(A) Rules of construction. For the purpose of administering and enforcing this chapter, the terms or words used herein shall be interpreted as follows: words used in the present tense include the future; words in the singular number include the plural number; words in the plural number include the singular number. The word shall is mandatory, not permissive. All distances, unless otherwise specified, shall be measured horizontally.
(B) Definitions. For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ACCESSORY STRUCTURE OR USE. A detached subordinate structure or a use which is clearly incidental to, and customarily found in connection with, the principal structure or use to which it is related and which is located on the same lot as that of the principal structure or use.
BOATHOUSE. As defined in Wis. Stats. § 30.121(1), a permanent structure used for the storage of watercraft and associated materials and includes all structures which are totally enclosed, have roofs or walls, or any combination of structural parts.
CLASS 2 PUBLIC NOTICE. Publication of a public hearing notice under Wis. Stats. Chapter 985 in a newspaper of circulation in the affected area. Publication is required on two consecutive weeks, the last at least seven days prior to the hearing.
CONDITIONAL USE. A use which is permitted by this chapter provided that certain conditions specified in the chapter are met and that a permit is granted by the Board of Appeals or, where appropriate, the planning agency designated by the municipal governing body.
DEVELOPMENT. Any human-made change to improved or unimproved real estate including, but not limited to, the construction of buildings, structures, or accessory structures; the construction of additions or substantial alterations to buildings-structures or accessory structures; the placement of buildings or structures; ditching, lagooning, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation, or drilling operations; and the deposition or extraction of earthen materials.
DRAINAGE SYSTEM. One or more artificial ditches, tile drains, or similar devices which collect surface runoff or groundwater and convey it to a point of discharge.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL FACILITY. Any facility, temporary or permanent, which is reasonably expected to abate, reduce, or aid in the prevention, measurement, control, or monitoring of noise, air, or water pollutants, solid waste and thermal pollution, radiation, or other pollutants, including facilities installed principally to supplement or to replace existing property or equipment not meeting, or allegedly not meeting, acceptable pollution control standards, or which are to be supplemented or replaced by other pollution control facilities.
FIXED HOUSEBOAT. As defined in Wis. Stats. § 30.121(1), a structure not actually used for navigation which extends beyond the ordinary high water mark of a navigable waterway and is retained in place either by cables to the shoreline or by anchors or spud poles attached to the bed of the waterway.
NAVIGABLE WATERS.
(a) Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, all natural inland lakes within the state, and all streams, ponds, sloughs, flowages, and other waters within the territorial limits of this state, including the state’s portion of boundary waters, which are navigable under the laws of this state. Under Wis. Stats. § 281.31(2)(d), not withstanding any other provision of law or administrative rule promulgated there under, shoreland ordinances required under Wis. Stats. § 61.351 or 62.231 and Wis. Adm. Code Chapter NR 117 do not apply to lands adjacent to farm drainage ditches if:
1. Such lands are not adjacent to a natural navigable stream or river;
2. Those parts of such drainage ditches adjacent to such lands were not navigable streams before ditching; and
3. Such lands are maintained in nonstructural agricultural use.
(b) The state’s Supreme Court has declared navigable bodies of water that have a bed differentiated from adjacent uplands and levels or flow sufficient to support navigation by a recreational craft of the shallowest draft on an annually recurring basis [Muench v. Public Service Commission, 261 Wis. 492 (1952) and DeGavnor and Co. Inc. v. Department of Natural Resources, 70 Wis. 2d 936 (1975)]. For example, a stream which is navigable by skiff or canoe during normal spring high water is navigable, in fact, under the laws of this state though it may be dry during other seasons.
ORDINARY HIGH WATER MARK. The point on the bank or shore up to which the presence and action of surface water is so continuous as to leave a distinctive mark such as by erosion, destruction or prevention of terrestrial vegetation, predominance of aquatic vegetation, or other easily recognized characteristic.
PLANNING AGENCY. The Municipal Plan Commission created under Wis. Stats. § 62.23(1), a board of public land commissioners, or a committee of the municipality’s governing body which acts on matters pertaining to planning and zoning.
SHORELANDS. Lands within the following distances from the ordinary high water mark of navigable waters: 1,000 feet from a lake, pond, or flowage; and 300 feet from a river or stream or to the landward side of the floodplain, whichever distance is greater.
SHORELAND-WETLAND DISTRICT. The zoning district, created in this shoreland-wetland zoning chapter, comprised of shorelands that are designated as wetlands on the wetlands inventory maps which have been adopted and made a part of this chapter.
UNNECESSARY HARDSHIP. That circumstance where special conditions, which were not self-created, affect a particular property and make strict conformity with restrictions governing area, setbacks, or frontage height or density unnecessarily burdensome or unreasonable in light of the purposes of this chapter.
VARIANCE. An authorization granted by the Board of Appeals to construct or alter a building or structure in a manner that deviates from the dimensional standards of this chapter.
WETLAND ALTERATION. Any filling, flooding, draining, dredging, ditching, tiling, excavating, temporary water level stabilization measures, or dike and dam construction in a wetland area.
WETLANDS. Those areas where water is at, near, or above the land surface long enough to support aquatic or hydrophytic vegetation and which have soils indicative of wet conditions.
(Prior Code, § 23.02)