Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 236 - Platting lands and recording and vacating plats.
236.02 - Definitions.

236.02 Definitions. In this chapter, unless the context or subject matter clearly requires otherwise:
(1) “Alley" means a public or private right-of-way shown on a plat, which provides secondary access to a lot, block or parcel of land.
(2) “Copy" means a true and accurate copy of all sheets of the original subdivision plat. Such copy shall be on durable white matte finished paper with legible dark lines and lettering.
(2m) “Correction instrument" means an instrument drafted by a professional land surveyor that complies with the requirements of s. 236.295 and that, upon recording, corrects a subdivision plat or a certified survey map.
(3) “County planning agency" means a rural county planning agency authorized by s. 27.019, a county park commission authorized by s. 27.02 except that in a county with a county executive or county administrator, the county park manager appointed under s. 27.03 (2), a county zoning agency authorized by s. 59.69 or any agency created by the county board and authorized by statute to plan land use.
(4) “Department" means the department of administration.
(5) “Extraterritorial plat approval jurisdiction" means the unincorporated area within 3 miles of the corporate limits of a first, second or third class city, or 1 1/2 miles of a fourth class city or a village.
(6) “Municipality" means an incorporated city or village.
(7) An “outlot" is a parcel of land, other than a lot or block, so designated on the plat.
(8) “Plat" is a map of a subdivision.
(9) “Preliminary plat" is a map showing the salient features of a proposed subdivision submitted to an approving authority for purposes of preliminary consideration.
(9b) “Professional land surveyor" means a professional land surveyor licensed under ch. 443.
(9c) “Record" means, with respect to a final plat or a certified survey map, to record and file the document with the register of deeds.
(9m) “Recorded private claim" means a claim of title to land based on a conveyance from a foreign government made before the land was acquired by the United States.
(11) “Replat" is the process of changing, or the map or plat which changes, the boundaries of a recorded subdivision plat or part thereof. The legal dividing of a large block, lot or outlot within a recorded subdivision plat without changing exterior boundaries of said block, lot or outlot is not a replat.
(12)
(am) Except as provided in par. (bm), “subdivision" means a division of a lot, parcel, or tract of land by the owner thereof or the owner's agent for the purpose of sale or of building development and to which any of the following applies:
1. The act of division creates 5 or more parcels or building sites of 1 1/2 acres each or less in area.
2. Five or more parcels or building sites of 1 1/2 acres each or less in area are created by successive divisions within a period of 5 years.
(bm) “Subdivision" does not include a division of land into 5 or more parcels or building sites by a certified survey map in accordance with an ordinance enacted or a resolution adopted under s. 236.34 (1) (ar) 1.
(13) “Town planning agency" means a town zoning committee appointed under s. 60.61 (4) (a) or any agency created by the town board and authorized by statute to plan land use.
History: 1979 c. 221; 1979 c. 233 s. 8; 1979 c. 248 ss. 2, 25 (4); 1979 c. 361; 1983 a. 189, 473, 532, 538; 1985 a. 29; 1987 a. 399; 1993 a. 490; 1995 a. 27 ss. 6307m, 6308, 9116 (5); 1995 a. 201; 1997 a. 27; 1999 a. 96; 2001 a. 16; 2013 a. 272, 358.
This chapter does not authorize the Department of Transportation to regulate land divisions that are not subdivisions within the meaning of sub. (12). Wisconsin Builders Ass'n v. DOT, 2005 WI App 160, 285 Wis. 2d 472, 702 N.W.2d 433, 04-2388.
Sub. (12) was not applicable to determining whether a condominium parcel met the minimum lakeshore frontage requirement of a zoning ordinance as: 1) a declaration of condominium is not a subdivision of land as defined in this chapter; and 2) even if this chapter were used by analogy the determination of lot sizes under sub. (12) refers to lot area and not lot width or lakeshore frontage. A subdivision under this chapter requires a division of land. A condominium declaration changes the form of ownership and is not a division of land. FAS, LLC v. Town of Bass Lake, 2007 WI 73, 301 Wis. 2d 321, 733 N.W.2d 287, 05-1689.
In determining lot sizes under sub. (8) [now sub. (12)], the lots may not extend across navigable waters or public easements of passage, nor include any land whose servitude is inconsistent with its integrated functional use and unified ownership. 66 Atty. Gen. 2. But see FAS, LLC v. Town of Bass Lake, 2007 WI 73, 301 Wis. 2d 321, 733 N.W.2d 287, 05-1689.
This chapter does not require a replat when the division of a lot or redivision of more than one lot does not meet the definition of a “subdivision" under this section. 67 Atty. Gen. 121.
Certified survey maps under s. 236.34 cannot substitute for subdivision surveys under sub. (8) [now sub. (12)]. Penalties under s. 236.31 apply to improper use of certified surveys. 67 Atty. Gen. 294.