Keep shoreline zoning on track

NOTE: My comments appear in (para).

WI State Journal Editorial, October 23, 2005

Wisconsin should act with deliberate speed to protect the state's remaining unspoiled lakes and rivers. For that reason, the plan to update the way the state regulates the development of shoreline properties should quickly proceed.

Lawmakers and residents should not allow the process to become bogged down in a fight about the power government wields against private property owners.

(So government should minimize the concerns of property owners?)

Regulating shoreland development is not about infringing on private rights. It is about protecting clean water, natural beauty, and fish and wildlife habitat.

(To some degree, yes it does infringe on my rights)

And it is about protecting private rights - the rights of home- and
business-owners to enjoy their waterfront property.

(OK, at least property rights receives a token mention)

No one wants to live and work along water that resembles pea soup with noodles.

(Shoreline property owners take great care in protecting their investment)

Since 2002, the state Department of Natural Resources has been working on aproposal to update shoreline zoning regulations controlling setbacks, lot sizes,buffer strips, concrete surfaces and other property development issues. The proposal would chiefly affect land in rural parts of the state.

(Define rural. Rural as in the Willow Flowage in Oneida County, or rural as in Sumner Township, Jefferson County?)

Cities and villages, governed by their own zoning regulations, would be exempt.

Why only cities and villages? Why not include areas that are represented by statutorily created lake districts?)

Updating the state's shoreline protection standards, which have remained virtually unchanged since 1966, is vital to lakes and rivers threatened by development. In Dane County we have seen firsthand how the rapid expansion of homebuilding and commercial development contributes to increased runoff pollution that feeds weed and algae growth in our lakes and rivers.

(Indeed. Dane County is home to all the so-called experts; from the University to the DNR, from every state legislative agency to highly restrictive zoning from local politicians, and yet, the Madison chain of lakes still has its problems)

To be sure, the proposal's specific provisions deserve debate.

(Yes, it does deserve debate)

Indeed, they already have been debated.

(So do you want to end debate or continue debate?)

This month DNR staff members are poring over roughly 12,000 comments from the public. The DNR intends to modify the proposal based on what one administrator called "a significant number of good ideas" from the comments and from hearings conducted this summer.

(I am curious how many shoreline property owners are there in WI? How many lake districts? 12,000 comments seem mighty slim.

What is the position of the WI Realtors Assn? The WI Counties Assn? The WI Towns Assn? The WI Assn. of Lakes? And the dozens and dozens of other associations and local units of government that each have concerns about a mandated statewide law that then becomes riddled with exceptions that only the DNR can interpret)