Northampton's Planning Board reports today that it will defer its hearing on Kohl Construction's application for a Special Permit and Site Plan Review to January. We'll get you the exact time and date when it's announced.

Kohl's proposal will still be heard by the Conservation Commission on December 11, 5:30pm, in the City Hall Hearing Room (210 Main Street, 2nd floor). Enter via the back door. All concerned citizens are urged to attend. Here's how the agenda item reads:

Notice of Intent filed by Tofino Associates, Inc. and Northern Avenue Homes, Inc. for the construction of twenty-five dwelling units and associated roadways, parking areas, driveways, sidewalks, utilities, landscaping and stormwater management system. Project is proposed to take place in the 100-foot buffer zone of Bordering Vegetated Wetlands. Project location is Northern Avenue, Map Id 25C-12 and 25C-17.

See also:

Kohl Construction Applies for Special Permit and Site Plan Review

Kirby on the Loose: "Condo project off North St. files for permits"
The final plans show that backyards, patios and walls will come within 12 feet of the bordered vegetative wetland. This will be the first so-called in-fill project to take advantage of the changes in our zoning in many commercially-oriented zoning districts. Permitted now is reducing the "no-encroachment zone" around wetlands from 35 feet to 10 feet.

Just Released: Planner's Guide to Wetland Buffers for Local Governments (emphasis added)
[Environmental Law Institute:] Enacted local government buffer ordinances show a wide range of wetland buffer dimensions. The lowest we found was 15 feet measured horizontally from the border of the wetland, with the highest approximately 350 feet. Several ordinances set 500 feet as a distance for greater regulatory review of proposed activities, but do not require nondisturbance at this distance. Often the ordinances provide a range of protections, with nondisturbance requirements nearest the wetland and various prohibitions and limitations as the distance from the wetland increases. Among the ordinances we examined, the largest number of ordinances clustered around nondisturbance or minimal disturbance buffers of 50 feet or 100 feet, with variations (usually upward variations) beyond these based on particular wetland characteristics, species of concern, and to account for areas with steeper slopes.

Northampton's Flood and Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan: Floyd Flood Damage Reported Behind View Avenue; Avoid Building on Filled Wetlands

Mike Kirby: "The Meadowbrook Chronicles Part One"
The Meadowbrook story has many important facets. Of particular interest to us are the consequences that can follow from building homes near wetlands...

The developers built 255 units of affordable apartments there. They crammed them in everywhere they could, pushing them up into the bluffs, and close to the creek and wetlands. No backyards to speak of. One third of the buildings were built within 50 feet of the wetlands, 63% of the buildings are within the customary 100 feet of wetlands.

None of the buildings have cellars under their apartments. If they have cellars, there are people living in them. The cellar floors in the basement apartments in Buildings #4 and #2 are lower than the surrounding swamp. Some slabs have cracks in them. People have been flooded out. No moisture-proof barriers between the surrounding earth and the foundations. Moisture and mold percolate up into people's apartments via the chases that hold utilities. If you wonder why low-income children are afflicted with a whole host of respiratory diseases, you have to look no further than the children of the floor level and basement apartments of Meadowbrook...

Easthampton Flooding Hazard: Snow-Clogged Storm Drains
"If the water has nowhere to go, it's going to find somewhere to go... The slush really clogs [storm drains]."

Snow and Slush Expose Limits of Storm Drains
..."The rainfall carries floating slush to a catch basin," said Amherst Public Works Superintendent Guilford Mooring. "We clear something up and it clogs up again. We've been working since last night."

Ditto for Easthampton Public Works Superintendent Joseph I. Pipczynski: "It's just a nasty storm," he said. "You unplug the basin, they go down the street, the slush covers the basin again and you've got another lake..."

Greenfield's Quarter-Million-Dollar Flooding Fix Includes Razing a 4-Family House

"The deal will allow the city to avoid the costly installation of larger culverts to keep an underground brook from flooding the property...

"The development has eliminated a large amount of land that used to absorb rainwater, but now just sends it on to the brook...

"The total bill for the project is estimated at $252,300, including purchase, demolition and [detention] pond creation..."

This story illustrates why it's unwise to encourage development in flood-prone areas, and unwise to compromise natural drainage systems. Inviting developers to pave and build close to our in-town wetlands, as Northampton's new wetlands ordinance does, is not smart growth, and may require costly interventions in the future.

Paved Surfaces, Salt and Water Bodies: A Bad Mix

Gazette: "Region's storms going to extremes, report finds" (12/5/08)

New Hazards Mitigation Plan Reflects Weakened Protection for Wetlands
Unfortunately, the City Council voted 7-2 in 2007 to permit development in multiple districts to encroach as close as 10 feet to wetlands. In a rapid shift of priorities, facilitating urban infill was now deemed more important than flood mitigation, water pollution control, or urban greenspace. The proposed condo development off North Street is a good example of a project that relies on the narrowed buffer zones...

The claim that allowing development within 50 feet of wetlands can still give effective protection does not bear up under scientific scrutiny. As Hyla Ecological Services noted in 2007:

"Buffers of less than 50 feet in width are generally ineffective in protecting wetlands. Buffers larger than 50 feet are necessary to protect wetlands from an influx of sediment and nutrients, to protect wetlands from direct human disturbance, to protect sensitive wildlife species from adverse impacts, and to protect wetlands from the adverse effects of changes in quantity of water entering the wetland..." (Castelle et al., 'Wetland Buffers: Use and Effectiveness', 1992)

"Buffer function was found to be directly related to the width of the buffer. Ninety-five percent of buffers smaller than 50 feet suffered a direct human impact within the buffer, while only 35% of buffers wider than 50 feet suffered direct human impact. Human impacts to the buffer zone resulted in increased impact on the wetland by noise, physical disturbance of foraging and nesting areas, and dumping refuse and yard waste. Overall, large buffers reduced the degree of changes in water quality, sediment load, and the quantity of water entering the adjacent wetland." (Castelle et al., 1992)

...Most striking in the [Environmental Law Institute] report is that some locales desire wider buffers in areas of intense land use to address the higher levels of pollution and runoff. By contrast, Northampton has its narrowest buffers in these areas.

Earlier this year, NSNA engaged Hyla to compare Northampton's new Wetlands Ordinance to the regulations in other cities across Massachusetts. Hyla found that Northampton is now an outlier. In the entire state, it's hard to find anything similar to our 10-foot buffer zones for new development...

"...it is forecasted that, Massachusetts, and the rest of New England, is long overdue for a major hurricane to make landfall. Based on past hurricane and tropical storm landfalls, the frequency of tropical systems to hit the Massachusetts coastline is an average of once out of every six years." (Hazards Mitigation Plan, p.28)

The Prince of Wales: Value Complexity, Respect Nature, Avoid Technological Hubris