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Dane County, WI permit planning guide

Plan your project in Dane County, WI: review likely approvals, preparation items, and official references before you file.

Best first step

Find the approvals for your parcel, not just a generic form.

Start by confirming whether the parcel is in an unincorporated area and whether county shoreland, sanitary, floodplain, or land-division review applies. A city or village may still administer the building permit.

Prefills Dane County, WI Checks authority by address

What are you building?

Choose a common project or enter any description on the next screen.

How to use this Dane County, WI County page

Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code (SPS 320–325) applies statewide to 1- & 2-family dwellings; municipalities (or their contracted UDC inspectors) administer it locally. Commercial buildings follow SPS 361–366 with DSPS or delegated plan review. Zoning, fences, signs, and right-of-way work are regulated by local ordinance; shoreland/floodplain standards flow from NR 115/116 via county and municipal ordinances.

  • Start with the parcel location. County authority can differ inside the same county depending on whether the site is in an incorporated city, village, town, or unincorporated area.
  • Use this page as a readiness checklist before any phone calls so you can submit complete, accurate information to the right office.
  • Flag overlays early—shoreland, floodplain, roads, drainage, septic, and access approvals can add extra approvals that are easy to miss.
  • Gather owner information, a rough site plan, and project scope details before contacting agencies.
  • Validate the final office list with Permit Check once your parcel and project context are captured.

A practical Dane County, WI sequence

This is a preparation sequence, not a claim that Dane County, WI issues every listed approval. Permit Check confirms the issuing authority for the parcel before filing.

  1. Confirm the parcel, municipality, project scope, and any county or state overlay before choosing an application.
  2. Gather the site plan, project dimensions, ownership information, and any trade or contractor details the office requests.
  3. Resolve prerequisite zoning, shoreland, floodplain, sanitary, access, or land-use reviews before the building application when applicable.
  4. Submit each approval to the office that issues it and keep the records together through inspections and closeout.

What this county may handle

These references and project checks help you identify county-level steps before you contact the issuing office. A city, village, town, or state agency may handle other approvals for the same project.

A practical preparation order

  1. Confirm the parcel, municipality, project scope, and any county or state overlay before choosing an application.
  2. Gather the site plan, project dimensions, ownership information, and any trade or contractor details the office requests.
  3. Resolve prerequisite zoning, shoreland, floodplain, sanitary, access, or land-use reviews before the building application when applicable.
  4. Submit each approval to the office that issues it and keep the records together through inspections and closeout.

Offices that may be involved

  • Dane County Planning & Development: Sanitary / POWTS Permit
  • Dane County Zoning & Land Regulation Committee: Conditional Use Permit
  • Town / municipal building inspector: Building Permit (Wisconsin UDC)

Permit triggers

  • Dane County Zoning Permit: A Dane County zoning permit is required for every building larger than 120 sq ft. It confirms compliance with the district's setbacks, height, and lot-coverage standards.
  • Zoning Permit — exempt accessory building (<=120 sq ft): Accessory buildings 120 sq ft or less are exempt from the zoning permit but must still meet the setback (>= 10 ft from the principal building; 4 ft side/rear on lots >= 60 ft, 2.5 ft on narrower lots), accessory-height, and lot-coverage rules.
  • Conditional Use Permit: Certain uses require a conditional use permit — e.g. an accessory building taller than 12 ft in SFR-08, an attached accessory dwelling unit, or a day care center.
  • Sanitary / POWTS Permit: A parcel served by a private onsite wastewater treatment system (POWTS) on an unsewered lot requires a Dane County sanitary permit, typically before the zoning permit.
  • Building Permit (Wisconsin UDC): Wisconsin UDC building permitting for 1- & 2-family dwellings in unincorporated towns is administered by the town's building inspector, separately from the county zoning permit.

Fee schedules

  • Zoning Permit — new construction / additions / alterations: Base fee $50 · $0.1 per sq. ft. · New/added single-family, duplex, mobile-home residences and their accessory buildings: $50 + $0.10 per sq ft of floor area (incl. basements + attached garages). Commercial / multi-family: $250 + $2.00 per $1,000 of construction cost. Fee doubled where work begins before the permit issues. s. 12.03(1)-(3).
  • Conditional Use Permit: Base fee $450 · Conditional use permit application fee (s. 12.05). Fee doubled for late filing.
  • Petition for Grant of Variance: Base fee $500 · Variance application fee (s. 12.05). Fee doubled for late filing.
  • Appeal to the Board of Adjustment: Base fee $500 · Appeal filing fee (s. 12.05).
  • Building Permit (Wisconsin UDC, municipal): Wisconsin UDC building-permit fees for 1- & 2-family dwellings are set by the town's building inspector, separately from the county zoning permit — quote pending municipal digitization; do not present $0 as a fee.

Reference excerpts

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 rev. 033123 (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 rev. 033123 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 rev. 033123 (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 rev. 033123 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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Common county-page questions

What does this Dane County, WI County page provide?

Dane County, WI County page gives you a workflow scaffold: what permit families to expect, how to order them, and what to validate before you submit.

How do I avoid sending applications to the wrong office first?

Use the readiness sequence above, then run Permit Check to confirm your parcel's authority mix. That combination is usually the biggest reason applications get delayed. For Dane County, WI, the same project can still require more than one office.

How should I use the official sources on this page?

Use them to confirm the current application, office contact, adopted fee schedule, and project-specific instructions before filing or paying a fee.

What the catalog covers first

Use this index as a preparation checklist before visiting any external form pages.

Planning & Zoning

Use this category to organize the project documents and approvals you may need.

Public Works

Use this category to organize the project documents and approvals you may need.

Building

Use this category to organize the project documents and approvals you may need.

Sanitation

Use this category to organize the project documents and approvals you may need.

Official sources

Confirm the current office instructions, application version, and adopted fee schedule before filing.

The catalog below organizes common county-level workflows. Use Permit Check to confirm which office handles each approval for your property and project.

Preparation library

Browse forms only when you need them

Search by project or approval. Official forms and adaptable state templates are labeled separately.

Showing forms that match your project search.

Adaptable state template

Zoning Permit / Land Use Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source
Adaptable state template

Land Division / Certified Survey Map Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source
Adaptable state template

Shoreland / Floodplain Permit Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source
Adaptable state template

Erosion Control / Grading Permit Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source
Adaptable state template

Driveway / Curb Cut Permit Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source
Adaptable state template

Variance / Zoning Board of Appeals Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source
Adaptable state template

Conditional / Special Use Permit Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source
Adaptable state template

Rezoning / Map Amendment Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source
Adaptable state template

Building Permit Application

Use this as a preparation checklist, then confirm the current local filing form.

Checked Jul 20, 2026Source