Unless specifically defined below, words or phrases used in
this chapter shall have the same meaning as they have at common law
and to give this chapter its most reasonable application. Words used
in the present tense include the future. Words used in the singular
number include the plural and words in the plural number include the
singular. The word "may" is permissive. The word "shall" is mandatory
and not discretionary.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
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.
Those areas shown on the Official Floodplain Zoning Map which
would be inundated by the regional flood as defined herein. These
areas may be numbered or unnumbered A Zones. The A Zones may or may
not be reflective of flood profiles, depending on the availability
of data for a given area.
Any enclosed area of a building having its floor subgrade,
i.e., below ground level, on all sides.
A geographic line along a reach of navigable water that has
been adopted by a municipal ordinance and approved by the Department
of Natural Resources pursuant to § 30.11, Wis. Stats., and
which allows limited filling between this bulkhead line and the original
ordinary high-water mark, except where such filling is prohibited
by the floodway provisions of this chapter.
A certification issued by the Zoning Administrator stating
that the construction and the use of land or a building, the elevation
of fill or the lowest floor of a structure is in compliance with all
of the provisions of this chapter.
A natural or artificial watercourse with definite bed and
banks to confine and conduct the normal flow of water.
An enclosed area below the first usable floor of a building,
generally less than five feet in height, used for limited access to
plumbing and electrical utilities.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Any artificial change to improved or unimproved real estate,
including but not limited to construction of buildings, structures
or accessory structures; the construction of additions or substantial
improvements to buildings, structures or accessory structures; the
placement of buildings or structures; mining, dredging, filling, grading,
paving, excavation or drilling operations; the storage, deposition
or extraction of materials; and public or private sewage disposal
systems or water supply facilities.
A vehicular access route which is above the regional flood
elevation and which connects land located in the floodplain to land
outside the floodplain, such as a road with its surface above regional
flood elevation and wide enough for wheeled rescue and relief vehicles.
Any fill, structure, building, use or development in the
floodway.
A parcel (or contiguous parcels) of land divided into two
or more mobile home lots for rent or sale for which the construction
of facilities for servicing the lots (including, as a minimum, the
installation of utilities, either final site grading or the pouring
of concrete pads, and the construction of streets) is completed before
the effective date of this chapter.
The preparation of additional sites by the construction of
facilities for servicing the lots on which the mobile homes are to
be placed. This includes installation of utilities, either final site
grading, pouring pads, or construction of streets.
The federal agency that administers the National Flood Insurance
Program. This agency was previously known as the "Federal Insurance
Administration (FIA)" or the "Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD)."
The probability of a flood occurrence. A flood frequency
is generally determined from statistical analyses. The frequency of
a particular flood event is usually expressed as occurring, on the
average, once in a specified number of years or as a percent chance
of occurring in any given year.
That portion of the floodplain outside of the floodway which
is covered by floodwaters during the regional flood and generally
associated with standing water rather than flowing water.
A map prepared by FEMA designating approximate flood hazard
areas. Flood hazard areas are designated as unnumbered A Zones and
do not contain floodway lines or regional flood elevations. Said map
forms the basis for both the regulatory and insurance aspects of the
National Flood Insurance Program.
A technical engineering examination, evaluation and determination
of the municipal flood hazard areas. It provides maps designating
those areas affected by the regional flood and provides both flood
insurance rate zones and regional flood elevations and may provide
floodway lines. The flood hazard areas are designated as unnumbered
and numbered A Zones. Flood insurance study maps form the basis for
both the regulatory and the insurance aspects of the National Flood
Insurance Program.
A general and temporary condition of partial or complete
inundation of normally dry land areas caused by:
The overflow or rise of inland waters;
The rapid accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any
source;
The inundation caused by waves or currents of water exceeding
anticipated cyclical levels along the shore of Lake Michigan or Lake
Superior; and
The sudden increase caused by an unusually high water level
in a natural body of water, accompanied by a severe storm, or by an
unanticipated force of nature, such as a seiche, or by some similarly
unusual event.
That land which has been or may be hereafter covered by floodwater
during the regional flood. The floodplain includes the floodway and
the flood-fringe and may include other designated floodplain areas
for regulatory purposes.
A natural geologic land formation within the floodplain that
is surrounded, but not covered, by floodwater during the regional
flood.
The full range of public policy and action for ensuring wise
use of floodplains. It includes everything from the collection and
dissemination of flood data to the acquisition of floodplain lands
and the enactment and administration of codes, ordinances and statutes
for land use in the floodplain.
A graph or a longitudinal profile line showing the relationship
of the water surface elevation of a flood event to locations of land
surface elevations along a stream or river.
Any combination of structural provisions, changes or adjustments
to properties and structures, water and sanitary facilities and contents
of buildings subject to flooding for the purpose of reducing or eliminating
flood damage.
An elevation two feet of freeboard above the water surface
profile associated with the regional flood. (Also see: "freeboard.")
Those floodplain areas where storage of floodwaters has been
taken into account in reducing the regional flood discharge.
The channel of a river or stream and those portions of the
floodplain adjoining the channel required to carry the regional flood
discharge.
A flood-protection elevation requirement designed as a safety
factor which is usually expressed in terms of a specified amount of
feet above a calculated flood level. Freeboard compensates for the
many unknown factors that contribute to flood heights greater than
the height calculated. These factors include, but are not limited
to, ice jams, debris accumulation, wave action, obstruction of bridge
openings and floodways, the effects of urbanization on the hydrology
of the watershed, loss of flood storage areas due to development and
aggregation of the river or stream bed.
Any building, or portion thereof, used for human habitation.
Publication or posting meeting the requirements of Ch. 985,
Wis. Stats. Class 1 notice is the minimum required for appeals, published
once at least one week (seven days) before the hearing. Class 2 notice
is the minimum required for all zoning ordinances and amendments,
including map amendments, published twice, once each week consecutively,
the last at least a week (seven days) before the hearing. Local ordinances
or bylaws may require additional notice, exceeding these minimums.
Damage that could result from flooding that includes any
danger to life or health or any significant economic loss to a structure
or building and its contents.
Any structure that is:
Listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places
or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the Interior as meeting
the requirements for individual listing on the National Register;
Certified or preliminarily determined by the Secretary of the
Interior as contributing to the historical significance of a registered
historic district or a district preliminarily determined by the Secretary
to qualify as a registered historic district;
Individually listed on a state inventory of historic places
in states with historic preservation programs which have been approved
by the Secretary of the Interior; or
Individually listed on a local inventory of historic places
in communities with historic preservation programs that have been
certified either by an approved state program, as determined by the
Secretary of the Interior, or directly by the Secretary of the Interior
in states without approved programs.
A human residence or dwelling.
A calculated upward rise in the regional flood elevation,
equal to or greater than 0.01 foot, resulting from comparison of existing
conditions and proposed conditions, which is directly attributable
to development in the floodplain but not attributable to manipulation
of mathematical variables such as roughness factors, expansion and
contraction coefficients and discharge.
Any nonstructural use made of unimproved or improved real
estate. (Also see "development.")
A structure, transportable in one or more sections, which
is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used with or without
a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities. For
the purpose of this chapter, it does not include recreational vehicles
or travel trailers which remain licensed and ready for highway use
and remain on site less than 180 days.
The Village governmental units enacting, administering and
enforcing this Floodplain Zoning Chapter.
Elevations referenced to mean sea level datum, 1929 adjustment.
An existing lawful structure or building which is not in
conformity with the dimensional or structural requirements of this
chapter for the area of floodplain which it occupies. (For example,
an existing residential structure in the Flood-Fringe District is
a conforming use. However, if the first floor is lower than the flood-protection
elevation, the structure is nonconforming.)
An existing lawful use or accessory use of a structure or
building which is not in conformity with the provisions of this chapter
for the area of the floodplain which it occupies (such as a residence
in the floodway).
Any development which physically blocks the conveyance of
floodwaters such that this development by itself or in conjunction
with any future similar development will cause an increase in regional
flood height.
That map, adopted and made part of this chapter, which has
been approved by the Village Board.
Those uses having a relatively low flood damage potential
and not involving structures.
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.
An individual or group of individuals, corporation, partnership,
association, municipality or state agency.
A sewage treatment and disposal system serving a single structure
with a septic tank and soil absorption field located on the same parcel
as the structure. This term also means an alternative sewage system
approved by the Department of Safety and Professional Services, including
a substitute for the septic tank or soil absorption field, a holding
tank, a system serving more than one structure or a system located
on a different parcel than the structure.
Those utilities using underground or overhead transmission
lines, such as electric, telephone and telegraph, and distribution
and collection systems, such as water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer.
A flood determined to be representative of large floods known
to have occurred in Wisconsin or which may be expected to occur on
a particular lake, river or stream once in every 100 years.
Any man-made object with form, shape and utility either permanently
or temporarily attached to, placed upon or set into the ground, stream
bed or lake bed, which includes, but is not limited to, such objects
as roofed and walled buildings, gas or liquid storage tanks, bridges,
dams and culverts.
Any structural repair, reconstruction or improvement of a
structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50% of the present
equalized assessed value of the structure either before the improvement
or repair is started or, if the structure has been damaged and is
being restored, before the damage occurred.
The term does not, however, include either:
Any project for improvement of a structure to comply with existing
state or local health, sanitary or safety code specifications which
are solely necessary to assure safe living conditions; or
Any alteration of a designated historical structure or site
documented as deserving preservation by the Wisconsin State Historical
Society or listed on the National Register of Historic Places, provided
the alteration will not preclude the structure's continued designation
as an historical structure.
Ordinary maintenance repairs are not considered structural repairs,
modifications or additions. Such ordinary maintenance repairs include
internal and external painting, decorating, paneling, and the replacement
of doors, windows, and other nonstructural components. "Substantial
improvement" begins when the first alteration of any wall, ceiling,
floor, or other structural part of the building commences, whether
or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the structure.
Those circumstances where special conditions affecting a
particular property, which are not self-created, have made strict
conformity with restrictions governing areas, setbacks, frontage,
height or density unnecessarily burdensome or unreasonable in light
of the purposes of this chapter.
An authorization by the Zoning Board of Appeals for the construction
or maintenance of a building or structure in a manner which is inconsistent
with the dimensional standards (not uses) contained in this chapter.
The entire region or area contributing runoff or surface
water to a particular watercourse or body of water.
A graphical representation showing the elevation of the water
surface of a watercourse for each position along a reach of river
or stream at a certain flood flow. A water surface profile of the
regional flood is used in regulating floodplain areas.
An excavation opening in the ground made by digging, boring,
drilling, driving or other methods for the purpose of obtaining groundwater
regardless of its intended use.
