like? That’s the thing. I think part of our job as the government is to protect the people and the value of their property by keeping the appearance of a junkyard out of people’s backyards.”

The proposal will be voted on by the entire city council for final approval April 10 at 6 p.m.