Lake County Zoning Ordinance Increases Land Use Options

Last updated on 2013.06.18

Lake County residents referred a significant overhaul of our zoning ordinance to a public vote. We go to the polls March 15. We can do early voting at the courthouse, but Auditor Kay Schmidt and Auditor-Elect Roberta Janke are not setting up polls at any basketball games, concerts, or workplaces. (Clearly the county is not as committed to increasing voter turnout as our school district.)

Opponents referred the zoning ordinance to a public vote because, among other reasons, they believe the expanded ordinance imposes too many new controls on how we use our land. That claim is wrong. The revised zoning ordinance actually gives landowners more freedom to use their property for various projects. The ordinance has expanded from 86 pages to 137 pages (same length as Madison's) in part because it adds 20 new permitted uses and 43 conditional uses. These uses include things like seasonal farmer's market stands, schools, private wind energy systems, and automotive towing yards. Most of those uses already happen but aren't specified for their given districts within the zoning ordinance. That means that if the county really wanted to, it would have legal authority to go out tomorrow and shut down operations like the Madison Christian School and any wind turbines on farms.

The proposed ordinance also amends some existing uses, mostly to the same effect: writing into law allowable uses that aren't technically allowable right now.

The revised zoning ordinance does remove some land uses. The new rules would prohibit fisheries, game production areas, and public parks and recreation areas in the county's small commercial/industrial district. It would prohibit golf courses and summer camps in the natural resource district. It repeals a number of conditional uses that currently would allow someone to plunk a feedlot, landfill, and other projects specified for ag land in the commerical/industrial district.

Shelly Gust handed out the following list of new, amended, and removed land uses in her public talk on the zoning rules Thursday night. If folks come up to you saying the zoning ordinance is taking away your rights as a landowner, please hand them this list and ask them to go line by line to identify the tyranny afoot.

New Permitted Uses

1. Ag District — Temporary structures used for the sale of produce raised on-premises provided that there have been no past complaints or violations regarding previous sales
2. Ag District — Home Occupations
3. Ag District — On-premise signs
4. Ag District — Stabling, pasturing, raising of livestock on small acreages
5. Ag District — Accessory uses and buildings subordinate to uses listed as a permitted use or conditional use
6. C/I District — Field crops and grasslands
7. C/I District — On-premise signs
8. C/I District — Orchards and tree farms
9. C/I District — Accessory uses and buildings subordinate to uses listed as a permitted use or conditional use
10. C/I District — Temporary structures used for the sale of fireworks between June 27^th and July 5^th provided that there have been no past complaints or violations regarding previous sales
11. C/I District — Temporary structures used for the sale of produce raised provided that there have been no past complaints or violations regarding previous sales
12. Lake Park District 1 — Modular homes
13. Lake Park District 1 — Accessory structures and uses to include but not limited to boathouses and sheds further than 25 feet from and at least 4 feet above the high water mark, or from a point as determined by the Board of Adjustment
14. Lake Park District 1 — Essential public services
15. Lake Park District 2 — Modular homes
16. Lake Park District 2 — Accessory structures and uses to include but not limited to boathouses and sheds further than 25 feet from and at least 4 feet above the high water mark, or from a point as determined by the Board of Adjustment
17. Lake Park District 2 — Essential public services
18. TD District — Modular homes
19. TD District — Accessory uses and buildings subordinate to uses listed as a permitted use or conditional use
20. Aquifer District — All permitted uses listed in the underlying districts which do not pose a potential risk to groundwater resources and are not a prohibited use

New Conditional Uses

1. Ag District — School
2. Ag District — Seasonal retail stands — including produce and fireworks — utilizing a permanent structure.
3. Ag District — Group Homes
4. Ag District — Private wind energy conversion system (PWECS)
5. Ag District — Target range
6. Ag District — Automotive Tow Business/Impound Lot
7. C/I District — Commercial stables
8. C/I District — Recreation vehicle sales and park
9. C/I District — Bar/tavern
10. C/I District — Veterinary clinics
11. C/I District — Wireless telecommunication towers and facilities
12. C/I District — Wind Energy Systems (WES)
13. C/I District — Private Wind Energy System (PWES)
14. C/I District — Convenience store/service station
15. C/I District — Seasonal retail stands — utilizing a permanent structure
16. C/I District — Commercial orchards, tree farms, truck gardening, and greenhouses — with retail sales
17. C/I District — Off-premise signs
18. C/I District — Light manufacturing
19. C/I District — Commercial animal husbandry service
20. C/I District — Agricultural product processing facilities such as ethanol plants and corn/soybean processing
21. C/I District — Retail sales and trade
22. C/I District — Automotive Tow Business / Impound Lot
23. Lake Park District 1 — Golf course, driving range, clubhouse and related accessory uses
24. Lake Park District 1 — Park homes
25. Lake Park District 1 — Stabling, pasturing, raising of livestock on small acreages
26. Lake Park District 2 — Golf course, driving range, clubhouse and related accessory uses
27. Lake Park District 2 — Park homes
28. Lake Park District 2 — Stabling, pasturing, raising of livestock on small acreages
29. TD District — Manufactured home park
30. TD District — School
31. TD District — Automotive Tow Business / Impound Lot
32. NR District — Transportation and utility easements and rights-of-way
33. NR District — Utility substations
34. NR District — Public parks, biking/walking trails and/or playgrounds
35. NR District — Livestock grazing
36. Aquifer Protection — Zone A — All uses permitted by conditional use in the underlying district which do not pose a potential risk to groundwater resources and are not a prohibited use and provided they can meet Performance Standards outlined for Aquifer Protection Overlay Zones
37. Aquifer Protection — Zone A — New public water supply wells located within two thousand five hundred (2,500) feet of a concentrated animal feeding operation
38. Aquifer Protection — Zone A — Expansion of existing CAFOs (as of Jan 20, 1998) not to exceed a cumulative total of 300 animal units. Said expansion or alteration must be constructed according to the DENR State General Permit criteria and shall apply for said General Permit
39. Aquifer Protection — Zone B — Expansion, modification, alteration, or relocation of existing permitted or conditional uses to extent they remain or become nonconforming and to extent allowed by underlying district. BOA shall not grant approval unless finds it will not pose greater potential for groundwater contamination than the existing use.
40. Aquifer Protection — Zone B — Earthen storage basins and lagoons
41. Aquifer Protection — Zone B — Stockpiling of solid waste
42. Aquifer Protection — Zone B — New Class D and expansion of existing Class A, B, C, D, CAFos...
43. Aquifer Protection — Zone B — All uses permitted by conditional use in the underlying district which do not pose a potential risk to groundwater resources and are not a prohibited use and provided they can meet Performance Standards outlined for Aquifer Protection Overlay Zones

Amended Permitted Uses

1. Ag District — Site-built single-family dwellings, and Type A and Type B manufactured homes. Dwellings may be farm or non-farm.
2. Ag District — Temporary structures used for the sale of fireworks between June 27^th and July 5^th provided that there have been no past complaints or violations regarding previous sales.
3. Lake Park District 1 — Site built single family dwelling
4. Lake Park District 1 — Agriculture and horticulture uses excluding CAFOs
5. Lake Park District 2 — Site built single family dwelling
6. Lake Park District 2 — Agriculture and horticulture uses excluding CAFOs
7. TD District — Site built single-family dwellings and Type A and Type B Manufactured Homes

Amended Conditional Uses

1. Ag District — Golf course, golf-driving range, and golf clubhouse
2. Ag District — Domestic sanitary sewage treatment plants/facility; provided they meet the requirements of Section 1230.
3. Ag District — Public utility and public service structure including transmission lines, substations, gas regulator stations, pipelines, community equipment buildings, water pumping stations, elevated tanks and similar essential public utilities and service structures.
4. Ag District — Temporary structures used for the sale of fireworks between June 27^th and July 5^th which have had past complaints or violations regarding previous sales.
5. C/I District — Highway and street maintenance shops, operated by a government institution
6. C/I District — Contractors' shops and yards including offices when in conjunction with a shop or yard
7. C/I District — Motels, hotels
8. Lake Park District 1- Multiple family dwellings, including townhouses, attached to a central sewer operated by a sanitary sewer district
9. Lake Park District 1 — Attached garages, unattached garages and accessory buildings with sidewalls greater than 12 feet and or dimensions greater than 1200 feet
10. Lake Park District 2- Multiple family dwellings, including townhouses, attached to a central sewer operated by a sanitary sewer district
11. Lake Park District 2 — Attached garages, unattached garages and accessory buildings with sidewalls greater than 12 feet and or dimensions greater than 1200 feet
12. Lake Pak District 2 — Home occupations and extended home occupations

Removed Permitted Uses

1. C/I District — Permitted uses in the Agricultural District except residential dwellings (replaced with a list of specific permitted uses)
   1. Fisheries services and game propagation areas and public parks and recreation areas are no longer permitted in C/I district
2. NR District — Golf courses, summer camps

Removed Conditional Uses

1. C/I District — Conditional uses in the €œA€ Agricultural District except residential dwellings (replaced with a list of specific conditional uses)
   1. Airports/airstrips; Church or cemetery; Golf course, golf driving range; Sand, gravel, or quarry operation, mineral exploration and extraction, rock crushers, and concrete and asphalt mixing plants; Home occupations; Game lodge; Sanitary landfills; Land application of petroleum-contaminated soils; Institution farms, including religious farming communities; Bed and breakfast homes; Sewage treatment plants; Class A, B, C, D, E CAFOs; Junkyards/salvage yards; Water pumping stations, elevated tanks, essential public utilities; Commercial public entertainment enterprises; Extended home occupation; Caretaker residences; Livestock sales barns, Rubble sites, composting sites, waste tire sites, restricted use sites; Fur farms and kennels; Private shooting preserves; Wind energy system; Horticultural services; Temporary structures used for fireworks with complaints