Wisconsin Administrative Code › Department of Natural Resources › NR 100-199 - Environmental Protection - General › Chapter NR 118 - Standards For The Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway › Section NR 118.03 - Definitions

Current through June 24, 2024
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.