Therefore, WISDOT proposes a separate setback portion of this proposed rule revision to balance individual, private concerns while preserving the public interest as follows:
A. HIGHWAYS AND MAPS FOR “NORMAL" SETBACK. The normal setback associated with land divisions that has been in existence since 1956 is 110 feet from the center line of the highway or 50 feet from the nearest right of way line, whichever is greater. This normal setback provision will be made applicable to a reduced system of highways. This will consist of those state trunk and connecting highways identified as part of the National Highway System (NHS), [the NHS includes all of Wisconsin's Corridors 2020 as a subset], as well as all other principal arterials, and all other state trunk highways with current average daily traffic of 5,000 or more, and all other state trunk and connecting highways within incorporated areas and within one mile of those corporate boundaries, and those highways with current and forecasted congestion projected to be worse than Level of Service “C" within the following 20 years. [***INSERT MILEAGE NUMBERS****] The rule calls for updating reference maps that identify this system at least every two years. Persons may still seek special exceptions to this normal setback requirement through a specific analysis process.
B. OTHER HIGHWAYS. The remaining state trunk and connecting highways will have a reduced setback of 15 feet from the nearest right of way line, unless local ordinances require a greater setback. Persons may still seek special exceptions to this reduced setback requirement through a specific analysis process.
3. IMPLEMENT CHANGES IN STATE AND FEDERAL LAW:
The third purpose of this proposed rule provision is to recognize and reflect recent changes in state and federal laws and regulations regarding land use that affect highway and transportation planning and development.
Human Equality:
Section 15.04 (1) (g), Stats., requires the head of each Wisconsin agency to examine and assess the statutes under which the head has powers or regulatory responsibilities, the procedures by which those statutes are administered and the rules promulgated under those statutes to determine whether they have any arbitrary discriminatory effect on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sex, marital status or sexual orientation. If WISDOT or agency head finds any such discrimination, he or she shall take remedial action, including making recommendations to the appropriate executive, legislative or administrative authority.
Similarly, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." 42 USC 2000d. It bars intentional discrimination as well as disparate impact on protected groups. The federal government has taken steps to require the implementation of these laws at the earliest possible time in the transportation planning process.
Highway building projects that require the destruction of downtown areas due to lack of corridor preservation and lack of adequate setbacks and lack of concern for the affected populace have allegedly had a disparate impact on low income and minority populations. WISDOT believes that it cannot fulfill the mandates of these laws without a comprehensive system of review of land divisions abutting state trunk and connecting highways.
Environment:
Sections 1.11, 1.12, 32.035 and 1.13, 16.9651(2), and 66.0295 (2) (c), Stats., as created by 1999 Wis. Act 9, direct, authorize, and encourage Wisconsin state agencies, including WISDOT, to the fullest extent possible, to consider the effect of their actions on the environment (air, water, noise, endangered plants and animals, parklands, historic, scenic, etc.), the use of energy, the impact on agriculture and to balance the mission of the agency and local, comprehensive planning goals, including building of community identity by revitalizing main streets and enforcing design standards, encouragement of neighborhood designs that support a range of transportation options, and providing an integrated, efficient and economical transportation system that affords mobility, convenience and safety that meets the needs of all citizens, including transit-dependent and disabled citizens, and implements transportation corridor plans.
Similarly, federal laws require WISDOT to abide by federal design and construction standards while also considering, for example, the impact of WISDOT's actions on air, noise, water pollution, man-made and natural resources, community cohesion and injurious displacement of people, businesses and farms, and implementing federal regulations that require a minimum 20-year transportation planning horizon. WISDOT is authorized and directed by Wisconsin law to carry out all of these federal mandates by ss. 84.01 (15), 84.015, and 84.03 (1), Stats.
In order to achieve these objectives, WISDOT must do specific analyses looking forward for at least 20 years as required by federal law. WISDOT believes that it cannot fulfill the mandates of these laws without a comprehensive system of review of land divisions abutting state trunk and connecting highways.
RESTRICTIONS REQUIRING USE OF EXISTING CORRIDORS:
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has determined that WISDOT cannot expand its authority to acquire property by agreeing to environmental and human impact mitigation demands of other state and federal authorities in order to get their concurrence to proceed with a project. Mitton v. Transportation Dept., 184 Wis. 2d 738, 516 N.W.2d 709 (1994). Subsequent to this decision, the Wisconsin Legislature enacted s. 86.255, Stats., in 1999 Wis. Act 9, that places further restrictions on WISDOT's authority to acquire property. These judicial and legislative restrictions have made it necessary for WISDOT to rely on farther, long-range planning and corridor preservation.
CONCLUSION:
Within the rigorous expectations placed upon and expected of WISDOT in providing a transportation system for the public, the ultimate objective of this proposed rule revision is to recognize state and local economic and land use goals, enhance the effectiveness of the rule “as may be deemed necessary and proper for the preservation of highways, or for the safety of the public, and to make the granting of any highway access permit conditional thereon," to provide reasonable flexibility and clarity that does not jeopardize public investments or safety now or in the future, and to provide for “the safety of entrance upon and departure from the abutting state trunk highways or connecting highways and for the preservation of the public interest and investment in such highways." The rule is intended to ensure adequate setbacks and access controls, with sufficient flexibility to provide for locally planned traditional streetscapes and setbacks in existing and planned urban areas, and to ensure the maximum practical use of existing highway facilities and rights of way to minimize the need for new alignments or expansion of lower function facilities. WISDOT believes that it cannot achieve these legal mandates and expectations without a comprehensive system of review of land divisions abutting state trunk and connecting highways.
Fiscal Estimate
There will be an insubstantial reduction in revenues from the fee for the services provided by WISDOT in conjunction with review of land divisions. The change should not have an effect upon any county, city, village, town, school district, vocational, technical and adult education district and sewerage district liability unless they are assuming the role of developer. That situation occurs approximately five to ten times per year statewide. Developers will see a slight reduction in costs related to some condominium plat reviews. Surveyors who submit maps for review will pay less in total fees for the same reason, but those savings could be passed onto the developer. There will also be a slight reduction in costs of surveys passed on to developers or owners.
Several of WISDOT's transportation districts may use existing personnel to review more or less land divisions than in the past. There will be fewer reviews by WISDOT's Central Office staff, but there may be greater involvement with delegations of reviews to local units of government. It is expected that some of the District costs will be defrayed by WISDOT delegating the review for some developments of land abutting connecting highways to the local municipality as allowed in s. 236.12 (2) (a), Stats. Since, in general, local officials do review these documents now, there would be no additional costs to any reviewing authority, except to the extent they may voluntarily wish to also review developments of land abutting state trunk highways within their geographic jurisdiction.
In the long-term, there will in all likelihood be state, local and private savings that can be attributed to better long-range transportation planning and less adverse and more positive effects upon communities, businesses, residents, and the environment. An efficient and safe transportation system will have a positive, but hard-to-quantify, fiscal effect.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
Section 236.12 (7), Stats., allows WISDOT to establish by rule the reasonable service fees for all or part of the costs of the activities and services provided by WISDOT under that chapter of the statutes. The rule revision eliminates fees to cover the costs of WISDOT for reviewing condominium plats where there is only a change from lease to ownership without a change in property use that affects transportation systems. There is also a delegation to district offices and municipalities that will provide greater access and flexibility in verifying and field reviewing documents. The setback requirements are also reduced on defined highways where consistent with safety and sound transportation planning. Finally, there is a provision for specific analysis and review of requests for special exceptions that does not have to meet the strict, restrictive legal standards for granting variances announced by the Wisconsin Court in State v. Kenosha County Bd. of Adjust., 218 Wis. 2d 396, 577 N.W.2d 813 (1998). The rule also makes new exceptions for locating residential swimming pools within the setback at the owner's option.
Copies of Proposed Rule and Contact Information
Copies of the rule may be obtained upon request, without cost, by writing to Julie Johnson, Administrative Rules Coordinator, Department of Transportation, Office of General Counsel, Room 115-B, P. O. Box 7910, Madison, WI 53707-7910, or by calling (608) 267-3703. Alternate formats of the proposed rule will be provided to individuals at their request.
Notice of Hearings
Workforce Development
(Economic Support,
Chs. DWD 11 to 59)
Notice is hereby given that pursuant to ss. 103.005 (1), 108.04 (2) (b), and 227.11 (2), Stats., the Department of Workforce Development will hold four public hearings to consider the creation of ch. DWD 42, relating to the state directory of new hires.
Hearing Information
Date & Time Location
August 7, 2000 Room 371, G.E.F. #1
Monday 201 E. Washington Ave.
1:00 p.m. MADISON, WI
August 8, 2000 Room 136
Tuesday Waukesha State Office Bldg.
10:30 a.m. 141 N. W. Barstow St.
WAUKESHA, WI
August 10, 2000 Suite B
Thursday Fox Valley Hearing Office
10:30 a.m. 2900 N. Mason St.
APPLETON, WI
August 22, 2000 Suite 1 (Hearing Room 2)
Tuesday Eau Claire Hearing Office
11:00 a.m. 715 S. Barstow St.
EAU CLAIRE, WI
Interested persons are invited to appear at the hearings and will be afforded the opportunity to make oral presentations of their positions. Persons making oral presentations are requested to submit their facts, views, and suggested rewording in writing.
If you have special needs or circumstances that may make communication or accessibility difficult at the hearing, please call (608) 267-9403 at least 10 days prior to the hearing date. Accommodations such as ASL interpreters, English translators, or materials in audiotape format will be made available on request to the fullest extent possible.
Analysis Prepared by the Dept. of Workforce Development
Statutory authority: ss. 103.05 (3), 103.005 and 227.11
Statute interpreted by the rule: s. 103.05
Relevant federal law: 42 USC 653a (a) (1) (A)
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) directed each state to establish a process by which employers report information about employees shortly after the date of hire for the purpose of assisting child support agencies in locating parents or putative fathers. In response, the State of Wisconsin enacted s. 103.05, Stats., which directed the Department of Workforce Development (DWD) to establish and operate a hiring reporting system that includes a state directory of new hires.
Employers report new hire information to the Department of Workforce Development Unemployment Insurance Division (DWD-UID), which administers the state new hire directory. When employers report new hires to DWD-UID, the names are checked against a list of persons sought to ascertain paternity or who owe child support. Matches are referred to the state Bureau of Child Support. The state directory is also transmitted to a National Directory so that it can be similarly used by each state to locate parents who have moved to other states.
Most employees are considered new hires when they report for work the first time or when they return to work after an unpaid absence of more than 90 days. Poll workers, who generally only work at the polls a few days a year and who tend to do so repeatedly, will be considered newly-hired the first time they work for an employer but not each subsequent time they work at the polls for that same employer. Similarly, substitute teachers will be considered newly-hired the first time they work for a particular employer during a school year but not each subsequent time they are provided a substitute teaching assignment by that employer during that school year.
Required information in a new hire report includes the following data elements: (1) employee name, (2) employee address, (3) employee social security number, (4) employer name, (5) employer address, (6) employer's Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN), (7) date the employee started work, and (8) employee's date of birth. Additional required information of multi-state employers who choose Wisconsin as the sole state to which it reports is the state in which the employee will work, if other than Wisconsin.
An employer may fulfill its reporting requirement for a newly-hired employee using the following formats: (1) on paper by submitting a paper report containing all listed elements, (2) on paper by submitting a completed copy of the employee's federal W-4 form, (3) on paper by submitting a copy of the employee's Wisconsin WT-4 form containing all listed elements, or (4) electronically, as prescribed by the Department.
An employer who files a new hire report by submitting a federal W-4 form in which the first six elements listed in the rule have been completed has satisfied the reporting requirement.
The Department may waive the date of birth reporting requirement if the employer is unable to provide it.
An employer must file new hire reports within 20 days after the newly-hired employee starts work.
An employer with employees in more than one state, that is, a multi-state employer, may report all new hires to a single state. Multi-state employers choosing the single-state reporting option must submit written notice of the state to which they choose to report to the federal Department of Health and Human services.
Any person who violates any provision of this rule may be subject to penalties provided under s. 103.05, Stats.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The proposed rules impose no significant impact on small businesses, as defined under s. 227.114, Stats., since the requirement of employers to file new hire reports is already mandated by federal and state laws. Six of the required elements listed in the proposed rules are specifically required by the federal legislation creating the new hire program. While “date of birth" is listed as an additional required element, the Department will waive that requirement if it determines that the employer is unable to obtain it. “Date of hire" and “state in which the employe will work, if other than Wisconsin" are listed as required elements only to further the goals of the federal and state legislation and are not required if the employer fulfills the new hire filing requirement by submitting a completed W-4 form. These W-4 forms are already required for all businesses with employees under the Internal Revenue Code and therefore do not impose additional paperwork.
Fiscal Estimate
The proposed rules have no fiscal impact beyond what has already been identified in the state's budget process. Federal legislation required the implementation of the new hire reporting system. Employers' voluntary compliance with the request to provide the dates of birth for newly-hired employees to verify their identities reduces costs to governmental units and employers while protecting employees who do not actually have child support obligations from unwarranted legal or administrative action. Since existing state legislation requires that the state offer both paper and electronic reporting, the numerous options of reporting provided in the proposed rules do not create additional impact.
Contact Information
Michelle Kho
Unemployment Insurance Division
Dept. of Workforce Development
P.O. Box 7905
Madison, WI 53707-7905
Telephone (608) 266-6684
Written Comments
Written comments on the proposed rules received at the above address no later than Thursday, August 24, 2000, will be given the same consideration as testimony presented at the hearing.
Text of Rule
