Dear Business Owner/Operator,
This letter is your reminder of a few ordinances for all businesses within the City of Wisconsin Dells C-2 District as we start the busy summer season. You can find all of the listed city ordinances at the city website: www.citywd.org under the ordinance tab. This list is not a list of all the city ordinances, but a list of the most common ones that are enforced on a regular basis.
Property Maintenance
6.05 SIDEWALK LITTER and DEBRIS
(1) Merchants Duty to Keep Sidewalks and Other Areas Orderly and Free of Litter. Persons owning or occupying places of business within the city shall keep all pedestrian walkways (both public and private) and any other area between the business place and the roadway/curb, clean and free of any litter, debris or garbage. This is to include keeping clean and in an orderly state, any city approved table, chair, bench or other part of those areas. Merchants shall report to the Public Works or Police Department, any missing, stolen or damaged property in front of their business as soon as possible.
(2) Café Zones. Any portion of the established “Cafe Zones” along Broadway in the C-2 Commercial Downtown Zoning District that are permitted to a downtown business, as approved by the City Council, shall be maintained as above at all times by the permitted business. Garbage generated by these permitted businesses shall not be placed in the garbage receptacles placed downtown by the city.
(3) Sweeping Litter into Gutter Prohibited. No person shall sweep into or deposit in any gutter, street or other public place within the city the accumulation of litter from any building or lot, or from any public or private sidewalk or driveway.
(4) Penalty. Persons who violate this section shall first receive a warning. Thereafter, the following fines, plus the cost of prosecution shall be imposed: Second Offense $100 Third Offense $200 Subsequent offenses $300
Please keep areas clean in front of your store to the curb. This has been an issue and could result in a citation being issued.
Noise, Soliciting, Hawking
18.11 SOLICITING PROHIBITED
(1) Soliciting on Streets and Sidewalks
(a) Soliciting Prohibited.
(i) No person shall solicit tourists, travelers or other persons to patronize or to do business with any boat owners and operators, hotel, rooming house, restaurant, resort or other place
(b) Each and every act of soliciting prohibited under this Code shall constitute a separate and distinct violation of this Code.
(c) Soliciting Defined. Soliciting within the meaning of this Section shall be defined as any loitering, lingering or loafing upon any public street, highway, alley, sidewalk, parking lot, government building, park, or other public property, for the purpose of attracting the attention of tourists and others who are thereby induced to purchase tickets or rides on boats or to engage accommodations at hotels, rooming houses or resorts. Anyone who shall then linger and loiter upon any public street, highway, alley, sidewalk, parking lot, government building, park, or other public property, and as a result of such loitering shall have sold boat rides, boat tickets or accommodations for hotels, resorts or rooming houses shall be guilty of a violation of this Section. This Section is for the purpose of protecting the public from the inconvenience, harm and menace of solicitors and is not to be construed as an abrogation of any individual's right to transact legitimate business; such Section is to prevent any one group of business people from using any public street, highway, alley, sidewalk, parking lot, government building, park, or other public property as business places from which to transact their private business, which constitutes annoyance, hazard and inconvenience to the public and a commercial detriment to the City.
(d) Penalties. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this section of this Code shall, upon conviction, forfeit not less than five dollars ($5.00) nor more than fifty dollars ($50.00) together with the costs of prosecution, and in the event of failure to pay such forfeiture, shall be imprisoned in the county jail, not to exceed sixty (60) days.
City Ordinance 19.110 (2) Definition + 19.678 Prohibition - Hawking
The definition of Hawking: The act of calling out or otherwise attempting to attract attention to a business enterprise. To make or cause to be made for the purpose of advertising or announcing his vocation or presence, or in connection with the buying or selling of any goods, wares, merchandise, services or anything whatsoever, or with the carrying on of any trade, occupation, vocation or profit-making activity, an immediate or excessive use of the voice, or of any bell, gong, horn, instrument, article or device. No person, firm or corporation shall make or cause to be made for the purpose of advertising or announcing his vocations or presence, or in connection with the buying or selling of any goods, wares, merchandise, services, or anything whatsoever, or with the carrying on of any trade occupation, vocation, or profit-making activity, an immediate or excessive use of the voice, or of any bell, gong, horn, instrument, article or device. No person shall call out to persons on public property or neighboring private property for the purpose of attracting attention to their business.
City Ordinance 16.17 – Handbill Distribution Regulated
Prohibits any person from distributing commercial advertising materials of any kind, in or upon any automobile, sidewalk, street, alley, or public place within the City.
Outdoor Displays, Signs, and Buildings
All signage and building changes in the C-2 Downtown Commercial District must have a “Certificate of Appropriate” completed. This is attained by submitting it to the Planning and Zoning Department for review and approval from the Design Review Committee.
The Sign Ordinance is Chapter 22 of the City of Wisconsin Dells Ordinances and can be found online at www.citywd.com under the ordinance tab. The Downtown Design Standards Handbook is also there and should be reviewed before submitting anything to the Planning and Zoning Department.
City Ordinance 22.10 requires that business windows in the C-2 Downtown District may not exceed 50% blockage. Merchandise may cover up to 50% and signs may cover up to 25% -or any combination – not to exceed 50% total. Under Chapter 22.02(15) Interior signs that are within three feet of a window and intended for viewing from the exterior must be approved by the Design Review Committee and a permit obtained. The permit fee for these types of signs will be waived.
Downtown businesses that have a food license issued by the State of Wisconsin may apply for and receive permission for a sandwich board or pedestal type sign in front of their business with Design Review Committee approval. A “Certificate of Appropriateness” must be obtained through the Design Review Committee. If you do not have a food licenses, sandwich board type signs are not allowed.
City Ordinance 16.30 regulates outdoor displays to no more than 4 mannequins and one fixture such as a bench, shelves or carts. The bench/shelf/cart may not exceed 4’x4’x1’ deep, including the merchandise. This merchandise may be displayed on adjacent private property, not upon the public right-of-way.
City Ordinance 17.09 prohibits the display of sexually oriented merchandise unless such merchandise is confined to an area of the business that is separate and enclosed so the merchandise is inaccessible to and out of the view of children. Signage indicating sexually oriented merchandise must be displayed.
City Ordinance 23.15 prohibits the use of bicycles on sidewalks, please inform your employees of this ordinance. This ordinance also prohibits the parking of bicycles on Broadway right of way between the Wisconsin River bridge and Church St. Please inform employees they may not have their bicycle on Broadway locked to a tree or bench or anything else on the sidewalk. They must either be on a side street or behind the building in the alley way.
Wisconsin Dells Common Council approved a change to Ordinance 17.10 which authorizes the Chief of Police to charge the owners of such premises the cost associated with abating the violations at premises where nuisance activities chronically occur and to provide for forfeitures for the failure of property owners to abate such nuisance activities. The change was to now include violations of any WI Statutes, all Wisconsin Dells Municipal Code and Ordinances, and violations of any applicable WI Administrative Code. A chronic nuisance property is designated when the Chief of Police determines that three (3) or more nuisance activities resulting in enforcement action have occurred at a premise on separate days during a 12-month period.
Please remember that all businesses that have a store front on Broadway must display the street number and business name on the rear alleyway entrance. If you have any questions regarding this letter, please do not hesitate to call me. My contact number is listed at the top of this letter. May you all have a great and very successful year.