§ 42-1. Definitions.  


Latest version.
  • The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

    Alley means a public right-of-way that normally affords a secondary means of vehicular access to an abutting property.

    Arterial street means a street that provides for the movement of relatively heavy traffic to, from or within the City. It has a secondary function of providing access to abutting land.

    Block means an area of land within a subdivision that is entirely bounded by a combination of streets, exterior boundary lines of the subdivision and streams or water bodies.

    Collector street means a street that collects and distributes internal traffic within an urban area such as a residential neighborhood, between arterial and local streets. It provides access to abutting property.

    Commission means the Plan Commission created by the Common Council pursuant to Wis. Stats. § 62.23.

    Comprehensive Development Plan means a comprehensive plan prepared by the City indicating the general locations recommended for the various functional classes of land use, places and structures, and for the general physical development of the City and includes any unit or part of such plan separately adopted and any amendment to such plan or parts thereof.

    Condominium development means a real estate development in which a condominium form of ownership pursuant to Wis. Stats. ch. 703 is utilized.

    Cul-de-sac means a short street having but one end open to traffic and the other end being permanently terminated in a vehicular turnaround.

    Division of land means the title or any part thereof as transferred by the execution of a land contract, an option to purchase, an offer to purchase and acceptance, a deed, or a certified survey.

    Easement means the area of land set aside or over or through which a liberty, privilege or advantage in land, distinct from ownership of the land, is granted to the public or some particular person or part of the public.

    Extraterritorial plat approval jurisdiction means the unincorporated area within 1½ miles of a fourth class city or a village and within three miles of all other cities.

    Final plat means the final map, drawing or chart on which the subdivider's plan of subdivision is presented for approval and which, if approved, will be submitted to the County Register of Deeds.

    Frontage street means a minor street auxiliary to, and located on the side of, an arterial street for control of access and for service to the abutting development.

    Improvement, public, means any sanitary sewer, storm sewer, open channel, water main, roadway, park, parkway, public access, sidewalk, pedestrian way, planting strip or other facility for which the City may ultimately assume the responsibility for maintenance and operation.

    Local street means a street of little or no continuity designed to provide access to abutting property and leading into collector streets.

    Lot means a parcel of land having frontage on a public street or other officially approved means of access, occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal structure or use and sufficient in size to meet the lot width, lot frontage, lot area, yard, parking area and other open space provisions of this chapter and any applicable zoning regulations.

    Lot, area, means the area contained within the exterior boundaries of a lot excluding streets, and land under navigable bodies of water.

    Lot, corner, means a lot abutting intersecting streets at their intersections.

    Lot, reversed corner, means a corner lot that is oriented so that it has its rear lot line coincident with or parallel to the side lot line of the interior lot immediately to its rear.

    Lot, through, means a lot having a pair of opposite lot lines along two more or less parallel public streets and which is not a corner lot. On a through lot, both street lines shall be deemed front lot lines.

    Lot lines means the peripheral boundaries of a lot as defined herein.

    Lot width means the width of a parcel of land measured along the front building line.

    Major thoroughfare means a street used or intended to be used primarily for fast or heavy through traffic. The term "major thoroughfares" includes freeways, expressways and other highways and parkways, as well as arterial streets.

    Minor street means a street used, or intended to be used, primarily for access to abutting properties; also referred to as a local street.

    Minor subdivision (certified survey) means the division of land by the owner or subdivider resulting in the creation of not more than four parcels or building sites, any one of which is 1½ acres in size or less, or the division of a block, lot or out lot within a recorded subdivision plat into not more than four parcels or building sites without changing the exterior boundaries of said block, lot or out lot.

    Owner includes the plural as well as the singular and may mean either a natural person, firm, association, partnership, private corporation, public or quasi-public corporation, or combination of these.

    Pedestrian pathway means a public way, usually running at right angles to streets, which is intended for the convenience of pedestrians only; it may also provide public right-of-way for utilities.

    Plat means the map, drawing or chart on which the subdivider's plat of subdivision is presented to the City for approval.

    Preliminary plat means the preliminary plat map, drawing or chart indicating the proposed layout of the subdivision to be submitted to the Plan Commission for its consideration as to compliance with the Comprehensive Development Plan and these regulations along with required supporting data.

    Protective covenants mean contracts entered into between private parties or between private parties and public bodies pursuant to Wis. Stats. § 236.293 which constitute a restriction on the use of all private or platted property within a subdivision for the benefit of the public or property owners and to provide mutual protection against undesirable aspects of development which would tend to impair the stability of values.

    Replat means the process of changing, or a map or plat that changes, the boundaries of a recorded subdivision plat or part thereof. The legal dividing of a large block, lot or out lot within a recorded subdivision plat without changing exterior boundaries of said block, lot or out lot is not a replat.

    Shore lands mean those lands within the following distances:

    (1)

    One thousand feet from the high-water elevation of navigable lakes, ponds and flowages;

    (2)

    Three hundred feet from the high-water elevation of navigable streams; or

    (3)

    To the landward side of the floodplain, whichever is greater.

    Subdivider means any person, firm or corporation, or any agent thereof, dividing or proposing to divide land resulting in a subdivision, minor subdivision or replat.

    Subdivision means a division of a lot, parcel or tract of land by the owner thereof or the owner's agent for the purpose of sale or of building development where:

    (1)

    The act of division creates five or more parcels or building sites of 1½ acres each or less in area; or

    (2)

    Five or more parcels or building sites of 1½ acres each or less in area are created by successive divisions within a period of five years.

    Wetlands means an area where water is at, near or above the land surface long enough to be capable of supporting aquatic or hydrophytic vegetation and which has soils indicative of wet conditions, as provided in Wis. Stats. § 23.32(1).

    Wisconsin Administrative Code (Wis. Admin. Code) means the rules of administrative agencies having rule-making authority in the State, published in a looseleaf, continual revision system, as directed by Wis. Stats. § 35.93 and Wis. Stats. ch. 227, including subsequent amendments to those rules.

(Code 1991, § 14-1-10)