Town has not accepted parcel

By Angie Landsverk

More than five months after the Waupaca Common Council voted to return the Oz Natural Area to the family who donated it to the city, the parcel remains owned by the city and in it.

The almost 13-acre parcel next to it that the family retained at the time of their donation remains in the city as well.

The two parcels have not been rejoined nor accepted back into the town of Waupaca.

Now Kari Esbensen and Russ Butkiewicz are asking the city to initiate the petition to detach the Oz Natural Area.

They made that request in January, and it is expected to go before the council when it meets on Tuesday, March 6.

The council voted unanimously last September to return the 22-acre Oz parcel to Esbensen and Butkiewicz.

They formally requested the land be returned, citing years of legal disputes, discussion and negotiation with city staff and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

When the council voted to return the land to them, it agreed to transfer the title to them.

The two parcels would then be owned by them and merged into one parcel.

Esbensen and Butkiewicz were then to petition to detach the parcel from the city.

They instead petitioned first to detach the 13-acre parcel they had retained.

On Dec. 5, the council voted unanimously to detach that parcel.

Under state statutes, the parcel needed to be accepted into the town of Waupaca within 60 days, or the whole thing would be void, City Attorney John Hart explained during the council’s Feb. 6 meeting.

Both parcels were within the town of Waupaca before Esbensen and Butkiewicz donated the 22-acre parcel to the city to become the Oz Natural Area.

They donated that parcel to the city about 20 years ago for the creation of the natural area.

Once the two parcels are rejoined and under their ownership, they want to restore the entire 34 acres under the objectives they had for the Oz Natural Area.

That includes their desire to use goats to manage invasive plants on the property, something they are unable to do while the property is in the city.

The Waupaca Town Board met twice in January, but tabled a decision on accepting the parcel.

With it being a new process for the town, the board had questions, the couple said.

Since it did not accept the parcel within the 60-day timeframe, the ordinance the council passed on Dec. 6 is void, Hart said.

“If anything is going to be done with the detachment of the properties, it has to start all over,” he said that evening.

During that meeting, Butkiewicz asked the city to reach out to the town of Waupaca regarding its concerns.

“I still recommend bringing that forward March 6,” Mayor Brian Smith said of the couple’s request to have the city initiate the detachment of the Oz parcel.