As with protection for significant trees, once again our friends in Springfield are outpacing Northampton when it comes to environmental protection. Here are excerpts from Springfield’s Wetland Protection Regulations currently in force. We have emphasized selected passages with bold type.
Contrast Springfield’s regulations with the ones that will come before Northampton’s City Council on September 6. The latter will encourage development to encroach as close as 10 feet to wetlands in downtown districts, and vernal pool protection is in limbo.
See also:
Northampton’s Flood and Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan: Floyd Flood Damage Reported Behind View Avenue; Avoid Building on Filled Wetlands
In a table of Existing Mitigation Strategies, the plan includes a “100 foot buffer around wetlands and the wetland resource area itself…” It says this strategy has been “Effective”, and says that an option to improve it would be to “Strengthen Wetland Ordinance”…
One of the “Priority Actions” is to “Consistently enforce the Wetlands Protection Act to maintain the integrity of the 200’ riverfront area, wetlands and wetland buffer areas.”
Belchertown Wetlands Regulations
These Belchertown Wetlands Regulations, dated May 23, 2006, may provide guidance as Northampton debates its own regulations. It notes the benefits wetlands provide and regulates development that encroaches within 100 feet of a wetland. Developers are required to model watershed behavior during 2-, 10- and 100-year storms. Regulations of vernal pools are integrated into the general discussion of wetlands and buffer zones. This appears to make more sense than treating them separately, which is what Northampton’s City Council is preparing to do on September 6.
Intermittent Streams Merit a 100-Foot Buffer Zone in Hopkinton
Here is a bylaw from Hopkinton’s Wetlands Protection Regulations (PDF) requiring a 100-foot buffer zone around intermittent (and continuous) streams. We note that just such an intermittent stream, Millyard Brook, runs through the heart of the forest behind North Street that Kohl Construction intends to build on.
Attleboro, MA: Evaluating and Protecting Vernal Pools; Stormwater Modeling
Contrast Springfield’s regulations with the ones that will come before Northampton’s City Council on September 6. The latter will encourage development to encroach as close as 10 feet to wetlands in downtown districts, and vernal pool protection is in limbo.
Springfield Wetland Protection Regulations
The purpose of this ordinance is to protect the wetlands, related water resources, and adjoining land areas in the city by prior review and control of activities deemed by the conservation commission to have, or likely to have, an effect or cumulative effect upon wetland values including but not limited to the following: public water supply, private water supply, ground water and ground erosion and sedimentation control, storm damage prevention, prevention of water pollution, fisheries, endangered species, wildlife and wildlife habitat, and aesthetics. (collectively, the “interests protected by this ordinance”)…
Except as permitted by the conservation commission or as provided in this ordinance, no person shall remove, fill, dredge, alter, or build upon or within any of the following resource areas: On or within one hundred (100) feet of any bank, beach, or flat; on or within 100 feet of any fresh water wetland, marsh, meadow, bog, or swamp; upon or within one hundred (100) feet of any lake, pond, river, stream whether intermittent or permanent natural or man-made; upon any land subject to flooding or inundation by ground water or surface water or storm flowage and upon or within one hundred (100) feet of any seasonal or temporary wetland including certified or uncertified but known vernal pools. Any activity proposed or undertaken outside any area specified above shall be subject to regulation under this ordinance if, in the judgment of the conservation commission or its agent, said activity may result or has resulted in the removing, filling, altering, or building upon any area specified above…
A minimum of a fifty (50) foot undisturbed buffer shall be established adjacent to any vegetated wetland, bank, lake, stream or river, intermittent or continuous, natural or artificial and certified or uncertified vernal pools. No work, structures or alterations will be allowed within the fifty (50) foot buffer…
Variances may be granted by the commission allowing work closer than fifty (50) feet when it can be demonstrated by the applicant that work or alterations within the fifty (50) foot buffer will enhance the wetland interests specified under this ordinance…
The applicant for a permit shall have the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that the work proposed in the application will not harm the interests protected by this ordinance. Failure to provide adequate evidence to the commission supporting a determination that the proposed work will not harm the interests protected by this ordinance shall be sufficient cause for the commission to deny a permit…
See also:
Northampton’s Flood and Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan: Floyd Flood Damage Reported Behind View Avenue; Avoid Building on Filled Wetlands
In a table of Existing Mitigation Strategies, the plan includes a “100 foot buffer around wetlands and the wetland resource area itself…” It says this strategy has been “Effective”, and says that an option to improve it would be to “Strengthen Wetland Ordinance”…
One of the “Priority Actions” is to “Consistently enforce the Wetlands Protection Act to maintain the integrity of the 200’ riverfront area, wetlands and wetland buffer areas.”
Belchertown Wetlands Regulations
These Belchertown Wetlands Regulations, dated May 23, 2006, may provide guidance as Northampton debates its own regulations. It notes the benefits wetlands provide and regulates development that encroaches within 100 feet of a wetland. Developers are required to model watershed behavior during 2-, 10- and 100-year storms. Regulations of vernal pools are integrated into the general discussion of wetlands and buffer zones. This appears to make more sense than treating them separately, which is what Northampton’s City Council is preparing to do on September 6.
Intermittent Streams Merit a 100-Foot Buffer Zone in Hopkinton
Here is a bylaw from Hopkinton’s Wetlands Protection Regulations (PDF) requiring a 100-foot buffer zone around intermittent (and continuous) streams. We note that just such an intermittent stream, Millyard Brook, runs through the heart of the forest behind North Street that Kohl Construction intends to build on.
Attleboro, MA: Evaluating and Protecting Vernal Pools; Stormwater Modeling