Couple loses appeal; court says floodplain work violated rules

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In a decision released recently, Wisconsin’s District III Court of Appeals agreed a couple went too far when they tried to improve structures in a floodplain along the Mississippi River.

The appeals court upheld a decision by Pierce County Judge Joe Boles, who found the county Zoning Board of Adjustment acted correctly in determining Delbert E. and Nancy L. Johnson, Red Wing, had not flood-proofed their existing structures in the Town of Trenton, but had instead built a substantially different structure.

According to background in the decision, the Johnsons own riverfront property with three structures: a mobile home, a screened-in porch and a deck. Those structures violated Pierce County’s floodplain zoning ordinances, but were grandfathered in because they were there before the laws were adopted.

On April 19, 2010, Jim Kleinhans, the county’s zoning administrator, issued a permit to the Johnsons to flood-proof the structures. Less than two months later, after receiving complaints about the work, Kleinhans inspected the property, rescinded the permit and ordered that construction stop.

He said the permit allowed the Johnsons to raise the deck, porch and mobile home, and “contain them in a new shell.” But, according to Kleinhans, the porch was “sitting on the ground” and the new structure “(did) not even vaguely resemble a manufactured home or the preexisting deck.”

For more please read the March 14 print version of the Herald.

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