Rules Delayed, Misunderstanding Voiced at Hearing

Two notable developments impact Wisconsin’s new minimum shoreland zoning standards, contained in section NR115 of the Administrative Code.

At its August meeting, the Natural Resources Board voted unanimously to extend the deadline for counties to implement the new standards for two more years, to 2014. Wisconsin Lakes supported this extension - many counties clearly were not going to meet the deadline and needed time to work through all of the issues and politics involved in the process.

Speaking of politics, a public hearing called by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Review of Administrative Rules and held recently in Minocqua brought out numerous supporters and opponents. Wisconsin Lakes Policy Director Toni Herkert spoke in favor of the rules, which came about after ten years of hard work and negotiation among the many stakeholders in the process. She testified that while at some point in the future a review of the rules would be reasonable and prudent, to do so now would be short-sighted, and ignore the value of the years of work that went into their creation (Read Wisconsin Lakes’s pre-hearing press release). An expanded analysis of the hearing and the misconceptions voiced by many opponents to the rule changes will appear in the Lake Connection, due out in September.

For now, JCRAR has not acted on the rules (the committee could suspend them if it wished), and the NRB’s delay of the implementation deadline may be enough for the counties to get the information they need from DNR staff to work out the issues. Still, rumors persist of future legislative meetings, hearings and possible “statutory fixes.” Wisconsin Lakes staff continues to closely monitor this extremely important issue to lakes, and will keep you informed of any new developments through the eLake, Lake Connection, Action Alerts,     

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