Here is an excerpt from the Conservation Commission meeting of February 12. This Vimeo video is 46 minutes long and was recorded by Javier Luengo.



Topics covered in the video include:

• Discussion on Conservation Commission meeting protocol
  Video: 0:00:00-0:33:47
  This discussion has a 'best practices' flavor--how to run meetings in a clear, consistent and efficient manner.


• Discussion on forming a subcommittee for Northampton Wetlands Ordinance Revisions
  Video: 0:33:48-0:42:23
  C. Mason Marron and Downey Meyer will serve on this subcommittee. The goal is to recommend modifications and clarifications of the Wetlands Ordinance to City Council. Land Use and Conservation Planner Bruce Young will work with Marron and Meyer during the revision process. The date of the first meeting of the subcommittee has not yet been announced.
  
  
  The North Street Neighborhood Association, in consultation with HYLA Ecological Services, recommends these changes to the Wetlands Ordinance in zoning districts URB and URC:
  
  • No disturbance closer than 25 feet
  • No more than 10%-15% of that portion of the buffer zone that’s 25-50 feet from a wetland should be covered with impervious surface of any kind
  • No structures closer than 50 feet EXCEPT
  • At the discretion of the Conservation Commission, the landowner may build a structure in the portion of the buffer zone that’s 25-50 feet from a wetland, provided the structure covers no more than 10% of that portion of the buffer zone
  Other exceptions:
  
  • Building on existing impervious surfaces or modifying (without enlarging footprint of) existing structures in the buffer zone
  • Emergency projects
  • Exception for some class of limited projects - most notably driveways


• Discussion on Conference for Improving Water Quality and Habitat Values in Vernal Pools and Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions Annual Environmental Conference
  Video: 0:42:24-0:45:57

See also:

New Hazards Mitigation Plan Reflects Weakened Protection for Wetlands
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.



Video: Conservation Commission Meeting of 1/22/09; Non-Compliance with Wetlands Protection Agreements; Kohl Asked to Revise Condo Proposal Again
Video: 0:04:07-1:10:00
Continuation of a Notice of Intent filed by Jim Harrity on behalf of EBD Corp. for the construction of a mixed-use building, associated 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 225 Nonotuck Street, Map Id 23A-281.

Selected highlights
0:39:00-0:51:01... Bruce Young: "Honestly I have too much going on [to closely monitor EBD's planting plan], and part of that 'too much' is enforcing encroachments on projects similar to this. So, to add to this, I'd like to say that I would recommend that the commission require large boulders two feet on center across the entire encroachment zone...four feet in diameter boulders two feet apart... I think two feet keeps people from mowing and creates a border.... Because I've spent a huge amount of time going to these projects now that we had, we started a few years ago at 30 feet apart, then we went to 25 feet apart, now we're at 15. Actually, I've had enough. I've had enough of sending enforcement orders to people and having them deny them in the mail, and then have it come back to me, and then having to send one certified mail, and then have them deny it three times before I have to issue a...someone to deliver a subpeona, and then this is a huge waste of time for someone who is mowing down a wetland that is a...what begins in the process as a fair kind of negotiation but then turns into...it gets sold to one person who gets sold to another and people...no longer respect that line...

"I'll show you a picture of another project where we asked for two-foot diameter [boulders] and I have a picture of my shoe next to it and my shoe actually is about two inches longer, and I know I don't have two-foot long feet. I have big feet but they're not that big. So I'd prefer to say four foot in diameter. Large boulders. They can't be moved. You can't pick them up. You can't roll them out of the way and mow the wetland. We're talking long term...

[Responding to a Harrity's suggestion of a white picket fence instead of large boulders:] "A hundred-year white picket fence would be difficult to find...

[Harrity: "We could put it in the association bylaws that it needs to be maintained...the annual inspection..."]

"The thing is that's all fine and dandy but what happens is somebody just decides to cut it down or move it or take it out, and it's happened on almost every negotiation we've made...since I've been here, four years, almost every single one. There's one that I can say that there is not a single encroachment, and that's Pat Melnick's new project and it has boulders all the way around it, and that's the only one...

"You can put a stone wall, or you can put boulders, what else lasts 150 years?...

[Responding to a suggestion from Commissioner Kevin Lake to combat the encroachment problem through covenants:] "We have [an agreement] with Cardinal Way. We have a covenant that says, there's a 75-foot no-disturb area, and there will be granite bollards placed every 25 feet along this 75-foot no-disturb... And what we have is, we have smashed granite bollards that are sitting in the mowed wetlands. That people have smashed the bollards, threw them back in the woods, and then mowed all the way up to edge of the woods...mowed down all the wetland vegetation and so now what we have is (and there's a shed sitting in the middle of the wetland now) and what we have is large grass and my letters that I sent to them saying, you don't have the right to do this, and them coming back to me saying, any letter that comes to them from the city is refused in the mail...

"My position has already been cut down to three days for conservation, and there's no time for this, and there's no one else out there doing it..."

Video: 1:10:10-3:06:30
Continuation of a 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.

Selected highlights:
2:18:06... Commissioner Paul Wetzel: "Last time, I thought that the Commission said that things should be out of the 35-foot buffer... I'm disappointed... I still see there are a lot of hydrological [stormwater management] aspects of the project that are in within the 35 feet... I think that we should hold, hold to the line...and that includes all the hydrology [all the detention basins, all the constructed items]. Now if there's a little bit of grading I'm not going to be so concerned about it... Bruce almost said the exact same thing as Mr. Seewald about enforcing convenants and things like that..."

2:29:30... Commissioner Downey Meyer: "When the ordinance was passed, there were a lot of comments that by placing the 35-foot limit in black and white that that would become the line at which everything would reside... The structures within [the] 35-foot zone are too significant, and again to Paul's point, the number of structures within even the 100-foot zone is such that incursion seems to me inevitable, that people will expand beyond the footprint...it's not a question of our intentions but...imagine the worst, the Holmesian 'bad man'...you have to draft rules for the worst actor, for the least responsive landowner, especially if they're supposed to protect a resource that is supposed to last in perpetuity... I think that...space prevents incursion."

City Council Enacts New Wetlands Ordinance, Including 10-Foot Buffers
When illustrating how the new ordinance might be applied, Bruce Young dwelt on the hypothetical example of a homeowner who wants to build an accessory apartment on their property, and how relaxed buffer zone requirements could facilitate that. While this came across as innocuous and benign, there was no discussion of the cumulative impact of many landowners encroaching on wetlands. It's easy to see how the Conservation Commission, by giving away our flood protection piecemeal over time, could materially impact the city's experience during the next major rainstorm.

Also glossed over was the impact of major projects, such as Kohl Construction's [25] condo units proposed for the woods behind North Street... Besides the units themselves, this project calls for new roads and numerous parking spaces--a considerable amount of new impervious surface. It would result in major disturbance of a large zone within 50 feet of wetlands, a far cry from the impact of one accessory apartment.

Councilor Narkewicz objected to the holding up of Springfield's wetlands regulations as a model for Northampton. He said that while Springfield requires a minimum of a 50-foot undisturbed buffer, it will grant variances. He neglected to mention that these variances are conditioned on the applicant demonstrating that "work or alterations within the fifty (50) foot buffer will enhance the wetland interests specified under this ordinance". We stand by our claim that Springfield's regulations are considerably more friendly to the environment than Northampton's new ordinance. As the Valley Advocate reports this week, "A member of the Springfield Conservation Commission who declined to be identified stated that Northampton’s 10-foot buffer zone in parts of the city was not smart, as developers usually are afforded a five-foot discretion either way. Also, the official noted, it is nearly impossible not to impact wetlands when working at such close range..."

Gazette: "Council adopts wetlands ordinance"
At-large City Councilor James M. Dostal proposed an amendment Thursday that called for increasing the 10 feet no-encroachment zones in urban residential districts to 50 feet because of serious concerns about homes flooding, saying "We shouldn't be building there..."

Hyla Ecological Services Analyzes the Proposed Wetlands Ordinance
"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)

Just Released: Planner's Guide to Wetland Buffers for Local Governments (emphasis added)
In an assessment of 21 established buffers in two Washington counties, Cooke (1992) found that 76% of the buffers were negatively altered over time. Buffers of less than 50 feet were more susceptible to degradation by human disturbance. In fact, no buffers of 25 feet or less were functioning to reduce disturbance to the adjacent wetland. The buffers greater than 50 feet showed fewer signs of human disturbance...

The Role and Function of Forest Buffers in the Chesapeake Bay Basin for Nonpoint Source Management
The shade provided by a riparian forest buffer moderates stream temperatures and levels of dissolved oxygen. These factors are critical for fisheries and submerged aquatic vegetation, but also have water quality implications. Temperature increases the rate at which nutrients attached to suspended solids are converted to readily available (soluble) forms. As stream temperature increases above 60° F significant increases in phosphorus release from sediments occurs (Karr and Schlosser, 1978). In this way, the loss of forest shade may exaggerate nonpoint pollutant effects by reducing the streams ability to assimilate organic wastes and inducing algae blooms and low oxygen levels... Human habitat is also important. Forest buffers in urban areas provide a unique linkage between people and their environment... Forests should be retained as greenbelts along streams and drainageways during development...