Madison Worried About County Zoning Plan

By Matthew DeFour, The Wisconsin State Journal

Jul. 13–Dane County is developing new shoreland zoning standards designed to improve water quality equitably for all cities, villages and towns.

But Madison and other cities are concerned about how the draft plan could affect thousands of property owners not currently under the county ‘s shoreland zoning rules.

The goal of the new regulations is to improve water quality, natural habitats and the aesthetics of Dane County ‘s waterways, said Brian Standing, a senior Dane County planner.

“The county ‘s shoreland zoning ordinance is very much out of date, ” Standing said. “It really hasn ‘t kept up with what we know now through better science and better information are the full impacts of development on the water bodies of the county. “

By applying the rules to cities and villages, shoreland zoning would affect all property owners on a body of water, such as Lake Mendota, the same, rather than those in Madison having different rules than those in the town of Westport, Standing noted.

But officials from Madison, Middleton, Monona and McFarland have raised questions about the county imposing restrictions that could “add significant complexity and cost ” to the review process for new urban development.

“The city continues to have significant concerns about the appropriateness, let alone the practicality, of seeking to apply objectives and management standards for shoreland development, which may be reasonable and effective in rural undeveloped areas, to much more intensively developed urban communities, ” Madison Planning Director Brad Murphy and City Engineer Larry Nelson wrote to the county Friday.

Property values and assessments would decline if thousands of lots were deemed “nonconforming ” by the proposed standards, according to Phil Salkin, government affairs director of the Realtors Association of South Central Wisconsin. He urged that the economic impact be studied before any new rules are approved.

“You ‘re talking about a huge sucking sound of millions of dollars of property value going down the drain, ” Salkin said.

As proposed, the rules would create minimum lot sizes for new structures and additions on parcels 1,000 feet from lakes or 300 feet from rivers and streams. The lot size and setback dimensions would depend on whether the body of water is classified as “rural, “”developing ” or “urban. “

The rules also give municipalities the option of using “performance standards ” instead of or in conjunction with the dimensional requirements. Property owners would be allowed to create such features as rain gardens and vegetative buffers to mitigate stormwater runoff and earn “points ” to offset a substandard lot.

Property owners would be responsible for paying for the mitigation features, which can cost a few thousand dollars depending on the size of the lot, though the plan calls for the county to develop grants to assist in the process.

The plan includes ways for zoning officials to measure the impact of mitigation features, so the property owner wouldn ‘t have to go before a zoning appeals board. Even property owners who can ‘t meet the standards would be able to apply for a variance.

Madison officials note in their letter that more than 10,000 parcels in the city would be affected by the rules, including properties separated from lakes by a major road. The county estimates between 18,000 and 56,000 property owners would be affected countywide.

Existing houses wouldn ‘t be affected by the rules, but rebuilding a house, building an addition or building a new structure on a vacant lot would subject a property owner to the new rules.

The county ‘s plan is still months away from completion, and still would have to be enacted through an ordinance amendment, which would go through a public vetting process.

The deadline for public comments on the draft plan is Monday, though the county will continue to accept feedback as a final draft is completed, Standing said.

The Shoreland and Riparian Management Plan, as it ‘s called, is the second phase of the Dane County Waterbody Classification Project, which began in 2003 as a way to address the disparity in shoreland zoning rules between cities, which aren ‘t subject to county zoning regulations, and towns, which are.

The first phase of the project, completed in 2005, collected scientific data on the county ‘s waterways and classified them as rural, developing and urban.

When the second phase plan is complete, possibly later this year, the county could revise its shoreland zoning ordinance and apply the standards in the plan. If passed by the Dane County Lakes and Watershed Commission, the ordinance change could force cities and villages to adopt zoning standards either as strict or more strict.

The ordinance would therefore be similar to the stormwater and erosion ordinance that took effect in 2002. That ordinance required standards for the quantity and quality of water that runs off rural and urban property.

PROPOSED CHANGES FROM CURRENT RULES

–Minimum lot sizes for sewered Urban Waters lots would increase from 10,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet.

–Minimum lot sizes for unsewered Developing Waters would increase from 20,000 square feet to two acres and for Rural Waters from 20,000 square feet to four acres.

–Standards for vegetation removal, boathouses and access corridors for all classes of waters would be created.

–Alternative designs or mitigation that meet specific performance standards for each class of water would be allowed for substandard lots.

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