Lake associations in northern Wisconsin are raising money in an effort to overturn changes to shoreland zoning that were passed in the latest state budget.
Plum Lake Association President John Richter said they’ve hired attorney Bill O’Connor and former Republican Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer to draft a bill to undo the changes. What’s more, he said they’ve raised more than $20,000.
“We wanted to try to put together a bipartisan effort to fix the problem,” he said.
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The problem, according to Richter, is a change that requires counties to conform to the state standard for zoning lakefront properties. Sandra Anderson with the Douglas County Association of Lakes and Streams said many northern counties have tougher restrictions than the state to protect lakes.
“Each county’s different. Each one has different kinds of lakes and different amounts of people using it,” she said. “We feel like we know best what’s for our lakes than the state does.”
Republican lawmakers have argued the changes are necessary to protect property owners’ rights.
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