Oneida County has tweaked some language in its pier ordinance as supervisors questioned why this is different that other water rules where the state said the counties can't regulate.
The county got into regulating piers in the late 1990's amid increasing shoreland development and large piers being installed in some southern Wisconsin lakes. Planning and Zoning Director Karl Jenrich says the county got into stronger rules after there was concern about towns and citizens around the year 2000 about increasing development on northern lakes....
"....Oneida county, two towns and lake associations felt Oneida County should be in the business of regulating piers, particularly some of the larger marina developments we've seen in Oneida county over the years because we have approximately 1,000 plus lakes...."
Supervisor Billy Fried says on one hand, the state took away the county's ability to control one aspect of shorelines, then still allowing county control on others..
".....we get told by the state we cannot be more restrictive than the DNR on shoreland zoning and then I'm looking at a pier ordinance that allows us to be more restrictive than the DNR. I just seems like it's not consistent...."
When the state budget passed, it took away the counties' ability to put in place rules stronger than state statutes in shoreland zoning, but piers were left off that bill.
County Planning and Development Chair Scott Holowinski said after two public hearings on pier regulations, the majority of people at the meetings wanted the county to stay in the pier regulation business. A wide majority of the board passed the wording changes.
