A. 
Interpretation. For the purpose of administering and enforcing this chapter, the terms or words used herein shall be interpreted as follows:
(1) 
Words used in the present tense include the future; in the singular include the plural; and in the plural include the singular.
(2) 
The word "shall" is mandatory, not permissive.
(3) 
All distances, unless otherwise specified, shall be measured horizontally.
(4) 
All definitions that refer to Wisconsin Statutes shall incorporate any revisions or amendments to statutory language.
B. 
Definitions. As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ACCESSORY STRUCTURE
A subordinate structure, the use of which is incidental to, customarily found in connection with, and located on the same lot as the principal structure or use of the property. Accessory structures include, but are not limited to, detached garages, sheds, barns, gazebos, swimming pools, hot tubs, fences, retaining walls and detached stairways and lifts; and impervious, pervious or porous driveways, parking lots, sidewalks, decks (both detached and attached) and patios.
ACCESSORY USE
A use subordinate to and serving the principal use on the same lot and customarily incidental thereto. It must also be subordinate in area, extent or purpose to the principal building or use served. Accessory uses include, but are not limited to, family day care, home occupations, and seasonal roadside stands.
AGRICULTURE
Beekeeping; livestock grazing; the orchards; the raising of grain, grass or seed crops; the 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 U.S.C. §§ 3831 to 3836; and vegetable raising.
ANTENNA
Any device or equipment used for the transmission or reception of electromagnetic waves, which may include an omnidirectional antenna (rod), a directional antenna (panel) or a parabolic antenna (disc).
BASE ZONING DISTRICT
The underlying zoning district as outlined in Chapter 240 of the Pierce County Code.
BED-AND-BREAKFAST OPERATION
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.
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs)
Practices and industry standards designed to minimize environmental damage.
BLUFFLINE
A line along the top of the slope preservation zone. There can be more than one bluffline.
BUILDING LINE
A line measured across the width of a lot at that point where the principal structure is placed in accordance with setback provisions.
CAMOUFLAGE DESIGN
A wireless communications service facility that is disguised, hidden or screened but remains recognizable as a tower or antenna.
COMPLIANT BUILDING LOCATION
An area on a lot where a building could be located in compliance with all applicable ordinance requirements.
CONDITIONAL USE
See "use permitted as a conditional use."
DIAMETER AT BREAST HEIGHT (DBH)
The width of a tree as measured at 4.5 feet above the ground surface.
DISABLED
Having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.
EARTHTONE
Colors that harmonize with the natural surroundings on the site during leaf-on conditions.
EXPANSION
An addition to an existing structure, regardless of whether the addition is vertical or horizontal or both.
FILTERED VIEW OF THE ST. CROIX RIVER
A view in which one can see the river through the vegetation, while any structure remains visually inconspicuous.
FOOTPRINT
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.
FOUNDATION
The underlying base of a building or other structure, including but not limited to pillars, footings, and concrete and masonry walls.
GROUND COVER
Small plants such as mosses, forbs, ferns, grasses, and undershrubs growing on a forest floor.
HUMAN HABITATION
The use of a building or other structure for human occupancy, including but not limited to cooking, eating, bathing and sleeping.
LAND DIVISION
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.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
A person who has graduated with a major in landscape architecture from a college accredited by the American Society of Landscape Architects.
LIFT
A mechanical device, either temporary or permanent, containing a mobile open-top car including hand- or guardrails, a track upon which the open-top car moves, and a mechanical device to provide power to the open-top car.
LOT
A contiguous parcel of land with described boundaries.
LOWER ST. CROIX RIVERWAY OR LOWER ST. CROIX NATIONAL SCENIC RIVERWAY
The area described in Wisconsin Administrative Code Section NR 118.02(1).
MANAGEMENT ZONES
The Lower St. Croix Riverway management zones established in Wisconsin Administrative Code Section NR 118.04.
MITIGATION
Action taken to minimize the adverse impacts of development. 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 stormwater management.
NATIVE VEGETATION
Those species of vegetation that occurred naturally in presettlement Wisconsin. Refer to the original 1830's Vegetation Map of Wisconsin.
NET PROJECT AREA
Developable land area minus slope preservation zones, floodplains, road rights-of-way, and wetlands.
NONCONFORMING STRUCTURE
A building or other structure whose location, dimensions or other physical characteristics do not conform to the standards of this chapter but which was legally constructed or placed in its current location prior to the enactment of this chapter or its amendment that made it nonconforming.
NONCONFORMING USE
Any use of land or a structure or other premises that does not conform to the land use restrictions in this chapter, but which was legally established prior to the enactment of this chapter or its amendment that made it nonconforming.
ORDINARY HIGH-WATER MARK (OHWM)
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 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.
ORDINARY MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR
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.
OVERSTORY
The upper forest canopy layer.
PIERS AND WHARVES
Structures extending into the water to facilitate the launching or mooring of watercraft or for fishing during the open water season.
PLANNED RESIDENTIAL AND CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT
An area of land, controlled by a developer, to be developed as a single entity for more than one dwelling unit, the plan for which does not necessarily comply with the various dimensional and locational requirements for the zoning district in which it is located but in which each dwelling unit is located on its own lot.
PORCH
A building walkway with a roof over it, providing access to a building entrance.
PRINCIPAL STRUCTURE
The main building or other structure on a lot that is utilized for the property's principal use. The principal structure includes attached garages and porches.
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
One who is trained, registered, and professionally engaged in a specific branch of engineering in the State of Wisconsin.
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION
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 him or her equal housing opportunity.
RECONSTRUCTION
The replacement of all, or substantially all, of the components of a structure other than the foundation.
SELECTION CUT
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.
SETBACK
The minimum horizontal distance between a structure and the OHWM, bluffline, side or rear lot lines, or roads.
SHELTERWOOD CUT
A partial removal of mature trees, leaving trees of desirable species and form to provide shade, seed source and a desirable seedbed for natural regeneration with the final removal of the overstory after adequate regeneration is established.
SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENCE
A detached structure used for human habitation for one family.
SLOPE PRESERVATION ZONE
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.
SMALL REGENERATION CUT
A harvest of not more than 1/3 of the contiguous forested ownership within a ten-year period with each opening not exceeding six acres in size and not closer than 75 feet at their closest points.
STEALTH DESIGN
A wireless communications 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.
STRUCTURAL ALTERATION
The replacement or alteration of one or more of the structural components of any of a nonconforming structure's exterior walls.
STRUCTURAL COMPONENT
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 doorsills 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 drywall on the interior, are not included in the definition of structural component.
STRUCTURAL EROSION CONTROL MEASURE
A retaining wall or other man-made structure whose primary function is to control erosion.
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 riverbed, streambed or lakebed or upon another structure. "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. "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.
SUBSTANDARD LOT
A lot with dimensions that do not conform to all of the requirements of this chapter.
SUCCESSIONAL CLIMAX FOREST
Plant community dominated by native trees representing the culminating stage of natural succession for that specific locality and environment. Also referred to as old growth forest specific to the Lower St. Croix Riverway, including oak forest, maple, basswood forest, and white-pine forest.
TRANSMISSION SERVICES
Electric power lines, telephone and telegraph lines, communications 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 two points, other than wireless communications service facilities.
UNDERSTORY
The layer formed by the crowns of smaller trees beneath the forest canopy.
USE PERMITTED AS A CONDITIONAL USE
A use whose nature, character or circumstance is so unique or so dependent upon specific conditions that predetermination of permissibility by right is not practical but which may be permitted on a case-by-case basis subject to the conditional use permit procedure.
VISUALLY INCONSPICUOUS
Difficult to see, or not readily noticeable, in summer months as viewed from at or near the midline of the Lower St. Croix River.
WETLAND
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.
WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE FACILITIES
Hardware that provides wireless communications services, including antennas, towers, all associated equipment, and buildings and other structures.