Lessons from a far away jurisdiction may be pertinent..... In its own bollixed bureaucratic fashion, MA has coordinated the health codes with wetlands protection for decades so that there are, in MA, statewide uniform regulations such as Ithaca is now proposing. Where to site a leach field is obviously a concern but the authority now extends to such minutiae as merely disturbing native vegetation in damp areas.
http://www.mass.gov/dep/water/laws/title5.htm --who enforces?-- in MA, unfunded town conservation commissions are charged with reviewing all development site plans and, if they deem appropriate, calling in the state agencies. Small towns just hope to find persons who care, are skilled and will work for nothing on these commissions. Developers HATE this and often have projects get hung up in red tape. But it happens to precisely the most negligent developers whose careless attitude toward environment did the damage that prompted the laws in the first place...I have no quarrel with the effectiveness of such regulation as regards the good done for the environment. The apartment dwellers of urban areas who lovingly imagine a world safe for salamanders and frogs LOVE these laws. The state similarly has very strict and thorough regulation of any development that bridges a stream, even an intermittent stream. Its actually just common sense and if you have property with a stream you really ought to just read the rules. http://www.mass.gov/dep/water/laws/wlhappe.pdf To increase the likelihood that people won't blow off the law and its enforcement by sheer ignorance, the state puts up high resolution GIS depicting all the kinds of protected wetlands in the state: vernal pools, streams, ponds, tidal marshes are treated to special burdens of regulation. Extremely valuable info if you are shopping for land! http://www.mass.gov/mgis/mapping.htm In practice however, inequities creep into the system. The more desirable land for the homes of the rich and heedless tend to be near rivers, oceans and beaches...but in the end they are still the only class that can afford the ecological studies and wetlands surveys and engineering fees and filings that the state laws mandated. When I have called MA DEP authorities and town Conservation Commission members to discuss properties and wound up the conversation with the conclusion "So what it comes down to is that only a rich person could live near this stream", they feel a little hurt but sigh with resigned recognition of the effect of their programs. The one thing these laws wound up being was the "full employment for certified wetlands surveyors" act. Ithaca can probably do better. The NY DEC is not quite so heavy handed as the MA DEP but in the end environmental considerations cost money and can hardly avoid having a greater dissuading effect on those who have less money. -George -- freedom is not more important than fairness and much easier to fake. _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
