French Island Flood Zones and the New Village of French Island

From Town of Campbell to Village of French Island: what changed, and what didn't

French Island's local government changed dramatically in 2026: after years of the Town of Campbell fending off annexation attempts by the neighboring City of La Crosse, residents voted 1,493 to 30 in a referendum to incorporate as their own village, and the Wisconsin Department of Administration's Incorporation Review Board approved the petition in March 2026. The Town of Campbell officially ceased to exist on May 21, 2026, its entire land area becoming the new Village of French Island (estimated population around 4,284), with a village board (a president and six trustees) sworn in and a full transition completed by mid-2026.

For land-use purposes, the practical continuity matters more than the change in government structure: the new village carried forward the former town's Chapter 17 zoning ordinance (originally adopted by the Campbell Town Board in January 2013) largely unchanged rather than starting from a blank slate. What the village's own zoning does NOT cover is any different from before, either -- properties within French Island's shoreland or floodplain district are still directed to La Crosse County Zoning, since the county (not the town, and now not the village) administers those two overlays. In other words: incorporation changed who runs day-to-day village government and building permits, but it did not create a new set of flood or shoreland rules, and it did not change who to call for those two specific questions.

Why French Island floods, and why the levee status matters

French Island sits low, surrounded by the Mississippi River, French Slough, French Lake, Lake Onalaska, the Black River, and Richmond Bay -- essentially an island shaped by converging river systems just downstream and upstream of their confluence near La Crosse. That geography has produced a real, recurring flood history: French Island neighborhoods have experienced flood-water levels among the top five all-time highs on record in recent years, prompting voluntary-evacuation advisories in low-lying areas.

The levee status is the specific, checkable detail that separates ordinary river-adjacent risk from something more consequential here: per available reporting on La Crosse-area levee management, the levees protecting parts of French Island (and other low-lying La Crosse-area neighborhoods) are not on FEMA's national accredited-levee database. Accreditation requires a professional engineer to certify a levee system meets specific federal design and maintenance standards; without that accreditation, FEMA generally cannot map the area behind the levee as levee-protected on the Flood Insurance Rate Map, and instead maps a correspondingly larger area as being within the base floodplain -- with the higher flood-insurance costs and stricter floodplain-development permitting that come with that designation.

What incorporation changes -- and doesn't -- for a French Island buyer

Because the Village of French Island is so new, its longer-term approach to zoning, building permits, and any future changes to its inherited ordinance is not yet a settled track record -- a village government elected and sworn in during 2026 may update its own zoning code over time in ways the former town never did. That said, the two questions most likely to matter for a specific parcel's flood exposure -- FEMA flood-zone/floodplain-district status and shoreland-zoning applicability -- run through La Crosse County, not the village, and that division of authority is not something the incorporation changed.

If you're evaluating a French Island parcel, treat the incorporation as a governance change worth knowing about (a new village board, potentially new local officials and processes for anything the village itself controls) but not as a reason to assume flood risk, insurance requirements, or floodplain-permit rules have shifted. Those are still a function of the underlying river geography and the levee-accreditation gap described above, both of which predate and are unaffected by the 2026 incorporation.

What to actually check on a French Island parcel

1. Pull the current FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map for the specific parcel through FEMA's Map Service Center, and ask La Crosse County Zoning directly whether it falls within the shoreland or floodplain district -- the county, not the Village of French Island, administers both.
2. Ask specifically about levee-accreditation status for any levee near the parcel; an un-accredited levee generally means a larger mapped floodplain and higher flood-insurance costs than the levee's physical presence might suggest to the eye.
3. Confirm current zoning district and permitted uses with the Village of French Island directly, since it now administers the former Town of Campbell's zoning ordinance -- and ask whether any zoning updates are planned now that the village has its own elected board.
4. Review the property's own flood history if available (past insurance claims, local flood-stage records for the 2023 and other recent high-water events) rather than relying solely on the current FEMA map, since flood maps can lag behind actual recent flood experience.
5. Confirm whether the parcel is inside the Village of French Island (the former Town of Campbell) at all, since other parts of unincorporated La Crosse County near the rivers have different flood-mapping and zoning arrangements entirely.