Wis. Admin. Code Department of Natural Resources NR 118.03

Current through October 28, 2024

Section NR 118.03 - Definitions

For the purpose of this chapter:

(1) "Accessory structure" means a subordinate structure, the use of which is incidental to, and customarily found in connection with, the principal structure or use of the property. Accessory structures include, but are not limited to, detached garages, sheds, barns, gazebos, patios, decks (both detached and attached), swimming pools, hot tubs, fences, retaining walls, driveways, parking lots, sidewalks, detached stairways and lifts.

(2) "Accessory use" means a use subordinate to and serving the principal use on the same lot and customarily incidental thereto.

(3) "Agriculture" means beekeeping; livestock grazing; orchards; raising of grain, grass or seed crops; raising of fruits, nuts or berries; placing land in federal programs in return for payments in kind; owning land, at least 35 acres of which is enrolled in the conservation reserve program under 16 USC 3831 to 3836; and vegetable raising.

(4) "Antenna" means any device or equipment used for the transmission or reception of electromagnetic waves, which may include an omni-directional antenna (rod), a directional antenna (panel) or a parabolic antenna (disc).

(5) "Bed and breakfast operation" means a place of lodging for transient guests that is the owner's personal residence, that is occupied by the owner at the time of rental, and in which the only meal served to guests is breakfast.

(6) "Bluffline" means a line along the top of the slope preservation zone.

(7) "Building line" means a line measured across the width of a lot at that point where the principal structure is placed in accordance with setback provisions.

(8) "Camouflage design" means a wireless communication service facility that is disguised, hidden or screened, but remains recognizable as a tower or antenna.

(9) "Compliant building location" means an area on a lot where a building could be located in compliance with all applicable ordinance requirements.

(10) "Conditional use" means a use that is specifically listed in a local zoning ordinance as either a conditional use or special exception and that may only be permitted if the local zoning authority determines that the conditions specified in the ordinance for that use are satisfied.

(11) "Department" means the Wisconsin department of natural resources.

(12) "Disabled" means having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.

(13) "Earth-tone" means colors that harmonize with the natural surroundings on the site during leaf on conditions.

(14) "Expansion" means an addition to an existing structure regardless of whether the addition is vertical or horizontal or both.

(15) "Filtered view of the river" means that one can see the river through the vegetation, while any structure remains visually inconspicuous.

(16) "Footprint" means the land area covered by a structure at ground level, measured on a horizontal plane. The "footprint" of a residence includes attached garages and porches, but excludes decks, patios, carports and roof overhangs.

(17) "Foundation" means the underlying base of a building or other structure, including but not limited to pillars, footings, and concrete and masonry walls.

(18) "Human habitation" means the use of a building or other structure for human occupancy, including but not limited to cooking, eating, bathing and sleeping.

(19) "Land division" means any division of a parcel of land by the owner or the owner's agent, for the purpose of transfer of ownership or building development, which creates one or more parcels or building sites of 20 acres or less.

(20) "Landscape architect" means a person who has graduated with a major in landscape architecture from a college accredited by the American society of landscape architects.

(21) "Lift" means a mechanical device, either temporary or permanent, containing a mobile open top car including hand or guard rails, a track upon which the open top car moves, and a mechanical device to provide power to the open top car.

(22) "Local zoning ordinance" means any county, town, city or village zoning ordinance, portion of an ordinance, or amendments thereto, adopted by a local unit of government, with authority from state enabling legislation, which regulates the use of land within the Lower St. Croix riverway.

(23) "Lot" means a contiguous parcel of land with described boundaries.

(24) "Lower St. Croix riverway" or "Lower St. Croix national scenic riverway" means the area described in s. NR 118.02(1).

(25) "Management zones" means the Lower St. Croix riverway management zones established in s. NR 118.04.

(26) "Mitigation" means action taken to minimize the adverse impacts of development. The term "mitigation" includes, but is not limited to, the installation of vegetative buffers, the removal of nonconforming structures from the shoreland setback area, and the implementation of best management practices for erosion control and storm water management.

(27) "Net project area" means developable land area minus slope preservation zones, floodplains, road rights-of-way and wetlands.

(28) "Nonconforming structure" means a building or other structure whose location, dimensions or other physical characteristics do not conform to the standards in the current local zoning ordinance but which was legally constructed or placed in its current location prior to the adoption of the ordinance or ordinance amendment that made it nonconforming.

(29) "Nonconforming use" means the use of land or a structure or other premises that does not conform to the land use restrictions in the current local zoning ordinance, but which was legally established prior to the adoption of the ordinance or ordinance amendment that made it nonconforming.

(30) "Ordinary high water mark" has been defined by the Wisconsin supreme court to mean 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. Where the bank or shore at any particular place is of such character that it is difficult or impossible to ascertain where the point of ordinary high water mark is, recourse may be had to the opposite bank of a stream or to other places on the shore of a lake or flowage to determine whether a given stage of water is above or below the ordinary high water mark.

(31) "Ordinary maintenance and repair" means any work done on a nonconforming structure that does not constitute expansion, structural alteration or reconstruction and does not involve the replacement, alteration or improvement of any portion of the structure's foundation.

(32) "Planned cluster development" means a pattern of development that places residences into compact groupings as a means of preserving open space.

(33) "Porch" means a building walkway with a roof over it, providing access to a building entrance.

(34) "Principal structure" means the main building or other structure on a lot that is utilized for the property's principal use. The term "principal structure" includes attached garages and porches.

(35) "Reasonable accommodation" means allowing a disabled person to deviate from the strict requirements of the county's zoning ordinances if an accommodation is necessary and reasonable, in order not to unlawfully discriminate against the disabled person and to allow them equal housing opportunity.

Note: Federal courts have interpreted the "reasonable accommodations" requirement in the Federal Fair Housing Act to mean that an accommodation is reasonable "if it does not cause any undue hardship or fiscal or administrative burdens on the municipality, or does not undermine the basic purpose that the zoning ordinance seeks to achieve." Oxford House, Inc. v. Town of Babylon, 819 F. Supp. 1179, 1186 (E.D.N.Y. 1993)

(36) "Reconstruction" means the replacement of all or substantially all of the components of a structure other than the foundation.

(37) "Selection cutting" means the removal of selected trees throughout the range of merchantable sizes at regular intervals, either singly or in small groups, leaving a uniformly distributed stocking of desirable tree and shrub size classes.

(38) "Setback" means the minimum horizontal distance between a structure and either the ordinary high water mark or the bluffline.

(39) "Shelterwood cut" means a partial removal of mature trees leaving trees of desirable species and form to provide shade, seed source and a desirable seed bed for natural regeneration with the final removal of the overstory after adequate regeneration is established.

(40) "Single-family residence" means a detached structure used for human habitation for one family.

(41) "Slope preservation zone" means the area riverward from the bluffline where the slope towards the river is 12% or more, as measured horizontally for a distance of not more than 50 feet or less than 25 feet.

(42) "Small regeneration cut" means a harvest of not more than one-third of the contiguous forested ownership within a 10-year period with each opening not exceeding 6 acres in size and not closer than 75 feet at their closest points.

(43) "Stealth design" means a wireless communication service facility that models or mimics in size or shape and color something in the surrounding landscape, such as silos in farm settings and trees in forested lands, and is unrecognizable year round as an antenna or antenna mount.

(44) "Structural alteration" means the replacement or alteration of one or more of the structural components of any of a nonconforming structure's exterior walls.

(45) "Structural component" means any part of the framework of a building or other structure. The structural components of a building's exterior walls include the vertical studs, top and bottom plates, and window and door sills and headers. A structural component may be non-load-bearing, such as the framework of a wall at the gable end of a one-story house. Wall-coverings, such as siding on the exterior and dry wall on the interior, are not included in the definition of "structural component."

(46) "Structural erosion control measures" means a retaining wall or other man-made structure whose primary function is to control erosion.

(47) "Structure" means any man-made object with form, shape and utility, that is constructed or otherwise erected, attached to or permanently or temporarily placed, either upon the ground, a river bed, stream bed or lake bed or upon another structure. For the purposes of this chapter, the term "structure" includes swimming pools, hot tubs, patios, decks and retaining walls, but does not include landscaping or earthwork such as graded areas, filled areas, ditches, berms or earthen terraces. The term "structure" does not include small objects that are easily moved by hand, such as lawn chairs, portable grills, portable picnic tables, bird feeders, birdhouses and birdbaths.

(48) "Substandard lot" means a lot with dimensions that do not conform to all of the requirements of the local zoning ordinance.

(49) "Transmission services" means electric power lines, telephone and telegraph lines, communication towers, cables, sewage lift stations, sewer and water pipes, and other pipes, conduits and accessory structures that are used to transport power, convey information or transport material between 2 points, other than wireless communication service facilities.

(50) "Visually inconspicuous" means difficult to see, or not readily noticeable, in summer months as viewed from at or near the mid-line of the Lower St. Croix river.

(51) "Wetland" has the meaning found in s. 23.32(1), Stats.

Note: Section 23.32(1), Stats., defines "wetland" to mean "an area where water is at, near, or above the land surface long enough to be capable of supporting aquatic or hydrophytic vegetation and which has soils indicative of wet conditions."

(52) "Wireless communication service facilities" means hardware that provides wireless communication services including antennas, towers, all associated equipment, and buildings and other structures.

Wis. Admin. Code Department of Natural Resources NR 118.03

Cr. Register, June, 1980, No. 294, eff. 7-1-80; renum. (9) to (26) to be (10) to (15), (17) to (27) and (29), cr. (9), (16), (28) and (30), am. (3), (4), (20), (26) and (27), Register, February, 1984, No. 338, eff. 3-1-84; CR 03-054: r. and recr. Register October 2004 No. 586, eff. 11-1-04.