Retreat owner draws fire for defying town

Town of Saukville officials chastised the owner of a retreat on Tuesday night after he admitted he was accepting reservations one month after saying he would stop doing so while the town updated its ordinances to define a bed-and-breakfast inn.

“I have bills to pay and I have customers who want to stay at my place,” said Dale Stenbroten, who, with his wife Katy Rowe, has been running the 17-acre Abloom Farm Resort, 2839 Hwy. 33, since last June as a “residential tourist facility.” The business is similar to an Airbnb and used for retreats, weddings, family get-togethers and corporate events.

The couple bought the property from the John and Elizabeth Feith family, which called it Tranquility Tree Farm. 

Stenbroten came to the town last month after he became aware he lacked permits to operate as a business. He also wanted to expand the retreat’s operations from four bedrooms in the 4,600-square-foot house by adding four bedrooms in the barn.

He also discovered that since the property is zoned for agricultural use, he needs a conditional-use permit to operate as a bed-and-breakfast inn.

But supervisors discovered that the town ordinances have no definition for a bed-and-breakfast inn or how many rooms are allowed, making the town ordinances out of compliance with state law, which requires objective and specific criteria.

As a result, officials told Stenbroten he could honor reservations he had already accepted but warned him to not take any more until they got their ordinances straightened out. Stenbroten agreed to that.

But Tuesday, he told the Plan Commission he had checked with his attorney, who advised him he didn’t have to honor that promise.

“It’s very difficult for me to wait while you guys figure out what you want to do,” Stenbroten said. That didn’t sit well with commission members.

“What you’re doing, in plain language, is a blatant violation of our codes,” Supr. Mike Denzien said, pointing out that current zoning only allows a bed-and-breakfast inn to operate with a conditional-use permit, which Stenbroten does not have.

“It’s the job of this commission to enforce the code,” Denzien continued. “You’re skating on thin ice.”

Denzien told Stenbroten that the commission could order him to cease operating and fine him $100 for every day he violated the order.

“We have the authority to get a court injunction. You’re starting to lose credibility with this commission,” Denzien said. “We’ve gone after people who say one thing and do another.”

Stenbroten said he had asked a former town clerk if he needed permits when the couple first began to operate and was told they did not. But town officials told him the clerk had no authority to decide the issue and that the clerk’s opinion was not binding on the Town Board or Plan Commission.  

At the same meeting, the commission heard from two other landowners, one who wants to use his barn for weddings and other special events and another who wants to expand his wedding barn operations. 

But the definition of a wedding barn also  needs to be written into the code, officials said. The commission directed Town Attorney Sara MacCarthy to draft ordinances for both bed-and-breakfast inns and wedding venues.

MacCarthy said state statutes already define bed-and-breakfasts and would provide a basic template for a town ordinance.

The state definition of a bed-and-breakfast inn requires there be no more than eight rooms, the owner lives on the premises, no more than 20 people stay on site at any one time and only one meal is served per day, among other restrictions.

Denzien also indicated that the Town Board would likely impose a moratorium on all conditional-use permits until officials review the ordinances.

After the ordinances are written, Stenbroten and the other landowners would have to apply for conditional-use permits, which require publicly notifying their neighbors and holding public hearings.

The entire process, officials said, would take three or four months.