Municipalities – zoning — mining

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Wisconsin Supreme Court

Civil

Municipalities – zoning — mining

A nonmetallic mining ordinance is not a zoning ordinance.

“[M]any traditional characteristics of zoning ordinances are absent from the Ordinance. The Ordinance does not create multiple districts; it applies with equal force to any location in the Town. The Ordinance does not confine nonmetallic mining to any particular area in the Town; no parts of the Town are foreclosed to nonmetallic mining. The Ordinance does not directly affect where an activity may take place; it governs how an activity must be conducted and incidentally limits where it may be conducted. The Ordinance does not automatically permit or prohibit any land use; it operates entirely on a case-by-case basis. The Ordinance does not comprehensively address a wide range of potential classes of land use; it speaks only to a single, specific land use.”

Reversed.

2010AP2398 Zwiefelhofer v. Town of Cooks Valley

Abrahamson, C.J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Thrasher, Joe, Rice Lake; For Respondent: Thiel, William G., Eau Claire