State settles lawsuit over Shorewood Hills project

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A Shorewood Hills man has agreed to pay a $13,000 fine and restore the lakeshore behind his home on Lake Mendota under the terms of a civil environmental settlement announced Tuesday by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources asked the Wisconsin Department of Justice to prosecute William Haus, Madison-based Bauer & Raether Builders Inc. and D.L. Anderson’s Lakeside Leisure Co. Inc., Madison, for their alleged unlawful construction of a three-story lake access structure on the bed of Lake Mendota along a cliff behind Haus’ home.

In Wisconsin, the bed of a lake is deemed to be all land beneath the waters of the lake and up the shore to the elevation of the lake’s ordinary high-water mark, according to information attributed to Van Hollen in a news release.

The case alleged that in summer 2009, without a DNR permit, Haus built a structure consisting of various platforms and stairways that were supported by four steel columns set on top of a concrete pad, which in large part had been built on the bed of Lake Mendota.

Under the terms of a settlement agreement approved by Dane County Circuit Judge Shelley Gaylord, Haus will:

• remove the concrete pad, the steel columns that rest on it and the underlying concrete grout from the lake shore;

• naturalize the crushed rock pad underlying the concrete by digging water-filled inlets into it to enhance its value for wildlife; and

• suspend the shore access structure from the stone cliff by the use of steel beams.

The Department of Justice previously had settled its claims against Bauer & Raether Builders and D.L. Anderson’s Lakeside Leisure Co. Inc.