27.065 County parks and parkways.
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/wi/chapter-27/27-065-2A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
27.065 County parks and parkways.
(1)Land acquisition.
(a)The county board of any county which shall have adopted a county system of parks or a county system of streets and parkways, pursuant to s. 27.04 , may acquire the lands necessary for carrying out all or part of such plan by gift, purchase, condemnation or otherwise; provided, however, that no lands shall be acquired by condemnation unless and until the common council of the city or the board of trustees of the village or the board of supervisors of the town wherein such land is situated shall consent thereto. The power of condemnation may not be used for the purpose of establishing or extending a recreational trail; a bicycle way, as defined in s. 340.01
(5s); a bicycle lane, as defined in s. 340.01
(5e); or a pedestrian way, as defined in s. 346.02
(a). The cost of acquiring such lands by purchase or condemnation may be paid in whole or in part by the county or by the property to be benefited thereby, as the county board shall direct but in no case shall the amount assessed to any parcel of real estate exceed the benefits accruing thereto; provided, that no assessment for paying the cost of acquiring lands may be levied or collected against the property to be benefited until the governing body of the city, village or town where such lands are located has by resolution determined that the public welfare will be promoted thereby. Title to all lands acquired hereunder shall be an estate in fee simple.
(b)Before instituting condemnation proceedings or purchasing lands to be paid for in whole or part by assessment of benefits, the county board shall specify in general terms the land to be so acquired and shall refer the same to the county park commission, except that in counties with a county executive or county administrator, the referral shall be to the general manager. The commission or general manager shall thereafter make a report to the county board, giving a particular description of each lot, parcel or subdivision of land to be thus acquired, together with the opinion and recommendations of the commission or general manager upon the matter of acquiring such lands. Thereafter the county board may, by resolution, determine whether or not such lands shall be acquired by condemnation proceedings or otherwise.
(2)Condemnation.
(a)Whenever lands for a county system of parks or parkways are being condemned in accordance with this section, ch. 32 , relating to eminent domain with relation to the acquisition of lands for streets, applies to the acquisition of lands for streets and parkways by the county board, excepting that in cases where the whole or any part of the cost of acquiring such lands is to be paid by special assessments the board by resolution may determine that such assessments may be paid in one or more equal annual installments, together with a rate of interest upon the unpaid principal, which interest shall not exceed 6 percent. Any person whose lands are taken or against whose lands assessments for benefits or damage are made, may appeal from the award of the commissioners to the circuit court of the county as prescribed by s. 32.05
(11). If it appears to the condemnation commissioners or to the court that the public interest will be served by changing the boundaries or increasing or decreasing the amount of land to be acquired, the court or commissioners may so notify the county board, and the condemnation petition filed by the board may be so altered, changed or amended by resolution of the board. Notice may be given and new parties brought in as provided in s. 32.14 .
(b)When any assessment of benefits and damages is made in condemnation proceedings the commissioners shall file a copy of their final report in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of the county and also with the county clerk. The county clerk shall thereupon prepare a list of special taxes to be entered in the tax roll on account thereof, which list shall have set opposite each description against which benefits not offset by damages or an excess of benefits over damages shall have been assessed, the amount of such benefits or excess, which amount shall be levied upon the land described as a special tax and be collected the same as other taxes for county purposes. The amount thereof shall be certified by the county clerk with other state and county taxes and charges, to the clerks of the cities, towns or villages within which the property is located, and the clerks of the respective cities, towns or villages, at the time of making out the next tax roll, shall levy the same on the land described as a special tax to be collected the same as other taxes. The first installment shall include a proportionate part of the principal of the special assessment, together with interest on the whole assessment at the rate fixed by the county board, from the date when the county shall have obtained the right to possession of the land condemned. Payment of the amount of damages awarded to any owner by the commissioners shall be made to such owner regardless of benefits assessed against other lands of the same owner.
(c)The cost of condemnation shall be paid out of the general or contingent county fund, except where a special fund therefor shall have been provided.
(d)For the purpose of anticipating the collection of special assessments on account of such acquisition and after the assessments have been determined the county board may provide that the amount thereof may be paid with certificates against the parcels of real estate so benefited, or in special improvement bonds, or from the proceeds of the sale of such bonds, or that payments may be made part in certificates, part in cash and part in special improvement bonds, and the manner of issuing, the form and content of such certificates and bonds shall be governed by subs.
(7)to
(12)so far as applicable. The special assessment bonds issued hereunder may contain a general description of the lands against which assessments have been made to pay the cost of acquisition.
(e)The county board may provide for the payment out of the county treasury of all or any portion of the special assessments theretofore levied pursuant to this section and not yet due, and in such event shall, upon verified application, refund to the persons who have made prepayment of such assessments the proportionate amounts of such prepayments.
(3)Parkways and streets, improve. The county board may improve all or any portion of the county’s system of streets and parkways by causing the same to be leveled, graded, paved or improved in any other manner, and sidewalks, curbs or gutters or either installed, cause water and sewer mains and laterals, and lighting mains and fixtures, fences, bridges, culverts, viaducts and flood control dams erected and constructed therein, and cause the parkway portions thereof to be planted, seeded or sodded. The county board may establish the grade of all streets and parkways in areas not already established and change and reestablish the same as it deems expedient. Whenever it shall change or alter the permanently established grade of any street or parkway, any person thereby sustaining damages to property owned on the affected street shall have a right to recover the damages in the manner set forth in this section. The grade of all streets and parkways shall be established and described and the adoption of such grades and all alterations thereof shall be recorded by the county clerk. No street or parkway shall be worked until the grade thereof is established and recorded in the office of the county clerk.
(4)Expense of improvement.
(a)The expense of such work or improvement may be paid in whole or in part by the county or by the property to be benefited thereby, as the county board shall direct, but in no case shall the amount assessed to any parcel of real estate exceed the benefits accruing thereto by such improvement, and in no case shall any benefits be assessed except for grading, paving, sidewalk, curb, gutter, sewer or water mains or laterals, and in no case shall any assessment be made upon the real estate for any such work or improvement upon any established and existing road, street or highway until the governing board of the city, village or town in which said road, street or highway is located has by resolution determined that the public welfare will be promoted by such work and improvement.
(b)Where sidewalks have been installed adjacent to private property, s. 66.0907 shall govern in respect to keeping said sidewalks in repair and free from snow, ice and obstructions; provided that the county board shall have the powers in said section vested in the common council, and the county highway committee shall have such powers as are in said section vested in the board of public works, and the word “city” shall mean the county. Where private homes are built upon lands abutting on any portion of a parkway and such houses face the parkway drive and said drive is the means of entrance to said lands, similar to any city street, then the responsibility for maintaining the area between the parkway drive and the private property lot line shall be that of the abutting property owner.
(5)Preliminary estimate; contract or noncontract work.
(a)No such work or improvement shall be commenced by the county board until the county park commission except in counties with a county executive or county administrator, until the general manager, has made a preliminary estimate of the cost thereof and submitted the same, together with a proposed plan of such improvement showing the character and extent of the same to the county board. The county board may thereafter determine the character and extent of the improvements to be made. Such improvements may be made by contract or noncontract work as the county board shall determine. All contracts awarded under this paragraph shall be let by contract to the lowest responsible and reliable bidder. When the work required or directed to be let to the lowest responsible and reliable bidder, plans and specifications for the same containing a description of the work, materials to be used and such other matters as will give an intelligent idea of the work required, shall be prepared and filed with the county clerk for the inspection of bidders, together with a form of contract and bond, with sureties required, and the same shall be furnished to all persons desiring to bid on the work. All contracts shall be entered into in the name of the county and shall be executed and performed under the direction of the county board, except that in any county without a county executive or county administrator the county board may vest its county highway committee or the county park commission with authority to enter into such contracts and to have charge of the performance thereof. In any county without a county executive or county administrator, the county highway commissioner, under the direction of the county board, or the county highway committee or park commission, shall superintend such work.
(b)In any county with a county executive or a county administrator, the county board may vest the county highway commissioner or the county park manager with authority to enter into contracts under par.
(a)and to have charge of the performance thereof.
(6)Determination of benefits and damages; notice.
(a)Before the county board shall change or alter any established grade or order any work to be done in any county system of streets or parkways at the expense in whole or in part of the real estate to be benefited thereby, it shall order the county highway commissioner to view the premises and determine the damages and benefits which will accrue to each parcel of real estate affected by such change or alteration of grade, the entire cost of the contemplated work or the improvement upon the street or parkway, the benefits and damages that will accrue to the several parcels of real estate thereby, and the amount that should be assessed to each parcel of real estate as benefits accruing thereto by such contemplated work or improvement.
(b)The county highway commissioner shall make and file in the office of the county clerk and in the commissioner’s own office duplicate reports showing the determinations required to be made by the commissioner under par.
(a).
(c)Notice shall be given by the county clerk that such report is on file and open for review at this office, and will be so continued for the space of 10 days after the date of such notice, and that on a day named therein, which shall not be more than 3 days after the expiration of said 10 days, the county highway commissioner or such committee of the county board as may be appointed by resolution therefor will be present and will hear all objections that may be made to such report.
(d)Such notice shall be published as a class 2 notice, under ch. 985 .
(e)No irregularity in the form of such report nor of said notice shall affect its validity if it fairly contains the information required to be conveyed thereby.
(f)At the time specified for hearing objections to said report, the county highway commissioner or the committee shall hear all parties interested, who appear for that purpose, reduce to writing all objections that may be made and all evidence that may be offered to sustain the same, and may review, modify and correct said report as they deem just, and thereupon a complete final report shall be made and filed by the county highway commissioner or the committee with the county clerk, together with all objections and evidence taken to sustain the same, and the proof of publication of said notice, as above specified, which shall be received in all cases as presumptive evidence of the facts therein stated.