Logan Council pauses changes to critical-lands rules after hours of public comment on wetlands, riparian buffers and flood risk

Mike Desimone, a city planning staff member, opened a public hearing on Ordinance 25-11, saying the proposal would amend the city—ritical-lands overlay (Chapter 17.24 of the Land Development Code) to clarify how the city regulates wetlands, floodplains and riparian areas. "We're gonna talk about, ordinance 25 11. It's a proposal to amend the critical lands overlay zone in chapter 17 24 of the land development code," Desimone said, and walked the council through differences between perception and mapped delineations for wetlands and the 100-year floodplain.

The proposed changes would, in many built-up areas, replace the code's three-tier riparian buffer (0-50, 50-100 and 100-150 feet with a 100-foot building setback) with a single 25-foot riparian buffer measured from the ordinary high-water mark. The draft also clarifies that wetland protections apply only to jurisdictional wetlands recognized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, requires wetlands delineations only when a project is within roughly 100 feet of the national wetland inventory mapping, and narrows certain clearing limits and nonconforming-structure rules.

The nut…