Portage County, WI Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Portage County's base zoning height limit, printed in each district's 'Height, Yards, Area and Other Requirements' subsection, holds that 'no building shall exceed a height of 35 feet' unless the code provides otherwise. That 35-foot cap applies in the Single Family Residence District (R2) under Section 7.1.2(1)(d)1 and in the Exclusive Agricultural District (A1) under Section 7.1.3(4)(d)1, the two districts that together cover most residential and farm parcels in the towns that have adopted county zoning. Section 7.1.6(1)(c), the general Height Regulations section, sets the exceptions: churches, schools, hospitals, sanatoriums and other public and quasi-public buildings may be built up to 50 feet, but only if every required front, side and rear yard is widened by one additional foot for each foot the building exceeds the district's ordinary height limit.

The same section fully exempts farm buildings not used for human habitation, ornamental structures, radio and television broadcasting towers, telephone and power transmission poles and lines, microwave relay structures, and accessory structures essential to a building's use or to an onsite manufacturing process, letting silos, grain legs and communication towers rise well past 35 feet without a variance. A basement counts as a full story toward the height limit whenever the distance between its ceiling and the average surrounding grade exceeds five feet, a detail that matters for walkout homes built into the Central Sands region's rolling terrain.