66.1015 Municipal rent control, inclusionary zoning, prohibited.
(1) No city, village, town or county may regulate the amount of rent or fees charged for the use of a residential rental dwelling unit.
(2) This section does not prohibit a city, village, town, county, or housing authority or the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority from doing any of the following:
(a) Entering into a rental agreement which regulates rent or fees charged for the use of a residential rental dwelling unit it owns or operates.
(b) Entering into an agreement with a private person who regulates rent or fees charged for a residential rental dwelling unit.
(3) Inclusionary zoning prohibited.
(a) In this subsection:
1. “Inclusionary zoning” means a zoning ordinance, as defined in s. 66.10015 (1) (e), regulation, or policy that prescribes that a certain number or percentage of new or existing residential dwelling units in a land development be made available for rent or sale to an individual or family with a family income at or below a certain percentage of the median income.
2. “Median income” has the meaning given in s. 234.49 (1) (g).
(b) No city, village, town, or county may enact, impose, or enforce an inclusionary zoning requirement.
History: 1991 a. 39; 1999 a. 150 s. 377; Stats. 1999 s. 66.1015; 2001 a. 104; 2017 a. 243.
This section preempted an ordinance that required a development with 10 or more rental dwelling units to provide no less than 15 percent of its total number of dwelling units as inclusionary dwelling units when the development required a zoning map amendment, subdivision or land division, defining “inclusionary dwelling unit" as a dwelling unit for rent to a family with an annual median income at or below 60 percent of the area median income. Sub. (2) (b) plainly applies only to agreements with private persons who, on their own, choose to regulate rent and makes clear that a municipality is not imposing rent control if it contracts with those persons for some other purpose or somehow assists them. The ordinance was not an agreement to regulate rent between the city and persons who apply for zoning map amendments, subdivision or land division. Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin, Inc. v. City of Madison, 2006 WI App 192, 296 Wis. 2d 173, 722 N.W. 2d 614, 05-3140.