Walker signs legislation expanding property rights
Governor also approves bills about homelessness and U.S. Constitution
MADISON – Gov. Scott Walker signed bills Monday aimed at expanding property rights and addressing homelessness.
The GOP governor also signed a measure spelling out who to send to a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution, if such a gathering were held.
In private signing sessions, Walker approved Assembly Bill 479 and Assembly Bill 480, which backers have dubbed the “homeowners’ bill of rights.” Assembly Bill 479 will allow property owners to use and sell substandard lots and comes in response to a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that determined a Wisconsin family was not entitled to compensation over development regulations that barred the sale of a lot it owns adjacent to its cottage on Lake St. Croix.
The family wanted to sell the undeveloped lot to finance renovations to their cottage. The adjacent lot had been rendered undevelopable by local landuse policies, and courts ruled the family had not lost the value of its property because the combined parcel could be used to build a new home.
The new law will let property owners build on and sell substandard lots if they were legal when they were created. It will also prohibit merging adjacent lots that share the same owner without the owner’s permission.
Other provisions would make it easier to get conditional-use permits and variances, maintain nonconforming structures, dredge private ponds and hang the American flag when condominium or homeowner association rules might prohibit that.
Assembly Bill 480 will bar assessors from increasing the assessment of a property solely because the owner refused to let them inside. It will also give
owners who did not let assessors into their properties the ability to challenge their assessments.
Homelessness. Walker signed Assembly Bill 234, which will bring together eight agencies to target homelessness through a council that will be chaired by Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch.
He also approved Assembly Bill 236, which will allow the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to provide case management to the chronically homeless.
Constitution. If a convention were held to amend the U.S. Constitution, Wisconsin would send seven delegates under another measure Walker signed, Assembly Bill 165.
Three delegates would be appointed by the speaker of the Assembly, three by the president of the state Senate and one by the governor.
This month, the Legislature called for holding a convention to adopt a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget.
Walker did not have to sign off on that proposal, which made Wisconsin the 28th state to call for such a convention, according to the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force.
Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows a convention for proposing amendments to be held if two-thirds of the states — 34 — call for one. To take effect, any amendments passed at a convention would have to be approved by three-quarters of the states, or 38.
The new law will let property owners build on and sell substandard lots if they were legal when they were created.