The following terms or words used in this chapter mean:
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 the principal structure or use.
AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE
As defined in § 281.16(1)(b), Wisconsin Stats,
beekeeping; commercial feedlots; dairying; egg production; floriculture;
fish or fur farming; grazing; livestock raising; orchards; poultry
raising; raising of grain, grass, mint and seed crops; raising of
fruits, nuts and berries; sod farming; 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.
BOATHOUSE
(1)
Any permanent structure designed solely for the purpose of protecting
or storing boats and related equipment for noncommercial purposes.
(2)
As defined in § 30.121(1), Wis. Stats., a permanent
structure used for the storage of watercraft and associated materials,
including all such structures, which are totally enclosed, have roofs
or walls, or have any combination of structural parts.
BROWN COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
The administrating agency of the Brown County Sewage Plan
and Subdivision Ordinance as appointed by the Brown County Board of
Supervisors.
BULKHEAD LINE
A geographic line along a reach of navigable water which has been specified by adoption of a municipal ordinance and approved by the Department of Natural Resources pursuant to § 30.11 of Wis. Stats., and which allows limited filling between such line and the original high-water mark, except where such filling is prohibited by the floodway provisions of Chapter
204, Municipal Ordinances.
CHANNEL
A natural or artificial watercourse with definite bed and
banks to confine and conduct normal flow of water.
DEPARTMENT
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
DEVELOPMENT
Any man-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 mobile homes; ditching, lagooning, dredging, filling,
grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations, and the deposition
or extraction of earthen materials.
DISABLED
Having a physical or mental impairment that substantially
limits one or more major life activities.
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 pollution, or solid
waste, thermal, radiation, or other pollutants, including facilities
installed principally to supplement or 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.
ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE AREAS
Any natural resource feature such as lakes, rivers, streams,
floodlands, wetlands, and steep slopes exceeding twelve-percent slope
adjacent to the aforementioned areas, which, if developed, could result
in a significant adverse water quality impacts such as nonpoint pollution
resulting from agricultural or construction site erosion, stormwater
runoff from road, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces, or
the incremental grading or filling of wetlands and floodlands.
FLOODPLAIN
The land which has been or may be hereafter covered by floodwater
during the regional flood as shown on the county's official floodplain
zoning maps. The regional flood is based upon a statistical analysis
of stream flow records available for the watershed or an analysis
of rainfall and runoff characteristics in the general watershed region,
or both. The flood frequency of the regional flood is once in every
100 years. In any given year, there is a one-percent chance that the
regional flood may occur.
FLOODWAY
Defined in Wisconsin Administrative Code NR 116.03(22) to
mean "the channel of a river or stream, and those portions of the
floodplain adjoining the channel required to carry the regional flood
discharge."
HEARING NOTICE
A publication or posting meeting the requirements of Chapter
985, Wis. Stats. A Class 1 notice is required (at a minimum) for appeals
and must be published once at least one week (seven days) prior to
the public hearing. A Class 2 notice is required (at a minimum) for
all zoning ordinances and amendments to such ordinances and must be
published twice, once each week consecutively, the last publication
at least one week (seven days) prior to the public hearing. Local
ordinances or bylaws may require additional notice exceeding these
minimums.
LAND USE
Any nonstructural use of improved or unimproved real estate.
(See "development.")
NAVIGABLE WATERS
(1)
Has the meaning found in § 281.31, Wis. Stats., which
defines "navigable water" or "navigable waters" to mean "Lake Superior,
Lake Michigan, all natural inland lakes within this state and all
streams, ponds, flowages and other waters within the territorial limits
of this state, including the Wisconsin portion of the boundary waters,
which are navigable under the laws of this state." (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 canon, 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.)
(2)
Section 281.31(2m), Wis. Stats., also provides that, notwithstanding
any other provision of law or administrative rule, a shoreland zoning
ordinance required under § 59.692, Wis. Stats., does 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 the drainage ditches adjacent to these lands
were nonnavigable, streams before ditching; and
(c)
Such lands are maintained in nonstructural agricultural use."
NONCONFORMING STRUCTURE
An existing lawful structure or building which is not in
conformity with the dimensional or structural requirements of this
chapter for the area of the shoreland area which it occupies.
NONCONFORMING USE
Any existing lawful use or accessory use which is not in
conformity with the permitted, special exception, or accessory use
requirements of this chapter for the area of the shoreland area which
it occupies.
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
characteristics.
PERSON
An individual, group of individuals, corporation, partnership,
association, municipality, or state agency.
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION
Allowing a disabled person to deviate from the strict requirements
of the Village'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." Oxfod House, Inc. v.
Town of Babylon, 819 F. Supp. 1179, 1186 [E.D.N.Y. 1993].)
REGIONAL FLOOD
A flood determined to be representative of large floods known
to have generally occurred in Wisconsin and which because of a particular
stream's physical characteristics, has a one-percent chance of occurring
in any one year. Also known as the "one-hundred-year flood."
SHORELANDS and SHORELAND ZONE
Have the meaning found in § 59.692(1)(b), Wis.
Stats., which defines "shorelands" to mean "the area within the following
distances from the ordinary high-water mark of navigable waters, as
defined under § 281.31(2)(d), Wis. Stats.
(1)
One thousand feet from a lake, pond or flowage. If the navigable
water is a glacial pothole lake, this distance shall be measured from
the ordinary high-water mark of the lake.
(2)
Three hundred 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 as a part of this Shoreland
Zoning Ordinance, comprised of shorelands that are designated as wetlands
on the Wetland Maps which have been adopted and made a part of this
chapter.
SPECIAL EXCEPTION
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.
STRUCTURE
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 purpose of this chapter, the term
"structure" includes camping units, swimming pools, hot tubs, patios,
decks and retaining walls, but does not include landscaping or earthwork
including 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 canoes, kayaks, lawn chairs, portable grills,
portable picnic tables, temporary snow fences, small temporary fences
around individual plants or small groups of plants to prevent animal
herbivory, bird feeders, birdhouses and birdbaths.
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, frontage, height or density
unnecessarily burdensome or unreasonable in light of the purposes
of this chapter. Also see note in definition of "reasonable accommodation."
VARIANCE
An authorization granted by the Board of Appeals to construct,
alter or use a building or structure in a manner that deviates from
the dimensional standards of this chapter.
VILLAGE BOARD
The Village Board of the Village of Wrightstown, Wisconsin.
VILLAGE ZONING ADMINISTRATOR
That person or agency created or designated by the Village
Board to act in all matters pertaining to Village planning and zoning.
WETLAND
Has the meaning found in § 23.32(1), Wis. Stats.,
which 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.
WETLAND ALTERATION
Any construction, filling, flooding, draining, dredging,
ditching, tiling, excavation, temporary water level stabilization,
dike construction, or dam construction in a wetland area.