Lake studies help planners protect pristine waterways

By Michael Bayer

Carroll Schaal hears the pounding of hammers and buzzing of chain saws, sees property values rising sharply and knows that the North Woods are changing.

"There's almost a revolution going on," said Schaal, a lake management planner with the Department of Natural Resources in Madison.

As residents from Milwaukee, Chicago and the Twin Cities are building cottages, cabins and condominiums on Wisconsin's lakes and rivers, planners such as Schaal are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of development, especially on smaller, secondary lakes.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, equalized property values in 17 of the state's northernmost counties registered double-digit increases in 1998. The increases continue a trend during the 1990s, as low interest rates and a soaring stock market have helped growing numbers of people afford vacation homes and, in many cases, second residences.

In response to the development pressure, 24 counties and numerous townships have undertaken projects to protect their lakes. The most popular approach is the lake classification study, a process by which municipalities identify waterways most at risk of development and change their shoreland zoning ordinances accordingly.

"The lake classification study is scientific approach to understanding how a lake supports development," said Dennis Lawrence, executive director of the North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. "We consider the size and type of lake, how deep it is, how many acres of shoreland development surround it, and then categorize the lakes within a geographic unit, usually a county.

"Several lakes in our area are almost 100-percent developed and are under private ownership, but some lakes still pretty open," Lawrence said. "What we're trying to do is avoid the problems that have happened elsewhere and stop the problems that are happening here."

For generations, Wisconsin's lakes have attracted people to their pristine shores. With so many lakes now fully developed, people are building on smaller lakes, or lakes where development had been sparse.

That leads to concerns that overuse or overdevelopment will diminish water quality, threaten fish and wildlife, and ultimately, damage the natural beauty of the lakes.

"It all boils down to water quality," said Bob Young, a regional lake management coordinator with the Department of Natural Resources in Rhinelander.

The water quality of a lake depends on the shore that surrounds it. Insects and microorganisms digest leaves and fallen trees along the banks, providing food for the fish and wildlife who live near the water. Residential or "hard surface" development removes the grassy vegetation and increases the flow of water, sediment and nutrients into the lake, which encourages plant growth and leads to erosion.

"With more algae and plant growth, the natural infill process of a lake speeds up, and over time, lakes gradually fill into solid ground," Young said. "The reason this happens is that more biological growth fills in the sediment, and the process is accelerated if there is more phosphorous in the water.

"Studies have shown consistently that people move north for the trees, the wildlife, the "North Woods feeling," and the peace and quiet," he said. "But as we get more and more lakeshore development, these things are either diminished or lost."

Lake classification has been used to manage development for more than two decades. The State of Minnesota established a lake classification system in 1976.

In the early 1980s, southern Douglas County experienced massive growth due to its proximity to the Twin Cities. Fearing they were losing control of development, officials such as Stephen Andrews, senior advisor to the Northwest Regional Planning Commission in Spooner, borrowed and adapted Minnesota's system.

In 1981, Douglas County's Wascott Township became the first municipality in Wisconsin to complete a three-tiered classification system. Eleven years later, Douglas County established a "wild lakes" class after another batch of rezoning requests. Since then, lake classification studies have spread from west to east with the speed of a winter storm.

"People look at it as way to minimize impact on the shoreland," Andrews said. When you try to control shoreland development, "you're talking about other tools such as large-lot zoning, the restriction of condos and other, rather ugly concepts. You quickly realize that you can get at a lot of things accomplished with lake classification."

The State Legislature seems to agree. In the 1997 biennial budget bill, lawmakers added $700,000 to the DNR's lake protection grant program. Counties now may receive up to $50,000 to classify lakes according to use and resource characteristics. The grants pay for as much as 75 percent of the study.

In addition, the Legislature agreed to provide nonprofit corporations with grants as high as $200,000 to provide local units of government and lake management organizations with technical assistance to undertake lake classification projects.

The Department of Natural Resources encourages counties to review their lake and shoreland protection policies before classifying lakes. Defining objectives at the outset also helps determine how a classification system will be used. Counties may decide to protect undeveloped lakes, manage recreational uses or classify all lakes as part of a county-wide land use plan.

The objective of a lake classification study determines what criteria will be used. To receive a state lake grant, however, counties must consider (1) the size, depth and shape of the lake, (2) the size of the lake's watershed, (3) water quality, (4) the potential for recreational overuse, (5) the lake's development potential, (6) the potential of nonpoint source pollution, and (7) the type and size of fish and wildlife in and around the lake.

The DNR has drafted sets of criteria for different types of lake classification studies. A study designed to protect undeveloped lakes, for instance, carries different criteria than one that tries to control the effects of recreational uses. For the former, criteria such as surface area, maximum depth of lake, a shoreland development factor and watershed area might be used. For the latter, the lake's maximum or mean depth, shallowness ratio, phosphorous sensitivity and sediment type could be considered.

Counties have the authority to choose their own criteria. In fact, some argue that a relatively simple system with a few criteria such as lake size and current development may be more effective because they are less expensive, understood more easily, and completed in less time.

Most counties make the step from lake classification studies to tougher shoreland zoning. Zoning, however, is only one way to manage shoreland uses. Others include conservation easements, tax incentives, restrictive covenants, purchase of development rights and the encouragement of clustered development.

Burnett County completed a lake classification study in March 1997 and amended its shoreland ordinances in October. So far, the process has been successful, said Jim Flanigan, the county's zoning administrator.

"Before (the lake classification study) we would go to planning meetings and argue that people should have larger (lake) lots, but we had nothing there to back us up," Flanigan said. "Now we have a formula and a plan."

The county launched its study by mailing a questionnaire to property owners. Residents responded with concerns about water quality. Many people from the Twin Cities have built homes in Burnett County in recent years, leading to development along the county's smaller lakes.

Burnett County developed a formula to score each lake. All waters were classified in one of three categories that determine such elements as minimum lake frontages and septic system requirements.

"There's always going to be a need to look at the shoreland ordinances, but, hopefully, this will make it simpler," Flanigan said. "It's really a never-ending process."

Flanigan said the lake classification study and stricter shoreland zoning hasn't slowed development that meets the county's criteria. Others are concerned, however, about the economic impacts of shoreland zoning in general.

"If we only maximize the environmental protections without considering the economic impacts, we are creating short-sighted regulations," said Tom Larson, staff attorney on land use and environmental issues for the Wisconsin Realtors Association.

"There has to be that balance," Larson said. "Environmental protection is not only the only factor."

The association recently commissioned a study of the fiscal impacts of shoreland zoning on the value of property, looking specifically at four lakes in Oneida County.

Stephen Andrews of the Northwest Regional Planning Commission acknowledges that shoreland zoning "does push the market to a certain extent," but he argues that "it doesn't hurt the market very much. It may change the cross-section of people who can afford lake frontage, but I don't think it materially impacts the market. Along the lakeshore, there's always more demand."

Although the long-term effects of lake classification studies and stricter shoreland zoning will not be seen for many years, Andrews and Larson agree they have the potential to be effective.

"Everybody in Douglas County has been happy with what's happened," Andrews said. "In counties with new systems and companion shoreland ordinances, people seem happy with what's going on."

One unresolved issue is how to approach uses that do not conform to the new ordinances. Larson likes to ask property owners who support stricter zoning whether they would hold the same position if they were forced to conform to the new standards.

"I don't have the answers, and I don't know if there are any easy solutions, but how do you do that?" Larson asked. "Do we just create nonconforming uses and sweep them under the rug?"

"The idea that certain lakes are more sensitive to development than others is a reasonable, sound argument. It's difficult to argue against," he said. "My concern is that the regulations will be used to argue against all development, so that all lakes are considered sensitive to development."

In the end, one of the primary benefits of lake classification studies may be that they lead to further land use planning in areas where residents have been suspicious of planning in the past.

"More so than in the past, counties and towns seem to be interested in land-use planning and how to manage rural land use development, primarily around growth centers," said Gerald Chasteen, executive director of the West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission in Eau Claire.