Menominee County seeks three residents for planning commission vacancies

Menominee County is looking for three residents to fill vacancies on the Menominee County/Town of Menominee Planning Commission, a panel that helps shape land-use decisions, community planning and development recommendations across the county. Letters of interest are due by 12:00 p.m. on April 17, 2026, and the County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to make the appointments at its April 21 meeting at 5:00 p.m.

The openings include one seat for the remainder of a three-year term that expires April 30, 2028, and two seats for full three-year terms ending April 30, 2029. Interested residents are being asked to send a letter of interest to County Clerk Misty Wayka at the Menominee County Courthouse in Keshena. The clerk’s office lists a mailing address of P.O. Box 279, Keshena, WI 54135-0279, and a physical address at W3269 Courthouse Lane.

The commission is not a ceremonial board. County planning materials say it is a seven-member body that must include one county commissioner, with members serving three-year terms. The County Board fills vacancies and can remove members for nonperformance of duty or misconduct after a public hearing. In practice, that makes the commission one of the county’s central forums for weighing how Menominee County grows, where development can happen and what safeguards apply to land and water.

Those decisions matter because the county’s land-use rules reach into some of the most sensitive parts of daily life here. Menominee County says all taxable and fee lands are governed by its zoning ordinance, adopted April 15, 1999. Non-tribal lands near surface waters fall under Shoreland Protection Ordinance No. 68, adopted Sept. 22, 2016 and amended March 18, 2025. The county also says parcel divisions of 10 acres or more that create at least three new parcels are covered by Ordinance No. 58 on subdivisions.

The broader planning framework was built with help from the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. County land-use planning materials say the comprehensive plan was revised and adopted in 2015 and is intended to guide future planning through 2030. That means the three open seats could influence how Menominee County handles housing pressure, lot splits, shoreland questions and other development decisions that touch Keshena, Neopit, Zoar and the surrounding Menominee Reservation area.

The county says appointees are compensated for their participation, a detail that may widen the pool of residents willing to take on the work. Posted agendas and minutes show the Planning Commission remains an active county body, with land-use decisions still moving through its agenda rather than sitting on paper.