By Tim Hundt
May 4, 2026
Viroqua’s Housing Advisory Board is urging the city to tighten rules on short-term rentals, open the door wider to accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and rewrite key housing goals in the comprehensive plan, saying the community must confront a housing shortage while protecting neighborhood character.
Much of the work centers on recommendations the board will send to the Plan Commission and City Council as those bodies finish the new comprehensive plan and future land use map.
Short term rentals seen as pressure point in housing shortage
Viroqua Housing Advisory Board Chair Sonya Newenhouse led a detailed rewrite of the city’s short term rental ordinance, saying the goal is to follow state law while acknowledging that nightly rentals are taking long term homes off the market.
She told the board she had color coded the draft to show what would change and had already run it past the city attorney and staff.
“I took the comments from the Plan Commission and inserted them into these drafts that you are seeing,” said Newenhouse.
A central change is a proposed cap of 210 rental days a year for each short term rental permit under seven days. Newenhouse said that number is meant to roughly match the busy tourist season while still giving the city more control than the 180 day limit some communities use.
“Short-term rentals under seven days shall not exceed 210 days,” said Newenhouse. “I picked 210 because it is really the tourist season from about April to November”
State law bars cities from limiting how many short term rental permits one person can hold but does allow a citywide cap on the total number of permits. The board spent a long stretch debating how high that cap should be and how to balance that number against the city’s strained housing stock.
Board member Aaron Parker argued that fees and caps should be tied directly to the local housing crisis.
“Short term rental units could be used as permanent housing in Viroqua which has a housing shortage,” said Parker. “Annual fees for short term rentals should be used in some way to compensate for that loss”
Others pushed to make the connection explicit by dedicating license revenue to a housing fund or enforcement staff.
Newenhouse summarized the emerging consensus that permit fees should not just cover paperwork.
“Permit fees should fund related administration or housing accessibility,” said Newenhouse. “It is not that much money and we will need it for what you are saying about inspections and enforcement.”
Board members also endorsed the idea that anyone already holding a Vernon County health department license for a short term rental should have first priority for new city permits in the first year, with the city allowing those existing units to continue even if the total briefly rises above the cap.
Newenhouse said that approach would recognize reality on the ground without opening the door to unchecked growth.
“Short-term rentals that hold the current Vernon County license in 2025 should have first priority for a city license that first year,” said Newenhouse. “Anyone grandfathered in would continue to be able to renew even if the number is temporarily over the cap.”
Board member Tanja Birke backed a firm cap, saying residents need to understand what those numbers would look like on their own blocks.
“When I think of that number, like even one hundred, if somebody says that should be one hundred, I think of the four quadrants of our city,” said Birke. “Imagine that twenty five of those homes are a short-term rental and that is a huge amount to me.”
Who pays and who benefits in the short term rental market
The board also wrestled with whether local owners should pay lower fees than outside investors who hold multiple properties.
Member Krista Browne (now Mayor) floated the idea of a tiered fee structure that favors people who live in the community and rent one place on the side.
“The idea was that you would share your dwelling when you were not there,” said Browne. “If you have one that is a resident fee license then the other ones fall under a higher fee because the more units you have the more it becomes an investment.”
Parker argued that outside owners and firms using multiple homes as investment vehicles should pay significantly more.
“If you live out of town and you have three or four or five of these units the number for that should be considerably higher,” said Parker. “You are using it as investment and that is something else compared to a local person with one house here.”
At the same time, Newenhouse and city staff stressed that any system must be simple enough for the clerk’s office to manage and must withstand state level legal scrutiny.
“We need to make it simple for residents and non residents because staff are already overworked,” said Newenhouse. “Whatever we do is going to be scrutinized at the state level and we need to be careful.”
To keep enforcement realistic, the board backed a framework where landlords attest annually to how many days they rent, pay hotel tax and face penalties if neighbors or renters report violations.
“They are applying and paying for this and they are signing into it as a contract,” said Newenhouse. “They can get a penalty if somebody catches them and it is very simple for neighbors to speak up.”
Accessory dwelling units promoted as gentle density
On accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, the board is pushing the city to allow small backyard or attached units across more neighborhoods, describing them as a key tool for affordability and aging in place.
Parker, who drafted much of the ADU language, laid out a size framework designed to fit Viroqua’s smaller lots while keeping projects financially feasible.
“The minimum size for ADUs is 250 square feet and for lots up to 7,200 square feet the maximum size would be 600 square feet,” said Parker. “For lots that are 7,200 square feet or greater the maximum size would be 800 square feet.”
Board members said that range could create modest new homes without overwhelming existing houses.
One of the most contentious questions was whether to require fire sprinklers in ADUs and how to handle height limits when owners want to build units over garages.
Parker warned that automatic sprinkler requirements would kill many projects.
“If you require fire sprinklers in an ADU it could financially preclude construction,” said Parker. “I promise you it will because the cost is significant for a small project.”
After consulting building officials, Newenhouse argued that general building codes already protect safety and that a specific sprinkler mandate for ADUs would be redundant and confusing.
“They have to follow code and if the code says that you need a sprinkler it would have to be installed anyway,” said Newenhouse. “It confuses people to have a special line here and we do not want to trigger extra costs that make ADUs impossible.”
On setbacks and parking, the board leaned toward flexibility. Members agreed that ADUs should meet standard setback rules but resisted requiring an extra off street parking space, warning that it would eat up yards and drive up costs.
Parker said the city should not push homeowners to pave over green space.
“You already have your percentage of lot coverage which includes your driveway,” said Parker. “You are putting an ADU on the property and an additional parking stall would cause a lot of trouble with lot coverage”.
Browne added that the city can remind people about winter parking rules in plain language guides rather than writing new mandates into the ordinance.
To help residents navigate the rules, Birke and others called for a simple guidance sheet to sit alongside the legal ordinance.
“When cities create very complicated ordinances and it is something an average resident has to follow they establish a guideline sheet in plain language,” said Birke. “That is definitely something that we can create to go along with the ordinance.”
Redefining housing goals in the comprehensive plan
Beyond individual ordinances, the board spent much of a March session sharpening the housing chapter of the comprehensive plan itself, arguing that the current draft does not fully match Viroqua’s needs.
Birke explained that the board had already rewritten the first major housing goal to focus squarely on increasing the number of homes.
“We changed the title of goal one to be increase housing inventory,” said Birke. “We kept recommendations, changed some wording, added more and we need to pass this on to Council so they can incorporate it into their edits.”
Members questioned a line that speaks of housing for all income levels under a heading for affordable housing, saying the language blurs two different challenges.
Newenhouse urged a clearer emphasis on both affordability and ownership.
“The term affordable and the phrase all income levels is not matching,” said Newenhouse. “We want the goal to include all levels of housing opportunities and we want home ownership highlighted more than once.”
Community member Gregory Splinter pressed the board to go further and tie the plan to long term wealth building for local residents.
“Out of this whole thing there is one word of home ownership,” said Splinter. “If there is a real commitment to building generational wealth here there would be a mandate that a large share of affordable housing through grants need to be home ownership and not just money to outside developers.”
The board expressed interest in tools like a community land trust and an affordable housing fund that could keep land and units permanently affordable under local control.
Another resident urged the city to put inclusion front and center by avoiding gated or income segregated developments.
Walkability and public space as part of housing policy
Several speakers argued that true inclusion is about more than what happens inside housing units. Browne said the city must pay attention to how people move between homes, jobs and schools.
“We need to incentivize people taking care of their properties and also look at all the in between spaces,” said Browne. “Otherwise fences and lot lines become gates that keep people from moving through town on foot or by bike.”
She used the Main Street Apartments area as an example of how difficult it can be to walk from one part of town to another when private properties block direct routes.
The board agreed to recommend that new developments be walkable and discourage gates and fences that cut off connections.
Newenhouse proposed adding clear language to the plan.
“We should encourage walkable developments and discourage gates and fences,” said Newenhouse. “Active street life and sidewalks for pedestrians need to be part of how we judge projects.”
Members also called for a stronger standard for neighborhood parks and green spaces as the city grows, suggesting the plan should specify that every home be within a short walk of a park or shared open area and that residents and schools could help maintain those spaces.
Future land use map and the fate of farm fields
The board took a close look at the draft future land use map, which guides how the city will zone land in coming years. A major question was whether to convert remaining agricultural areas inside city limits to future residential use.
Newenhouse said the Plan Commission has discussed changing several green areas on the map to yellow for housing so that the city has the option to approve neighborhood scale projects on those sites someday.
“If this stays this color and somebody wanted to build a really super cool walkable pocket neighborhood you could not do that,” said Newenhouse. “Changing to residential provides more opportunities without forcing immediate development.”
Parker and others argued that if those fields do become neighborhoods, the city must not repeat the pattern of car oriented subdivisions.
“The city should decide where streets and blocks go and where parks and civic places go instead of turning over forty acres to an out of town subdivision developer,” said Parker. “We should go back to how Viroqua was originally laid out and plan neighborhoods that match that character.”
Some residents raised concerns that simply labeling ag land as future housing could invite speculative pressure and erode local food production.
“Developers are already scanning the region for land and if that ag land is now residential it could push people to sell out,” said one resident. “There is also a value in land for local food and we should not lose that without a plan.”
In response, board members talked about pairing any change in designation with expectations for parks, community gardens and trail connections and about using zoning tools such as smaller lot sizes and form based codes to avoid large lot sprawl.
High demand, especially for small units
The board’s broader discussions were underscored by new numbers on how many people are already waiting for housing. A representative reported that Viroqua Housing Authority has 25 to 50 households on the wait list for one bedroom units and several more waiting for larger apartments.
“Most people want a one bedroom,” said the speaker. “The wait list for a one bedroom is between twenty five and fifty while there are three to five applications waiting for two to five bedroom homes.”
Those figures arrived as the city’s newest income restricted complex near Main Street fills up, raising fresh questions about who is being served and what gaps remain.
Development authority and who shapes the vision
In the closing stretch of the March session, several speakers turned to the role of the Viroqua Development Association, which helps recruit projects and structure financial incentives.
Splinter urged closer ties between the Housing Advisory Board and the development group so that housing values carry into economic decisions.
“If you guys really want to get your vision into this you have to be there with the VDA,” said Splinter. “You have to make your presence known or other people are going to get their way.”
Others suggested that zoning and the comprehensive plan must set clear boundaries so that any incentive driven projects still match the community’s housing goals.
As the City Council prepares to review the comprehensive plan in detail, housing advocates are pressing for their changes to be fully woven into that document so future ordinances, incentives and projects will build the kind of Viroqua they described in these meetings.
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