Section 115.03. Definitions.

  For the purpose of this chapter:

(1d)  "Access and viewing corridor" means a strip of vegetated land that allows safe pedestrian access to the shore through the vegetative buffer zone.

(1h)  "Boathouse" means 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 these structural parts.

(1p)  "Building envelope" means the three dimensional space within which a structure is built.

(2)  "County zoning agency" means that committee or commission created or designated by the county board under s. 59.69 (2) (a) , Stats., to act in all matters pertaining to county planning and zoning.

(3)  "Department" means the department of natural resources.

(3m)  "Existing development pattern" means that principal structures exist within 250 feet of a proposed principal structure in both directions along the shoreline.

(4)  "Flood plain" means the land which has been or may be hereafter covered by flood water during the regional flood. The flood plain includes the floodway and the flood fringe as those terms are defined in ch. NR 116 .

(4g)  "Impervious surface" means an area that releases as runoff all or a majority of the precipitation that falls on it. "Impervious surface" excludes frozen soil but includes rooftops, sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, and streets unless specifically designed, constructed, and maintained to be pervious.

(4r)  "Mitigation" means balancing measures that are designed, implemented and function to restore natural functions and values that are otherwise lost through development and human activities.

(5)  "Navigable waters" means Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, all natural inland lakes within Wisconsin and all streams, ponds, sloughs, flowages and other waters within the territorial limits of this state, including the Wisconsin portion of boundary waters, which are navigable under the laws of this state. Under s. 281.31 (2) (d) , Stats., notwithstanding any other provision of law or administrative rule promulgated thereunder, shoreland ordinances required under s. 59.692 , Stats., and this chapter do not apply to lands adjacent to farm drainage ditches if:

(a) Such lands are not adjacent to a natural navigable stream or river;

(b) Those parts of such drainage ditches adjacent to such lands were nonnavigable streams before ditching or had no previous stream history; and

(c) Such lands are maintained in nonstructural agricultural use.

(6)  "Ordinary high-water mark" means 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.

(7)  "Regional flood" means a flood determined to be representative of large floods known to have generally occurred in Wisconsin and which may be expected to occur on a particular stream because of like physical characteristics once in every 100 years.

(7m)  "Routine maintenance of vegetation" means normally accepted horticultural practices that do not result in the loss of any layer of existing vegetation and do not require earth disturbance.

(8)  "Shorelands" means 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 flood plain, whichever distance is greater.

(9)  "Shoreland-wetland zoning district" means a zoning district, created as a part of a county shoreland zoning ordinance, comprised of shorelands that are designated as wetlands on the Wisconsin wetland inventory maps prepared by the department.

(10)  "Special exception (conditional use)" means a use which is permitted by a shoreland zoning ordinance provided that certain conditions specified in the ordinance are met and that a permit is granted by the board of adjustment or, where appropriate, the planning and zoning committee or county board.

(11)  "Unnecessary hardship" means that circumstance where special conditions affecting a particular property, which were not self-created, have made strict conformity with restrictions governing area, setbacks, frontage, height or density unnecessarily burdensome or unreasonable in light of the purposes of the zoning ordinance.

(13)  "Wetlands" means those areas where water is at, near or above the land surface long enough to be capable of supporting aquatic or hydrophytic vegetation, and which have soils indicative of wet conditions.

History: Cr. Register, July, 1980, No. 295 , eff. 8-1-80; renum. (2) to (12) to be (3) to (13), cr. (2), r. and recr. (7), am. (11) and (13), Register, October, 1980, No. 298 , eff. 11-1-80; corrections in (2) (a) 1. and (b) 2. made under s. 13.93 (2m) (b) 7., Stats., Register, April, 2000, No. 532 ; CR 05-058 : am. (intro.), renum. (1) to be (1h), cr. (1d), (1p), (3m), (4g), (4r) and (7m), r. (12) Register January 2010 No. 649 , eff. 2-1-10.

Note

In Muench v. Public Service Commission , 261 Wis. 492 (1952), the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that a stream is navigable in fact if it is capable of floating any boat, skiff, or canoe, of the shallowest draft used for recreational purposes. In DeGayner and Co., v. Department of Natural Resources, 70 Wis. 2d 936 (1975), the court also held that a stream need not be navigable in its normal or natural condition to be navigable in fact. The DeGayner opinion indicates that it is proper to consider artificial conditions, such as beaver dams, where such conditions have existed long enough to make a stream useful as a highway for recreation or commerce, and to consider ordinarily recurring seasonal fluctuations, such as spring floods, in determining the navigability of a stream. Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 The regional flood is based upon a statistical analysis of streamflow records available for watershed and/or an analysis of rainfall and runoff characteristics in the general watershed region. The flood frequency of the regional flood is once in every 100 years. In any given year, there is a 1% chance that the regional flood may occur. During a typical 30-year mortgage period, the regional flood has a 26% chance of occurring. Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1