A legal decision is set to be made in the lawsuit against the City of Sheboygan regarding a proposed Kohler Golf Course.
Court records show that Judge Samantha Bastil will make her oral ruling tomorrow (September 12th) in the civil lawsuit filed by eight Sheboygan residents against the Sheboygan Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals.
Each of these eight residents lives in the Black River area of the City, the site of a proposed golf course that the City and the Kohler Company are hoping to build on the shores of Lake Michigan.
If built, this would become the third Kohler-owned golf course in Sheboygan County and the fifth set of 18 holes, with two at Blackwolf Run and two at Whistling Straits.
While the residents oppose many aspects of this proposed golf course, they believe the manner in which the City extended Kohler’s Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the project was illegal in regard to Sheboygan’s own municipal code.
This CUP was originally approved on December 15th, 2020, and later extended on November 12th, 2024, more than 1,000 days after the fact.
Sheboygan’s municipal code states, “The start of construction of any and all conditional uses shall be initiated within 365 days of their approval by the plan commission.”
Not only did construction not start within the 365 days allotted, but an extension was not approved for the CUP until more than 1,400 days had passed since its approval, or nearly four years.
Other aspects of the lawsuit cite conflicts of interest in the matter, as District 2 Alder John Belanger, one of the Council members to vote in approval of the CUP, is a Kohler Company employee and did not recuse himself from the vote.
The lawsuit further states that the City ignored a decision by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals when giving the extension.
In December of 2023, the Court of Appeals upheld a decision denying the wetland permit Kohler had hoped to get from the DNR, which effectively put the project on hold.
Other topics in the lawsuit include Roger Miller, one of the plaintiffs, being denied an appeal to that November 12th decision by the Zoning Board of Appeals, and Belle Ragins, also a plaintiff, being denied the opportunity to participate in the November 12th public comment portion of the hearing.
However, there has been support both for and against the golf course, with Kohler stating that the course would bring $21 million in annual economic output for the state, while others, such as Wisconsin State Senator Chris Larson, feel it would be a “playground for the wealthy.”
