Vilas County Board Buckles At the Knees;
Cancels Shoreline Meeting

Several Board members said that the meeting was canceled because they didn’t receive a final draft of the copy 10 days prior to the meeting which is a an administrative rule governing counties.  The final draft was delivered to the county Board eight days before the meeting. In most cases, however, county board members exercise their right to waive the rule and proceed with a meeting if they received a copy of the proposed ordinance a reasonable length of time before the meeting.

While the cancellation is a setback for our lakes, it doesn’t mean that the process is over.  It appears that some of the Board members may be getting nervous after hearing from vocal real estate interests who profit handsomely from the current building boom.  The special Vilas County Board shoreline ordinance meeting has been rescheduled for 9 am March 16th at the courthouse in Eagle River.

The main focus of the reformed ordinance is to protect lakes that are vulnerable to development such as small lakes under 10 acres and shallow lakes with irregular shorelines.  The proposed ordinance is a major improvement over existing laws in some of the following ways:

• All lakes under 50 acres require newly created lots to have at least 300 feet of frontage.
• Setbacks are expanded to 125 feet on lakes under 50 acres
• Keyholing is reduced to a maximum of three lots.
• Land disturbances are curtailed with vegetation buffer requirements and limits to impermeable surfaces

• Call your County Board Rep.
• Go to Wed’s Crucial Meeting
• Call your Friends & Neighbors
• Write a letter to the editor