Lawmakers pass bills to benefit property owners
Owners of a family legacy cabin on Lake St. Croix got what they wanted Tuesday from the Wisconsin Legislature, months after they were denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Both the Assembly and the Senate voted to pass the “Homeowners’ Bill of Rights,” a package of propertyrights protections that included a provision aimed directly at providing relief to the Murr family. A pair of bills that constitute the homeowner rights protections now head to Gov. Scott Walker’s desk.
William and Margaret Murr bought two adjacent lots in the early 1960s, built a cabin on one and left the other vacant as an investment. But when their children went to sell the empty lot to finance improvements to the cabin, it was considered substandard under development regulations from the 1970s.
The family argued that amounted to an uncompensated taking of the land. Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit law firm, got the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, but the court ruled 5-3 for the state in June.
Rep. Adam Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) and Sen. Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) responded with a bill that would let property owners build on and sell substandard lots if they were legal when they were created. It would also prohibit merging adjacent lots that share the same owner without the owner’s permission.
Other parts of the bill would make it easier to get conditional-use permits and variances, maintain nonconforming structures, dredge private ponds, appeal assessments
when a homeowner refuses to let the assessor inside the house, and hang the American flag when condominium or homeowner association rules might prohibit that.
Donna Murr, who became the spokeswoman for her siblings during the court fights, said they are not sure yet whether they’ll sell, develop or keep the extra lot for now.
“My brothers and sister and I will take a deep breath and make a decision that is best for our family,” Murr said. “From the beginning, that has always been what it’s been about for us.
“I am a bit overwhelmed but also very happy with today’s votes. It’s been a very long haul — over 15 years.”
Murr noted that other provisions in the bills “will make it easier for us to repair our ‘non-conforming,’ “950-square foot, 57-year old cabin by eliminating most of the red tape.
“Anyone who owns a ‘non-conforming’ cabin or home on a lake or river in Wisconsin should be thrilled with this legislation,” she said.
John Groen, PLF’s executive vice president and general counsel, thanked Jarchow and Tiffany for the bill’s progress Tuesday.
“Whether through the courts or the Legislature, securing individual rights in property is fundamental to liberty,” Groen said. “Today’s action advances liberty.”
Groen had argued it was unfair that someone who had only one lot purchased in the 1960s would still be grandfathered to use it, while the Murrs’ two lots, because they were adjacent, were in effect unified by the regulations, as though punishment for having too much property.
But courts agreed with Wisconsin that the Murrs hadn’t lost any value, because the merged lots offered enough property to build a new house that met modern waterfront development rules.