(A) The County Board of Supervisors recognizes that uncontrolled use of the lands that surround the Wisconsin Great River Road/National Scenic Byway (State Highway 35) within the county would adversely affect the environment, public health, safety, and property values, and irreparably harm the recreation and tourism economies thereby impairing the tax base of the county.
(B) The Wisconsin Great River Road is defined in Wis. Stat. § 84.107(1). In 1938, a multi-state group, with the state as a participant, initiated planning for a parkway along the Mississippi River. The Great River Road National Scenic Byway (GRR/NSB) that emerged from this plan follows the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles through ten states, from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. In the state, the State Department of Transportation is now the jurisdictional authority over the segment of the GRR/NSB that runs through it. The Mississippi River Parkway Commission (MRPC), as defined by Wis. Stat. § 14.85, has coordinated efforts on federal, state, and local levels to leverage millions of dollars for building and maintaining highway improvements, recreational trails, bikeways, scenic overlooks, and tourist information centers, and for preserving and commemorating historic sites. Since the GRR received the prestigious designation as a National Scenic Byway in 2000, approximately $9,300,000 ($7,400,000 in federal dollars and $1,900,000 in state dollars) has been invested to preserve, enhance, and promote the GRR/NSB as a national and state tourism corridor and travel destination. This investment has helped to create thousands of jobs in the tourism economy along the Wisconsin Great River Road/National Scenic Byway. According to figures collected by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, there were approximately 4,800 tourism-based jobs on or near the Wisconsin GRR/NSB in 2011, generating over $255,000,000 in visitor spending in that year alone.
(C) “Frac Sand” is hydraulic fracture-grade silica sand used in the exploration, drilling, production, and recovery of oil and gas. Silica sand deposits that can be readily accessed and processed into frac sand occur in many parts of Western Wisconsin, including the county. Unlike other nonmetallic mining operations, the mining, extraction, storage, processing, and transportation of frac sand (“frac sand operations”) both in the towns and villages of Stockholm and Pepin can adversely affect the environment, health, safety, and general welfare of the residents, land owners, and members of the general public who leisurely travel the GRR/NSB, stopping at the many scenic overlooks, historical markers, waysides, and picturesque villages to experience the intrinsic features and values unique to the area’s rural land and communities. Frac sand operations involve very large numbers of heavy trucks each day transporting industrial silica sand and frac sand to and from mining sites, off-site processing facilities, and rail and barge loading facilities. Unlike other nonmetallic mining operations, frac sand operations, because of their size and scope, will have adverse effects on the many resources of the towns and villages, including their groundwater, surface water, landscape, natural beauty, and public roads. These resources are the key to the success of farming, recreation, and tourism which are currently the prevailing businesses and the economic base of the towns and villages along the GRR/NSB.
(D) Frac sand operations in the county that use the Great River Road/National Scenic Byway for hauling of frac sand in excess of 50-truck trips per day will cause irreparable harm to land values and the recreation and tourism economies on or near the GRR/NSB. Competition with heavy frac sand traffic will discourage and in some cases physically deter the public from coming to this part of the county to visit, shop, dine, lodge, or enjoy the area’s unique opportunities for boating, fishing, and sight-seeing. Many tourism jobs will be lost if hundreds of frac sand trucks each day travel on the roads and highways that go through the towns and villages. Property in the towns and villages will not be as desirable for residential development.
(E) The loss of tourism jobs coupled with a decrease in property values in the towns and villages would reduce the county’s overall tax base and state sales tax revenues returned to the county. In 2012, the towns and villages along the Great River Road provided 36.2% of the equalized values for property taxes assessed in the county. This loss of tax base, should it occur, will negatively affect the ability of the county to provide essential government services to residents of the county, and will increase the property tax burden for the City of Durand and other townships in the county.
(Ord. passed 3-10-2014)