Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 84 - State trunk highways; federal aid.
84.25 - Controlled-access highways.

84.25 Controlled-access highways.
(1) Authority of department; procedure. The legislature declares that the effective control of traffic entering upon or leaving intensively traveled highways is necessary in the interest of public safety, convenience and the general welfare. The department is authorized to designate as controlled-access highways the rural portions of the state trunk system on which, after traffic engineering surveys, investigations and studies, it shall find, determine and declare that the average traffic potential is in excess of 2,000 vehicles per 24-hour day. Such designation of a portion of any state trunk highway in any county as a controlled-access highway shall not be effected until after a public hearing in the matter has been held in the county courthouse or other convenient public place within the county following notice by publication of a class 3 notice, under ch. 985, in a newspaper published in the county. If the department shall then find that the average traffic potential is as provided by this subsection, and that the designation of the highway as a controlled-access highway is necessary in the interest of public safety, convenience and the general welfare, it shall make its finding, determination and declaration to that effect, specifying the character of the controls to be exercised. Copies of the finding, determination and declaration shall be recorded with the register of deeds, and filed with the county clerk, and published as a class 1 notice, under ch. 985, in the newspaper in which the notice of hearing was published, and the order shall be effective on such publication. Not more than 1,500 miles of highway shall be designated as controlled-access highways under authority of this section.
(2) Controlled-access highway defined. For the purposes of this section, a controlled-access highway is a highway on which the traffic is such that the department has found, determined and declared it to be necessary, in the interest of the public safety, convenience and the general welfare to prohibit entrance upon and departure from the highway or street except at places specially designated and provided for such purposes, and to exercise special controls over traffic on such highway or street.
(3) Construction; other powers of department. In order to provide for the public safety, convenience and the general welfare, the department may use an existing highway or provide new and additional facilities for a controlled-access highway and so design the same and its appurtenances, and so regulate, restrict or prohibit access to or departure from it as the department deems necessary or desirable. The department may eliminate intersections at grade of controlled-access highways with existing highways or streets, by grade separation or service road, or by closing off such roads and streets at the right-of-way boundary line of such controlled-access highway and may divide and separate any controlled-access highway into separate roadways or lanes by raised curbings, dividing sections or other physical separations or by signs, markers, stripes or other suitable devices, and may execute any construction necessary in the development of a controlled-access highway including service roads or separation of grade structures.
(4) Connections by other highways. After the establishment of any controlled-access highway, no street or highway or private driveway, shall be opened into or connected with any controlled-access highway without the previous consent and approval of the department in writing, which shall be given only if the public interest shall be served thereby and shall specify the terms and conditions on which such consent and approval is given.
(5) Use of highway. No person shall have any right of entrance upon or departure from or travel across any controlled-access highway, or to or from abutting lands except at places designated and provided for such purposes, and on such terms and conditions as may be specified from time to time by the department.
(6) Abutting owners. After the designation of a controlled-access highway, the owners or occupants of abutting lands shall have no right or easement of access, by reason of the fact that their property abuts on the controlled-access highway or for other reason, except only the controlled right of access and of light, air or view.
(7) Special crossing permits. Whenever property held under one ownership is severed by a controlled-access highway, the department may permit a crossing at a designated location, to be used solely for travel between the severed parcels, and such use shall cease if such parcels pass into separate ownership.
(8) Right-of-way. Any lands or other private or public property or interest in such property needed to carry out the purposes of this section may be acquired by the department in the manner provided in s. 84.09.
(9) Cooperative agreements. To facilitate the purposes of this section, the department and the governing bodies of a city, county, town or village are authorized to enter into agreements with each other or with the federal government respecting the financing, planning, establishment, improvement, maintenance, use, regulation or vacation of controlled-access highways or other public ways in their respective jurisdictions.
(10) Local service roads. In connection with the development of any controlled-access highway, the department and county, city, town or village highway authorities are authorized to plan, designate, establish, use, regulate, alter, improve, maintain, or vacate local service roads and streets or to designate as local service roads and streets any existing roads or streets, and to exercise jurisdiction over local service roads in the same manner as is authorized over controlled-access highways under the provisions of this section, if, in their opinion, such local service roads or streets shall serve the necessary purposes.
(11) Commercial enterprises. No commercial enterprise, except a vending facility which is licensed by the department of workforce development and operated by blind or visually impaired persons, or a commercial enterprise exempted from this subsection by an agreement under s. 84.01 (30) (g), shall be authorized or conducted within or on property acquired for or designated as a controlled-access highway.
(12) Unlawful use of highway; penalties. It shall be unlawful for any person to drive any vehicle into or from a controlled-access highway except through an opening provided for that purpose. Any person who violates this provision shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100 or by imprisonment for not more than 30 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(13) Vacating. A controlled-access highway shall remain such until vacated by order of the department. The discontinuance of all state trunk highway routings over a highway established as a controlled-access highway shall summarily vacate the controlled-access status of such section of highway only after a traffic engineer survey investigation and study finds, determines and declares that the vacating of the controlled-access status is in the public interest. Such vacating shall not be effected until after a public hearing is held in the county courthouse or other convenient place within the county, following notice by publication under sub. (1). The department shall record formal notice of any vacation of a controlled-access highway with the register of deeds of the county wherein such highway lies. When the county board, or county boards in the case of boundary line roads, by resolution enacted and filed with the department prior to the vacating of a controlled-access by the department, requests that the controlled-access highway be continued pursuant to s. 83.027, then and thereafter all authority established by s. 83.027 shall be in effect with respect to such controlled-access highway, except that the county need not comply with s. 83.027 (1), and the department shall be relieved of any further authority for such controlled-access highway.
History: 1977 c. 29 s. 1654 (8) (a); 1987 a. 258; 1993 a. 490; 1995 a. 27 ss. 3520, 9130 (4); 1997 a. 3; 1999 a. 9.
This section does not mean that once access is granted it may not be taken away. Estoppel is seldom applied against a government and would not be justified under the facts. Surety Savings & Loan Ass'n v. State, 54 Wis. 2d 438, 195 N.W.2d 464 (1972).
Sub. (3) authorizes the Department of Transportation to change access to a highway designated as controlled access in whatever way it deems “necessary or desirable." In controlled-access highway cases, abutting property owners are precluded from compensation for a change in access under s. 32.09 (6) (b) as a matter of law. However, exercises of the police power cannot deprive the owner of all or substantially all beneficial use of the property without compensation. If the replacement access is so circuitous as to amount to a regulatory taking of the property, compensation is due and the abutting property owner may bring an inverse condemnation claim under s. 32.10. Provision of some access preserves the abutting property owner's controlled right of access to the property. Reasonableness is not the standard to apply to determine if compensation is due under s. 32.09 (6) (b). Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.
By allowing the Department of Transportation (DOT) to designate an existing highway “controlled-access" and to thereafter “regulate, restrict or prohibit access to or departure from it as the department deems necessary or desirable," sub. (3) grants DOT broad control over the entire portion of the existing highway that has been designated “controlled-access," including placement and replacement of access points. Because elimination of direct access points is a means of restricting or prohibiting access, it cannot be correct that the statute does not grant DOT authority to eliminate an owner's direct access points. Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.
Under sub. (1), it is the designation of a highway as “controlled-access" that must be “necessary in the interest of public safety, convenience and the general welfare" and that is an exercise of the police power. The designation as “controlled-access" serves as a precondition for the operation of the other subsections of this section. These subsections grant the Department of Transportation expansive powers after a proper designation of “controlled-access," including authority over how the general public and abutting property owners access the highway. Once the highway has been designated “controlled-access," the department may change the access points in whatever way it “deems necessary or desirable." Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.
The phrase “from time to time" in sub. (5) indicates that the legislature enabled the Department of Transportation to periodically change the terms and conditions by which any person—abutter or otherwise—has access to a controlled-access highway. Replacing direct access with a more circuitous route is inarguably a change of the “terms and conditions" by which an abutter is allowed to enter the highway. Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.
Sub. (6) eliminates an abutting property owner's right to compensation under s. 32.09 (6) (b) for a change to existing access at the moment the Department of Transportation designates the highway “controlled-access." Replacement access that results in a circuitous route rather than a direct one is a lawful—if regrettable—result of controlling access. Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.

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