Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 236 - Platting lands and recording and vacating plats.
236.29 - Dedications.

236.29 Dedications.
(1) Effect of recording on dedications. When any plat is certified, signed, acknowledged and recorded as prescribed in this chapter, every donation or grant to the public or any person, society or corporation marked or noted as such on said plat shall be deemed a sufficient conveyance to vest the fee simple of all parcels of land so marked or noted, and shall be considered a general warranty against such donors, their heirs and assigns to the said donees for their use for the purposes therein expressed and no other; and the land intended for the streets, alleys, ways, commons or other public uses as designated on said plat shall be held by the town, city or village in which such plat is situated in trust to and for such uses and purposes.
(2) Dedications to public accepted by approval. When a final plat of a subdivision has been approved by the governing body of the municipality or town in which the subdivision is located and all other required approvals are obtained and the plat is recorded, that approval constitutes acceptance for the purpose designated on the plat of all lands shown on the plat as dedicated to the public including street dedications.
(3) Municipality may lease to a subdivision association land accepted for park. The municipality or town in which the accepted subdivision is located may lease to a subdivision association any part of the subdivision intended for park purposes where such part has never been improved nor work done thereon nor funds expended therefor by the governing body, but such lease shall not exceed 10 years and shall only be for park improvement purposes.
(4) Acceptance of storm water facilities dedicated to public. Notwithstanding sub. (2), unless an earlier date is agreed to by the municipality, the dedication of any lands within a plat of a subdivision located within a municipality that are intended to include a permanent man-made facility designed for reducing the quantity or quality impacts of storm water runoff from more than one lot and that are shown on the plat as “Dedicated to the Public for Storm Water Management Purposes" is not accepted until at least 80 percent of the lots in the subdivision have been sold and a professional engineer registered under ch. 443 has certified to the municipality that all of the following conditions are met with respect to the facility:
(a) The facility is functioning properly in accordance with the plans and specifications of the municipality.
(b) Any required plantings are adequate, well-established, and reasonably free of invasive species.
(c) Any necessary maintenance, including removal of construction sediment, has been properly performed.
History: 2007 a. 44.
A complaint against plat subdividers by a city set forth a cause of action with respect to costs incurred by the city in moving a tower and acquiring a right-of-way when the plat of a street dedicated as part of a subdivision did not show the existence, location, or easement of a power company's transmission line located in the area platted as a street. City of Kenosha v. Ghysels, 46 Wis. 2d 418, 175 N.W.2d 223 (1970).
While sub. (1) provides that every donation or grant to the public marked or noted as such on a properly recorded plat shall be deemed a sufficient conveyance to vest the fee simple of all parcels of land so marked or noted, statutory dedication requires compliance with statutory procedure. For the state to rely on sub. (1) to convey property via a certified survey map (CSM) that marked a parcel as a dedication, the property first has to be properly dedicated in accordance with s. 236.34 (1m) (e). Under that statute, the city council or village or town board involved must have approved the dedication. As no governmental board involved in the development in this case approved any road dedication or land grant for inclusion in the CSM, the CSM lacked the force and effect required to convey the property to the state. Somers USA, LLC v. DOT, 2015 WI App 33, 361 Wis. 2d 807, 864 N.W.2d 114, 14-1092.

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