These excerpts provide context from official materials associated with this county.
Dane County Code Ch 10 — Zoning (Full)
hereby divided into
zoning districts in order to:
(a) achieve compatibility of land uses within
each district,
(b) implement the adopted goals, objectives
and policies of the Dane County Comprehensive
Plan, town comprehensive plans, and the Dane
County Farmland Preservation Plan, and
(c) to achieve the other stated purposes of
this chapter.
10.103(17)(b) – 10.200(1)(c)
Page 10-51
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(2) Zoning Districts.
(a) Sections 10.210 through 10.292 describe
the zoning districts within the jurisdiction of this
Chapter.
(b) In each zoning district, land uses are
divided into permitted and conditional uses.
1. Unless specifically exempted, no
development intended to accommodate a
permitted use listed in the applicable zoning
district may take place until the Zoning
Administrator, or designee, has issued a zoning
permit under s. 10.101(1).
2. No land use listed as a conditional use in
the applicable zoning district may take place until
the town board and zoning committee approve a
conditional use permit under s. 10.101(7).
3. Land uses not listed as either permitted
uses or conditional uses are
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Dane County Code Ch 10 — Zoning (Full)
t is to protect,
maintain, and enhance natural resource and
open space areas. Limited permitted and
conditional uses are offered, and regulation of
these areas will serve to control erosion and
promote the rural character and natural beauty of
the County while seeking to assure protection of
areas with significant topography, natural
10.200(2) – 10.211(1)
Page 10-52
rev. 033123
watersheds, ground and surface water, wildlife
habitat, recreational sites, archeological sites,
and other natural resource characteristics that
contribute to the environmental quality of the
County.
(2) Permitted uses.
(a) Undeveloped natural resource and open
space area.
(b) Hiking, fishing, trapping, hunting,
swimming and boating.
(c) Outdoor passive recreation
(d) Propagation and raising of game animals,
fowl and fish.
(e) The practice of silviculture, including the
planting, thinning and harvesting of timber.
(f) The harvesting of any wild crops such as
marsh hay, ferns, moss, berries, tree fruits and
tree seeds, in a manner that is not injurious to
the natural reproduction of such crop
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Dane County Code Ch 10 — Zoning (Full)
es may be granted from the
maximums of height or area (but not both) for all
signs regulated by this ordinance, except as
limited by this section.
2. Variances to maximum of height or area
may not exceed maximums specified in this
chapter by more than 20%.
3. Variances may not be granted to
maximum height, to maximum area or to
10.804(7)(a) – 10.806(1)(a)
Page 10-106
rev. 033123
minimum separation requirements for off-
premise advertising signs.
(b) Variance Standards. Unnecessary
hardship must be found as distinguished from a
mere inconvenience. The finding of a hardship
shall take into consideration the particular
physical surroundings, shape or topographical
conditions of the specific property involved.
1. The conditions upon which the application
for a variance is based would not be applicable
generally to other property similarly situated.
2. The purpose of the variance is not based
exclusively upon a desire for economic or other
material gain by the applicant or owner.
3. The alleged hardship or difficulty is
caused by this ordinance and has not been
created by any p
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Dane County Code Ch 10 — Zoning (Full)
Residential, Rural Residential or Rural
Mixed-Use district, screening must be provided
as required in s. 10.102(12).
(c) Stormwater. The Zoning Administrator
may not issue a zoning permit for any
development in any Processing, Manufacturing
and Industrial district until the Department of
Land and Water Resources issues a Stormwater
10.273(1)(a) – 10.280(1)(c)
Page 10-86
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Management permit for the project under
Chapter 14, Dane County Code.
(2) Rezones to Processing, Manufacturing
and Industrial Zoning Districts.
(a) The county board may not approve a
petition to rezone to the RI or MI zoning districts
on lands that are wholly or partially within the
zone of contribution to a municipal well, as
shown in the most current adopted version of the
Dane County Water Quality Plan.
(b) Where necessary to minimize impacts to
neighboring properties, the zoning committee
may recommend, and the county board may
adopt, conditions on zoning petitions to any
Processing, Manufacturing and Industrial zoning
district that impose deeper setbacks, wider
minimum lot widths, and/
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Dane County Code Ch 10 — Zoning (Full)
equired yards.
(a) Front yards. Construction equipment,
vehicles, or material shall not be stored between
the building setback line and the front lot line of
any lot.
(b) Side yards. The minimum width for any
side yard shall not be less than 10 feet for any
building.
(c) Rear yards. Rear yards shall not be less
than 25 feet from the property line.
10.280(2) – 10.281(6)(c)
Page 10-87
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(7) Lot coverage. The total building footprint
of commercial buildings, residential buildings and
residential accessory buildings shall not exceed
35 percent of the lot area.
[History: 10.282 cr., 2018 OA-20, pub. 01/29/19.]
10.282 MI (MANUFACTURING AND
INDUSTRIAL) ZONING DISTRICT.
(1) Purpose.
(a) The MI Manufacturing and Industrial
Zoning District is intended to accommodate
industrial, processing and extractive uses,
where:
1. primary activity occurs either indoors or
outdoors;
2. uses are intensive, and at relatively high
densities and may produce a high volume of
employee and freight traffic
3. uses require separation from residential
uses;
4. uses may require full urban se
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Dane County Code Ch 10 — Zoning (Full)
the property lines,
floodplain, lake, stream, or wetland.
3. Floor plans of the proposed building. The
plan shall identify each room and the proposed
use.
4. Elevation drawings of the building. The
elevation drawing shall show the vertical
dimension from the roof eave and peak to the
finish ground elevation. The height of the
10.004(170)(b) – 10.101(1)(d)4.
Page 10-21
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building is based on the elevation which faces
the public or private thoroughfare which affords
primary means of access to the property,
excluding the driveway.
5. Evidence of compliance with other
applicable regulations, including, but not limited
to County Sanitary Code, land division
regulations, stormwater and erosion control
regulations, floodplain regulations,
wetland/shoreland regulations, access to
State/County/Town highways, or site approval by
Town.
6. Any other information, as determined by
the zoning administrator or designee, necessary
to determine compliance of the proposed use
with the standards or purposes of this ordinance.
7. Appropriate application fees as noted in
Cha
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