Sauk County, WI Environmental Rules: Boat Dock Permits (2026)

Sauk County's shoreland ordinance starts from a general rule in Section 8.005(2): buildings and other structures require a land use permit unless otherwise expressly excluded by a provision of the ordinance, a rule that would ordinarily reach a pier or dock built anywhere in the shoreland. Section 8.006 carves out an exception for the shoreland-wetland district specifically, listing among the uses that do not require the issuance of a land use permit but may include limited earthwork: the construction or maintenance of piers and docks built on pilings, including limited excavating and filling necessary for these constructions and their maintenance.

That exemption is narrow in two ways: it covers only docks and piers built on pilings, not docks resting on fill or other foundations, and it applies only within the mapped shoreland-wetland district under Section 8.006(1), the wetlands shown on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Wisconsin Wetland Inventory. A pier or dock built in a shoreland area that is not mapped wetland still falls under the general land use permit requirement in Section 8.005(2), and any dock construction still has to comply with state permitting for work in navigable waters, since Section 8.013(1) requires filling, grading, or excavating in the shoreland to follow Wis.

Admin. Code § NR 115.04 and Wis. Stats. ch. 30 in addition to the county ordinance. Boathouses built alongside a dock are a separate structure with their own permit exemption conditions under Section 8.011(3)(a), including a 300 to 450 square foot floor area range and a five-foot setback from the ordinary high water mark.