08-22-2005 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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f -s f t Welland Ordinance Aug lut 9,2005 Paged Summary of Ordinance Elomenfs/Impacts I. 2. 3. 4. 5. The ordinance incorporates new, more comprehensive deflnitions of “wetlands** based on Circular 39 types (Types 1 thru 8). This section (78-1602) replaces the prior definitions that merely identified wetlands as ‘lowlands covered with shallow and sometime temporary or intermittent waters, and also identifiable by wetlands vegetation and soil types’. The ordinance establishes that all Type 1 thru 8 wetlands in the City are subject to the ordinance provisions, and it references a new City Wetland Map based on the MCWD*s wetland inventory. The City*s 1974 Wetland Inventory is no longer the basis for whether a wetland is subject to City wetland ordinances. The past distinction between “City of Orono protected wetlands** (those on our 1974 mapi and “non-Citv protected wetlands** (those areas that are wetlands delineated under WCA delineation rules but were never on Orono*s map nor protected bv Orono) will no longer exist. The ordinance establishes methods for resolving the location of wetland boundaries if they are disputed. The ordinance also provides a procedure for removing a wetland from the Wetlands Overlay District or amending its boundaries (for instance, in cases where unavoidable impacts result in wetland filling and replacement). The ordinance does not take the place of Wetland Conservation Act (WCA) regulations but is in addition to them. The WCA rules primarily deal with work within a wetland; for example, WCA does not require wetland buffers. The new ordinance*s primary focus is to protect wetlands by establishing what activities or improvements the City will allow both within and near wetlands. While the proposed ordinance is intended to be consistent with WCA and MCWD rules, the City is iifil at this time becoming die Local Government Unit (LGU) for adi^nistering the WCA rules in Orono; although staff anticipates the City re acquiring that responsibility in the future, for the time being that is left to the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) as it has been since the early 1990s. The ordinance establishes that wetland buffers (areas surrounding wetlands that are maintained with certain natural vegetative cover) must be created: - when a wetland is being altered, replaced or restored; - when new development occurs; and - when redevelopment, construction or land alteration activity occurs that has the “potential to adversely impact a wetland** The terms “development**, “redevelopment**, and “potential to adversely impact a wetland** are specifically defined. The ordinance establishes standards for the creation and maintenance of the required buffers. Required buffer widths (ranging from 15* to SO*) will be determined on the basis of the function, values and susceptibility of individual wetlands, rather than merely on the size of the wetland. i