Town of Grafton, WI

The Town of Grafton is older than the village that carries its name. Wikipedia's town entry,_Wisconsin) records that the territorial legislature created it in 1846, and that the Village of Grafton incorporated from part of the town's land in 1896. The town marked its 180th year in 2026, the News Graphic noted on September 24, 2026.

Its most unusual chapter happened on the lake. The town's own history page tells the story of Ulao, a port at the base of the bluff. In 1847 James T. Gifford, who had come from Elgin, Illinois, bought land along the shore and on the bluff, built a wooden pier about 1,000 feet into the lake and a chute from the top of the bluff to the beach, and sold cordwood from cleared farms to the wood-burning steamships of the Great Lakes. Wikipedia adds that the port prospered in the 1850s and 1860s and faded after the Civil War, when the county's forests were largely cut. Ulao is now a crossroads name on Highway Q and Ulao Road, and the land returned to farms.

The rest of the town's history is the story of the village growing out of it. As the village annexed farmland for subdivisions after World War II and I-43 opened in the mid-1960s, the town lost acreage on its western side and kept its lakefront, its stretch of the Milwaukee River and most of its farmland. That tension over the boundary is still live, and the development section covers it.

The town's government moved recently too. Town Hall left downtown Grafton in 2025 for 1220 Falls Road, at the corner of Port Washington and Falls roads, in a former industrial building that the town chairman told the News Graphic was paid for with no debt.

The town is the ring around the village. The Census 2024 gazetteer puts it at 17.37 square miles of land and 0.26 square miles of inland water, after decades of annexations; Wikipedia's older figure of 19.8 square miles predates some of them. The 2020 census counted 4,355 people, and the DOR's 2025 estimate is 4,341.

Wikipedia describes the borders: the City and Town of Port Washington and the Town of Saukville to the north, the City of Mequon to the south, the City and Town of Cedarburg to the west, and Lake Michigan to the east. The town chairman told the News Graphic in September 2026 that the town has almost four miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, about 10 miles of Milwaukee River frontage, over 1,800 residences not counting apartments, and almost a billion dollars in equalized value. The town's own welcome page counts three I-43 interchanges serving it.

The town and village share the "Grafton, WI 53024" mailing address, so the address will not tell you which one you're in. On October 5, 2026, I ran listings from a public "Grafton" search page through the Census geocoder. Houses on Lake Shore Road, Ulao Parkway, Lakefield Road, Aspen Court, Edgewater Court and Edgewood Drive came back in the town; houses on Candleberry Lane, Cottonwood Lane and 12th Avenue came back in the Village of Grafton.

The difference is real money and real services. The town's 2025 tax rate is about $2.30 per $1,000 lower than the village's in the same school district, but most town parcels have a private well and a septic system instead of village sewer and water. I'd confirm the municipality on the tax bill first.

It has almost four miles of shoreline, Lion's Den Gorge, five-acre lakeshore zoning, inland lots of one to 35 acres, and a 2025 net tax rate near $10 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The trade-offs are concrete. Bluff property comes with erosion risk and county setbacks that can rule out building near the edge. Sales are few, so pricing a bluff parcel takes judgment. A house next to Lion's Den should expect walkers on the beach below the high-water mark. Most homes rely on a well and a mound septic system. The village keeps annexing at the edges. And Vernon Hills is more than 100 minutes away in free-flow traffic.

I'd pull the tax bill and confirm the municipality, school district, well and septic records and, on the lake, a bluff survey before falling for a property.

The town reads as five distinct areas.

The first is Lake Shore Road and the bluff. Lake Shore Road runs north-south near the lake, with bluff-top houses and land on its east side and acreage on its west side. This is the town's top tier, and Lion's Den Gorge Nature Preserve sits in the middle of it. The lakefront section covers prices.

The second is Ulao, the old port crossroads between I-43 and the lake. Ulao Parkway and the roads around it mix older farmhouses, 1960s and 1970s houses on one- to three-acre lots, and the Ulao Waterfowl Production Area next to Lion's Den. A 1916 farmhouse on 31.9 acres on Ulao Parkway South, about 29 acres of it under a conservation easement, was listed at $999,900 on October 5, 2026.

The third is Lakefield in the south, around Lakefield Road and Cheyenne Avenue, closer to Mequon. The town's lot listing page showed the Country View subdivision on Meadow Breeze Lane with three of six lots left, all over one acre, plus two three-quarter-acre lots on Cheyenne Avenue. Lakefield is also where the town approved a 127-home subdivision in 2026, covered in the development section.

The fourth is the Milwaukee River north of the village. Edgewater Park, Edgewood Drive and the river roads have wooded lots of three acres or more; a 1978 house on 3 wooded acres on Edgewood Drive was pending at $799,000, and a house on 3.83 acres on Edgewater Court was listed at $569,900, both on October 5, 2026.

The fifth is the I-43 and Port Washington Road corridor, where the town's commercial land, Town Hall and the edges most exposed to village annexation sit, including the Woodman's site south of Arrowhead Road that the village is annexing.

The town is mostly detached houses on large lots. The 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 1,954 housing units (plus or minus 231), of which 1,578, about 81%, are single-family detached, plus 227 units in buildings of five to nine units. Of the 1,954 occupied units, 1,327, about 68%, are owner-occupied, though the survey's renter estimate carries a wide margin.

The median home was built in 1975. The survey counts 163 homes from before 1940, many of them farmhouses, 338 from the 1950s, 353 from the 1970s, and 410 from 2000 onward, with wide margins on each because the sample is small.

Values run high for Ozaukee County. The ACS median value of an owner-occupied home is $497,000, plus or minus $62,857, against $390,200 for the county. Its value table counts 445 owner homes valued at $500,000 to $749,999, 149 at $750,000 to $999,999, and 65 at $1 million or more, 14 of them at $2 million or more, all with margins of error as large as the estimates. The lakefront and acreage sections give the dated sale prices.

The inspection list for a town property is longer than in the village. A bluff house needs a look at the bluff itself, its drainage and any shore protection. Any house on a mound system needs the septic permit and pumping records; the town's own comprehensive plan says most land in the town operates with mound systems. A private well needs a water test, and the town's groundwater page notes that naturally occurring arsenic has been found in a small number of local wells. The expectation I most often reset with Illinois buyers is that the septic and well are the owner's systems to maintain, not a utility's.

The town's lakefront is bluff, not beach-level frontage. Wikipedia describes clay bluffs 80 to 140 feet high, cut by deep ravines where streams reach the lake, with mixed gravel and sand beaches below. Ozaukee County's comprehensive plan summarizes a regional study of the county's roughly 25 miles of shoreline: bluffs up to 140 feet, stability safety factors from 0.59 to 1.88, where anything under 1.0 is considered unstable, and average recession from 0 to 4.1 feet a year between 1963 and 1995, depending on the stretch.

Sales are few, so each one is worth knowing. The largest recent public sale is the land beside Lion's Den. A sold-listing record shows 39.02 acres of prairie with more than 1,100 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline, adjacent to Lion's Den Gorge and zoned R-1, listed at $2,750,000 and closed at $2,565,000 on May 7, 2024 after 82 days on market. That works out to about $65,700 an acre or about $2,330 per foot of frontage.

Bluff-top houses have sold lower. A Coldwell Banker sold record shows 1270 Lake Shore Road, a 1977 four-bedroom house of 2,978 square feet on 3.69 acres on the bluff, with the privately owned Kevich Light on the grounds, sold for $1,275,000 on August 17, 2026. An older record shows a 1976 equestrian estate with 17-plus acres and 275 feet of frontage on Lake Shore Road sold for $1,650,000 in October 2018.

Across Lake Shore Road from the water, prices are lower again. On October 5, 2026, a 1999 house on 3 wooded acres across from the lake and Lion's Den was listed at $699,900, a 1965 ranch on 1.5 acres with seasonal lake views at $649,900, and a 1964 ranch on 3 acres at $550,000.

So I separate three tiers here, as I would on any lake. Bluff-front property owns frontage, with the setback and erosion rules in the next section. Lake-view property across the road has views but no frontage. Inland acreage has neither. The documented range for bluff frontage runs from about $1.3 million for a house on under four acres to $2.6 million for large land, and a true $2 million-plus house sale on the town's bluff did not turn up in the public records I could fetch. Illinois buyers who know the Lake Forest and Highland Park bluffs will find similar geology at a lower price per foot, with fewer sales to compare.

Because the town is unincorporated, Ozaukee County's shoreland ordinance governs its Lake Michigan bluff. Chapter 19, the county's Shoreland Protection Ordinance, dated March 4, 2026, sets a 75-foot setback from the ordinary high-water mark of any navigable water. On the bluff it goes further. All buildings, structures and septic systems must be set back the greater of two distances: a stable-slope line of 2.5 feet horizontal for every 1 foot of bluff height, measured from the toe of the bluff using the steepest slope as determined by an engineer or surveyor, or 75 feet from the edge of the bluff.

To show what that means: a 100-foot bluff at 2.5 to 1 needs 250 feet of horizontal distance from its toe. If the existing bluff face already covers 150 feet horizontally, the setback line falls about 100 feet back from the top edge, which is more than the 75-foot minimum. That is an illustration, not a survey; every parcel is measured on its own, two points per 100 feet of shoreline.

Accessory structures can sit in the bluff setback area only under tight limits: at least 40 feet from the top of the bluff, no more than 200 square feet in total, walls no taller than 10 feet, no foundation or pilings, and no plumbing. Septic soil absorption fields must be at least 75 feet from the bluff edge. Ravines that run to the lake carry similar setbacks. The town's own zoning adds its R-1 Residential District for lakeshore single-family homes, with a five-acre minimum lot and a 75-foot shore yard, according to the town zoning code.

Beach access is the newer question. Ozaukee Press reported on June 3, 2026 that owners whose property borders Lion's Den strung a rope across the beach and posted no-trespassing signs, and the sheriff's office said the area below the ordinary high-water mark is generally open for walking under the public trust doctrine. The News Graphic reported on August 30, 2026 that the DNR identified the high-water mark there on July 29 and said the barrier's poles below it needed DNR authorization and had to come out. For a buyer next to a public park, I'd expect walkers on the wet sand in front of the property, and I'd ask the seller about any history with the DNR or the county.

Away from the lake, the town's appeal is land, and its zoning sets how much. The town zoning code requires 35-acre parcels in the A-1 Exclusive Agricultural District and 10 acres in the A-2 Agricultural/Rural Residential District, which it says permits large rural estate lots and commercial stables with two acres for the first horse and one for each additional horse. Residential districts step down from five acres in R-1 on the lakeshore to three acres in R-2 and 32,670 square feet, about three-quarters of an acre, in R-3. Every district requires a two-car garage before occupancy.

The public listings show the inland range. On October 5, 2026, a 2003 six-bedroom house of 5,500 square feet on 3 acres on Aspen Court was listed at $1,195,000, the highest-priced house in the town on the public "Grafton" search page that day. Land was priced well above Ozaukee farm values: a 49.37-acre parcel on East Sauk Road marketed for possible residential development was pending at $1,599,000, a 56-acre parcel on Kara Lane was listed at $849,900, a 16-acre parcel on Cheyenne Avenue at $946,000, and three-acre lots on County Highway C at $400,000 each.

Zillow's top-tier index for ZIP 53024, which covers the town and village together, was $688,162 in August 2026, up 5.9% in a year. Zillow does not publish a separate index for the town. The honest center of the town's upper market is $700,000 to $1.2 million for a large house on several acres, with the bluff above that.

For acreage buyers, a few practical points. Ask whether any land is under a conservation easement, as about 29 acres of the Ulao Parkway farm are, because an easement limits building for good. Ask whether farmland is assessed at agricultural use value, since a change of use can change the tax bill. And on any parcel near the village line, ask about annexation, covered in the development section.

Wisconsin property tax vocabulary is different from Illinois, so start with the translation. The town assessor sets an assessed value, the Department of Revenue sets a full, or equalized, value, and the tax rate per $1,000 applies to the assessed value. The DOR's 2025 report puts the town's assessment level at 0.88, and the Ozaukee County Treasurer's 2025 table gives the ratio as 0.8787, so an assessed value is typically about 88% of market value.

The rate depends on the school district. In the Grafton School District, which covers most of the town, the 2025 gross rate is $11.47 per $1,000 of assessed value and the net rate after the state school levy credit is $9.99, with a lottery credit of $168.55 and a first dollar credit of $56.18. In the Port Washington-Saukville district in the northeast, the gross rate is $12.33 and the net rate $10.85, with credits of $188.97 and $62.99. A small Cedarburg district area is at $10.00 net. The DOR's town-wide effective rate is 0.882% of full value, and the town has no tax incremental districts.

The town's own levy is small. Its municipal rate is about $1.96 per $1,000, against $4.95 in the Village of Grafton, which is most of the reason a town bill runs lower. The town chairman told the News Graphic in September 2026 that town taxes barely rose from 2014 until the 2024 referendum that created the Ozaukee Central Fire Department.

A worked example. On a $750,000 house assessed at the 0.8787 ratio, the assessed value would be about $659,000. In the Grafton district, the 2025 bill would be about $6,586 after the school levy credit, or about $6,362 after the lottery and first dollar credits for a primary residence, roughly 0.85% of price. In the Port Washington-Saukville district it would be about $6,901, about 0.92%. On the $1,275,000 bluff house that sold in August 2026, the Grafton-district bill would be about $10,972 after credits. On the $2,565,000 bluff land, if it carried a house assessed at that value, it would be about $22,525 before any credit. The lottery credit is for a primary residence only, and Wisconsin's transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value, normally paid by the seller. This is general information, not tax advice.

The town does not provide sewer or water. Its comprehensive plan says most land in the town operates with mound systems, regulated by Ozaukee County, and that most of the town uses private wells. The Village of Grafton's sewer service area covers portions of the town, but the plan notes that town properties along a village sewer line usually stay on their own systems until annexation.

On a well and septic property, I'd budget for a water test, a septic evaluation and the county permit history before closing. The town's groundwater page adds two items worth knowing: naturally occurring arsenic has been found in a small number of local wells, and the town monitors groundwater near the former Denow Landfill with the DNR, posting the reports. For a parcel near that site, I'd read the latest report.

Fire and ambulance service come from the Ozaukee Central Fire Department, which the Village of Saukville's page says was established January 1, 2025 for the Villages and Towns of Grafton and Saukville, with stations in the two villages. Lake Shore Road is several miles from the Grafton station, which is worth weighing for any property far out on the bluff.

The town contracts weekly garbage collection and has put its 2027 solid waste and recycling contract out for proposals, according to its services page. The town ended its joint library agreement with the village, Ozaukee Press reported on April 1, 2026, and town residents now use the county library system. Planned road work includes Ozaukee County's rebuild of the Pioneer Road and Port Washington Road intersection at the Mequon line, scheduled for 2027.

Most of the town is in the Grafton School District. The DOR's school apportionment puts $1.07 billion of the town's value in the Grafton district, about $58 million in the Port Washington-Saukville district in the northeast, and about $4 million in the Cedarburg district. Wikipedia describes the same split: the southwest corner in Cedarburg and the northeast toward Port Washington.

All four are in the village.

Which elementary a northeast town parcel feeds should be confirmed with the district.

Assignment follows the parcel, and the district also sets the tax rate, about $0.86 per $1,000 higher in the Port Washington-Saukville area in 2025. Confirm both on the tax bill and with the district before counting on either.

I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from Lion's Den Gorge on Lake Shore Road on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates.

From the bluff, downtown Milwaukee is about 24 miles and 38 minutes, Milwaukee's airport about 30 miles and 48 minutes, Port Washington about 4 miles and 12 minutes, I-43 exit 92 about 3 miles and 11 minutes, and Mequon about 12 miles and 24 minutes. Vernon Hills is about 84 road miles and 109 minutes, Lake Forest about 80 miles and 104 minutes, downtown Chicago about 111 miles and 144 minutes, and O'Hare about 107 miles, which the router put at 153 minutes.

That is past the 90-minute line from Lake County, Illinois, and I say so plainly.

The town has no passenger rail. Wikipedia lists the Route 143 Ozaukee County Express, a weekday peak-hour bus to Milwaukee, with park-and-ride stops off I-43 exit 92 in the village, and Ozaukee County's Shared Ride Taxi for other trips.

For Chicago, the train is Amtrak's Hiawatha from Milwaukee. In Amtrak's schedule data for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, I counted six Hiawatha departures from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to Chicago Union Station, at 99 minutes except the first, at 112. The Intermodal Station is about 38 minutes from Lion's Den in free-flow traffic. The Ozaukee Interurban Trail crosses the town for biking to Cedarburg, Port Washington and Milwaukee County.

Lion's Den Gorge Nature Preserve is the town's landmark. Ozaukee County calls it the most visited park in its system and one of the last undeveloped stretches of bluff between Mequon and Port Washington, with more than half a mile of 90- to 100-foot bluffs, bridges over the gorge, stairways to the beach, boardwalks through wetlands, picnic areas and a new pavilion with restrooms. It is 73 acres and open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The county notes there is no accessible path to the beach and that deer hunting is offered each fall. Wikipedia adds that the county bought the land in 2002, that it runs along about 0.7 miles of lakeshore, and that it has more than 1.5 miles of trails.

Next to it, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 44-acre Ulao Waterfowl Production Area adds wetland trails. Wikipedia lists the 54-acre Blue Wing Waterfowl Production Area, the 17-acre Bratt Woods preserve on the Milwaukee River's east bank and the 45-acre Kurtz Woods State Natural Area, shared with the Village of Saukville. The county is developing the Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve just north of Lion's Den in the City of Port Washington, and has said it hopes to connect the two along the beach, Ozaukee Press reported in June 2026.

The Ozaukee Interurban Trail crosses the town. The town chairman named Edgewater Golf Course as one of two golf courses in the town, with another golf venue under construction, and counted five commercial stables. The Kevich Light, a privately owned lighthouse, stands on the bluff on Lake Shore Road.

The biggest residential project in the town is in Lakefield. The News Graphic reported on March 10, 2026 that the town Plan Commission approved rezoning a 186-acre parcel on Lakefield Road from agricultural zoning to R-3 for Neumann Developments, which proposes 127 single-family homes on about 1.47 acres each, with minimum sizes of 1,800 square feet for a ranch and 2,100 for a two-story. The developer described home-and-lot packages starting in the low $600,000s, built over four to five phases at 15 to 20 homes a year, with a projected $75 million in assessed value at completion.

Annexation shapes the rest. Ozaukee Press reported on April 1, 2026 that every town board candidate named development and annexation by the Village of Grafton as the town's main issue, and that the town has approved development and smaller lots along its edges partly to make annexation harder, including the Lakefield plan near the Mequon border.

The clearest current example is Woodman's. The News Graphic reported on September 24, 2026 that the village Plan Commission recommended annexing a 26-acre town property on Port Washington Road south of Arrowhead Road for a 245,000-square-foot Woodman's Food Market. Once annexed, that land leaves the town's tax base and zoning.

For a buyer, the town's character is most stable on the lakeshore and in the north and east, under five-acre and larger zoning and county bluff rules. The edges near I-43, Port Washington Road and the village line are where fields turn into subdivisions or annexed commercial land, so I'd read the town's comprehensive plan map and ask about pending petitions before buying beside open land there.

The Ozaukee County Sheriff's Office provides police service in the town, according to the town's public safety page, and the Ozaukee Central Fire Department provides fire protection and EMS. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. Anyone who wants the data can ask the sheriff's office or look up its reported figures on the FBI Crime Data Explorer.