A.Â
Interpretation. For the purpose of administering and enforcing this
chapter, the terms or words used herein shall be interpreted as follows:
(1)Â
Words used in the present tense include the future; in the singular
include the plural; and in the plural include the singular.
(2)Â
The word "shall" is mandatory, not permissive.
(3)Â
All distances, unless otherwise specified, shall be measured horizontally.
(4)Â
All definitions that refer to Wisconsin Statutes shall incorporate
any revisions or amendments to statutory language.
B.Â
ACCESSORY STRUCTURE
ACCESSORY USE
AGRICULTURE
ANTENNA
BASE ZONING DISTRICT
BED-AND-BREAKFAST OPERATION
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs)
BLUFFLINE
BUILDING LINE
CAMOUFLAGE DESIGN
COMPLIANT BUILDING LOCATION
CONDITIONAL USE
DIAMETER AT BREAST HEIGHT (DBH)
DISABLED
EARTHTONE
EXPANSION
FILTERED VIEW OF THE ST. CROIX RIVER
FOOTPRINT
FOUNDATION
GROUND COVER
HUMAN HABITATION
LAND DIVISION
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
LIFT
LOT
LOWER ST. CROIX RIVERWAY OR LOWER ST. CROIX NATIONAL SCENIC
RIVERWAY
MANAGEMENT ZONES
MITIGATION
NATIVE VEGETATION
NET PROJECT AREA
NONCONFORMING STRUCTURE
NONCONFORMING USE
ORDINARY HIGH-WATER MARK (OHWM)
ORDINARY MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR
OVERSTORY
PIERS AND WHARVES
PLANNED RESIDENTIAL AND CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT
PORCH
PRINCIPAL STRUCTURE
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEER
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION
RECONSTRUCTION
SELECTION CUT
SETBACK
SHELTERWOOD CUT
SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENCE
SLOPE PRESERVATION ZONE
SMALL REGENERATION CUT
STEALTH DESIGN
STRUCTURAL ALTERATION
STRUCTURAL COMPONENT
STRUCTURAL EROSION CONTROL MEASURE
STRUCTURE
SUBSTANDARD LOT
SUCCESSIONAL CLIMAX FOREST
TRANSMISSION SERVICES
UNDERSTORY
USE PERMITTED AS A CONDITIONAL USE
VISUALLY INCONSPICUOUS
WETLAND
WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE FACILITIES
Definitions. As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have
the meanings indicated:
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.
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.
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.
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).
The underlying zoning district as outlined in Chapter 240 of the Pierce County Code.
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.
Practices and industry standards designed to minimize environmental
damage.
A line along the top of the slope preservation zone. There
can be more than one bluffline.
A line measured across the width of a lot at that point where
the principal structure is placed in accordance with setback provisions.
A wireless communications service facility that is disguised,
hidden or screened but remains recognizable as a tower or antenna.
An area on a lot where a building could be located in compliance
with all applicable ordinance requirements.
See "use permitted as a conditional use."
The width of a tree as measured at 4.5 feet above the ground
surface.
Having a physical or mental impairment that substantially
limits one or more major life activities.
Colors that harmonize with the natural surroundings on the
site during leaf-on conditions.
An addition to an existing structure, regardless of whether
the addition is vertical or horizontal or both.
A view in which one can see the river through the vegetation,
while any structure remains visually inconspicuous.
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.
The underlying base of a building or other structure, including
but not limited to pillars, footings, and concrete and masonry walls.
Small plants such as mosses, forbs, ferns, grasses, and undershrubs
growing on a forest floor.
The use of a building or other structure for human occupancy,
including but not limited to cooking, eating, bathing and sleeping.
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.
A person who has graduated with a major in landscape architecture
from a college accredited by the American Society of Landscape Architects.
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.
A contiguous parcel of land with described boundaries.
The area described in Wisconsin Administrative Code Section
NR 118.02(1).
The Lower St. Croix Riverway management zones established
in Wisconsin Administrative Code Section NR 118.04.
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.
Those species of vegetation that occurred naturally in presettlement
Wisconsin. Refer to the original 1830's Vegetation Map of Wisconsin.
Developable land area minus slope preservation zones, floodplains,
road rights-of-way, and wetlands.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The upper forest canopy layer.
Structures extending into the water to facilitate the launching
or mooring of watercraft or for fishing during the open water season.
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.
A building walkway with a roof over it, providing access
to a building entrance.
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.
One who is trained, registered, and professionally engaged
in a specific branch of engineering in the State of Wisconsin.
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.
The replacement of all, or substantially all, of the components
of a structure other than the foundation.
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.
The minimum horizontal distance between a structure and the
OHWM, bluffline, side or rear lot lines, or roads.
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.
A detached structure used for human habitation for one family.
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.
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.
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.
The replacement or alteration of one or more of the structural
components of any of a nonconforming structure's exterior walls.
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.
A retaining wall or other man-made structure whose primary
function is to control erosion.
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.
A lot with dimensions that do not conform to all of the requirements
of this chapter.
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.
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.
The layer formed by the crowns of smaller trees beneath the
forest canopy.
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.
Difficult to see, or not readily noticeable, in summer months
as viewed from at or near the midline of the Lower St. Croix River.
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.
Hardware that provides wireless communications services,
including antennas, towers, all associated equipment, and buildings
and other structures.