STATEMENT BY WRA PRESIDENT BILL MALKASIAN
We applaud the Natural Resources Board for advancing substantially improved rules regulating piers. The new rules, which came only after the DNR was forced to make significant changes in response to overwhelming public criticism, would grandfather nearly all existing piers. Moreover, the new rules eliminate the permit fees, water depth and boat slip restrictions, and unrealistic square footage limitations contained in the original rules for these existing piers.
But the revised rules still fail to adequately address the issue of fairness when it comes to all existing piers. The new rules still allow the DNR to force significant alternations or removal of some existing larger piers even though they were legal when built. This is fundamentally unfair. We encourage the legislature to make Wisconsin statutes clear that piers, built legally under existing law, can remain in place after the new rules take effect.
This fundamental fairness is what the public wants and what property owners deserve. When asked in a recent public survey* whether or not the new rules should be applied to both new and existing piers, 69% of the public said the rules should applied only to piers build after the rules take effect. A mere 23% thought the rules should apply to both new and old piers.
The regulation of piers touches a fundamental Wisconsin ethic and highlights the natural tension between protecting our waters and protecting our property rights. Our elected officials, not state agency bureaucrats, need to speak directly to these two critically important values and that is why legislation is still needed.
We need not choose between water and piers. We believe balance can be reached so that the public and private interests that meet at the waters’ edge can find common ground. We encourage the legislature to act and the DNR to concur.
* Check Point survey by Wood Communications Group conducted between November 16-23, 2005. Sample of 500 Wisconsin voters with a margin of error plus or minus 4.4%.
