Iron County recently completed a three year comprehensive planning process where all ten towns and the county adopted their own comprehensive plans. A major recommendation of these plans was to better protect the county\2019s in-land lakes and other critical natural resources from development pressures. The county\2019s current zoning ordinance (adopted nearly 40 years ago) is outdated and fails to adequately protect these important natural resources. In addition, the county has discovered that over 30% of the parcels in Iron County (over 4,000 parcels) are zoned inconsistent with the town comprehensive plans. Many of these parcels are located near lakes and in sensitive natural resource areas and are therefore not adequately protecting these resources. Project goals include: 1) Protect, conserve and encourage the efficient and responsible management of the unique forest, water, land and other natural resources of Iron County; 2) Review existing zoning and natural resource policies and regulations to ensure that they are consistent with the recommendations in the comprehensive plan; 3) Amend Iron County\2019s zoning ordinance to provide consistent regulatory and enforcement mechanisms to protect vital resources (including lakes). Deliverables include: 1) Creation of an on-line interactive map service that will display the mapping information to enable the public to access the natural resource, land use and zoning information that was collected and organized into the county\2019s GIS system; 2) Development of a written document explaining the recommended zoning text and map amendments; 3) Development of a new zoning ordinance including amendments to both the county zoning text and map. Specific conditions: 1) The WDNR will be provided electronic and hard copies of all data and or reports/plans generated as a result of this project; 2) Provide semi-annual progress reports to lakes coordinator.

Iron County recently completed a three year comprehensive planning process where all ten towns and the county adopted their own comprehensive plans. A major recommendation of these plans was to better protect the county's in-land lakes and other critical natural resources from development pressures. The county's current zoning ordinance (adopted nearly 40 years ago) is outdated and fails to adequately protect these important natural resources.