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Hearing planned for incorporation

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP — Residents will be able to voice their opinions about a proposal to turn part of Bloomfield Township into a village at a public hearing next month.

Town officials for more than a year have been discussing the idea of incorporation. They say incorporation is necessary to protect their borders from annexation by Lake Geneva and Genoa City.

The petition, now in the hands of the state Department of Administration, seeks incorporation of an 18.5-square-mile portion of the township northeast of County H and including the Pell Lake area. The proposal leaves a “buffer zone” between the proposed village and neighboring municipalities.

The Incorporation Review Board at a hearing March 23 will hear comments from town officials, residents and other stakeholders, including representatives from neighboring municipalities, Town Chairman Ken Monroe said.

“It gives them a chance to come in and speak their mind,” he said. “They’re the people who are going to have to vote on it.”

The board likely will schedule another hearing in Madison before it makes its decision on the incorporation request, Monroe said.

If the Department of Administration approves the incorporation proposal, it would be put to a referendum vote by residents.

The proposal under consideration was amended from a petition filed in August 2008.

The original petition sought incorporation of a 21-square-mile portion of the township northeast of County H from Lake Geneva to Genoa City and including the Pell Lake area.

A Walworth County judge found the proposal met the standards for incorporation and forwarded the original petition to the Department of Administration for review.

But the city of Lake Geneva and the village of Genoa City filed motions with the court to intervene. Officials said the proposed village would eat up land their municipalities had identified as areas for growth.

Officials in the three municipalities worked for months to draw borders that would be acceptable to all parties, but they couldn’t agree.

Residents instead filed an amended petition in October 2009 to include a buffer.

This is not the first time a group of residents has tried to incorporate part of Bloomfield Township. A group years ago sought incorporation of the Pell Lake area. They got approval from the state Department of Administration, but residents in 2001 voted down the incorporation referendum.