DOOR COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A state appeals court Tuesday upheld a decision denying a permit for a 147-foot long dock into Green Bay waters on Juddville Bay.
The Jessica McCarthy Trust sought to build the dock at a Gibraltar home, about halfway between Egg Harbor and Fish Creek, but it was denied by the DNR. A Door County judge upheld the decision, and an appeal followed.
The trust argued the state’s denial was outside its discretion, and because the permit standards were met, it should be issued. The DNR said the “massive solid pier” would have a detrimental impact on the local habitat and public use, and the denial was appropriate.
In a 24-page decision, the appeals court upheld the previous two rulings:
“We conclude that the DNR did not err by denying the Trust’s application for a solid pier permit because the Trust failed to meet its burden to show that its proposed pier would not be detrimental to the public interest. We further conclude that the DNR’s decision did not rely on a “policy against private solid piers.” We therefore affirm the circuit court’s order denying the Trust’s petition for judicial review of the DNR’s decision,” the decision states.
The decision could be appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The decision includes this description of the project: “In March 2022, the Trust submitted a permit application for a solid pier. It proposed an L-shaped pier with a “main dock” length of 147 feet, an “L” section 72 feet long, and a dock width of 12 feet. In addition, the Trust proposed adding rip rap around the outside of the pier, which would add 12 to 19 feet to the structure’s overall width. In response to the DNR’s concerns regarding littoral drift, the Trust proposed including a 50-foot “span” from the shore to the solid section of the pier that was intended to allow water to pass underneath. The Trust’s proposal also included a “breakwater” structure, running parallel to the main length of the pier, that was to be 55 feet long and 16 feet wide, with two corrugated steel culverts allowing water to pass through. Additionally, the proposal involved a significant area of dredging between the pier and the breakwater. The DNR calculated that, in total, the proposed pier and breakwater would “privatize 5,248 square feet of public lakebed,” and the entire project, including the proposed structures and future planned dredging,” would affect “11,473 square feet of public lakebed.””
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