FAQs for the Town of Sumner
- The Town Board and Plan Commission are part time and meet only once a month. The minimum for this process is 2 months from submitting documents to the Town to final decision by the Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Committee.
- The request with all supporting documents to be in the Clerk’s office by the 15th of the previous month in order to be heard at the following first Monday. Example: by March 15th to be heard by the 1st Monday of April.
- The Plan Commission will examine the property and investigate the request and research Ordinance and Zoning issues in the time before they meet on 1st Monday of the month.
- Next the Town Board hears the recommendations of the Plan Commission at their meeting on the 2nd Monday of the month. The Town Board makes a decision at that meeting.
- The decision is forwarded the next day to the County Planning and Zoning Committee for their Meetings and the final decision. Every effort is made to get the recommendation of the Town to the County in time for their meetings.
- If anything has been omitted or new facts come to light or there are objections from surrounding property holders, the process will take longer.
There is no Voice mail available from Frontier (formerly Verizon) for our land line phone. So there is no ability for callers to leave a message. The Clerk’s office makes and receives hundreds of calls in a normal month’s business. This line is also our fax line. After hours and on weekends there is an answering machine that will take messages. Messages are answered on the next working day.
You must start at the County Planning and Zoning Office in the Jefferson County Courthouse. See links. You will fill out a request with the help of Zoning office personnel. If there are no issues with zoning ordinance requirements your trip may done. However, they will let you know if you need to get a variance, conditional use or zoning amendment heard at the Town level before the County will hear it. Many requests go through without the necessity of being heard at the Town level. A few will not meet the County Zoning Ordinance requirements. The County requires that the Towns hear these requests. A few will not meet the Town Ordinances (such as the Driveway Ordinance.)
GIVE YOURSELF PLENTY OF TIME TO GET A PERMIT. If you receive one it’s good for two years from issuance.
Yes. The Town of Sumner has a Burning Ordinance that requires all fires to be controlled. The Burning Ordinance has been on the books since 1981. You do not need to come to the Town Hall to get a permit. A call to the Town to get a permit is all that is needed. You can call at any time and leave a message the answering machine. The permit may be good for 5 days if requested. You will also need to call the Jefferson County Sherriff’s dispatcher and the Fire Department for your section of Town
For residents in the Edgerton Fire District, you will be charged a $500 fee if the EFPD is called out to your fire and you haven’t gotten a permit and made the necessary phone calls.
Jefferson County maintains a free online database of property information. It has taxes for all the years of the database has been available on line. All that is needed is a property address or a parcel number. The data base cannot be searched by name. See Links.
