Lake Geneva Looks at New Zoning to Allow Mural Program

The few murals Lake Geneva does have currently add outsize charm to the community’s character.

LAKE GENEVA, WISC. (WITH EXCERPTS FROM LAKE GENEVA NEWS): Members of the Lake Geneva Plan Commission discussed proposed zoning ordinance amendments, July 18, which would regulate and allow for murals on built structures. The move from the City comes as as Lake Geneva gets ready to launch a new Downtown mural program.

Jackie Mich of city planning group Vandewalle & Associates said the city currently does not have an ordinance regulating murals. She said amending the ordinance would help regulate a mural program in the Downtown area.

“This proposed ordinance removes any zoning barriers to the BID mural program by proposing some modest changes to the Downtown design standards,” Mich said. “The city’s ordinances are pretty much silent on murals, and therefore these are essentially allowed, even though we’re not seeing a lot of them right now in the city. These amendments address some basic precautions.”

The proposed amendments would allow for murals to be painted on or installed on side walls or alleys facing walls. However, murals could not be installed on front facades, windows, doors, awning, fences, architectural elements or historic details.

“If you got nice historic details on a building, of course, we don’t want to see a mural on top of any of those things,” Mich said.

The ordinance amendments also propose that murals cannot be painted on unpainted brick, natural stone or stucco.