Commissioner Combee said nobody is suggesting any change to the Core area in the
blue which shows up as being eligible.
Mr. Peterson said it would be eligible to count to the center line of a collector road and
it would be eligible to be measured, the one unit per 20 acres, would be based on that
fraction. He said not all sections are the same size and a lot of property was subdivided
based on the size of the section.
Upon question, Commissioner Combee said this is going in the right direction. He said
if you look at the Core area you can have a 20 acre parcel with less than 19 acres of
wetlands based on current development standards and get a building permit. He said
you can have 10 acres, with 9 acres of uplands and 1 acre of wetlands and you cannot
get a building permit. He said it is illogical. He said he had offered an amendment
because the lowest density outside of the area of critical state of concern is 5 ARR and
it does not have to be 5 acres of uplands it is just 5 acres and if you have enough
uplands you can build on it. He said it does fix it.
Mr. Peterson said what Commissioner Combee is talking about they have it as an
alternative. He said if they want to modify Part B to require a minimum of 5 acres of
uplands in what they subdivide in the ARR. He said staff recommends it being a lot
cleaner just to go with the ordinance because it is very difficult to accurately account for
every square foot of wetlands. He said first you have to get a delineation to get a
surveyor to go out there. He said the Green Swamp is hard to do.
Commissioner Combee said we should rely on the US Fish and Wildlife wetlands map
which is accurate in that part of the county. He said when you put a wetlands map up of
the entire county it is shocking. He said his suggestion is to have a minimum of 5 acres
of wetlands. He asked if it is our call to rely on the US Fish and Wildlife's aerial
mapping.
Mr. Peterson said there are three versions of wetlands that are generalized and are
estimates. He said if you go by our generalized information it is going to be slightly
wrong. He said our policy on wetlands is to have it ground-truthed. He said if you go by
our maps that is the best available data.
Commissioner Combee said it is not the best and the best is to send an environmental
scientist and surveyor out and spend $10,000.
Planning and Development Director John Bohde said we use the best available data
and they can do their own survey but they do not require it. He said we are only
adjusting the Core and the Green Swamp for the whole right-of-way. He said the
upland requirement is in the AAR/X and the upland requirement is saying that we do
not need 10 acres of upland as it is now we can have 10 gross we just need enough
buildable area. He said with Commissioner Combee's proposal they would need 5
acres of upland; he said that is an option.
The Chair opened a public hearing.
Tom Palmer said the map is a lot better now. He asked why you cannot get a variance