Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Wetlands Regulation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County planner outlines changes to New York wetlands rules, urges municipal outreach
Summary
Tompkins County planning staff outlined how recent New York State Department of Environmental Conservation rule changes replace jurisdictional wetlands maps with informational maps and require property‑level jurisdictional determinations, and described outreach the county has done for municipalities.
Darby Kiley, associate planner in the Tompkins County Department of Planning and Sustainability, told the county Planning, Energy and Environmental Quality Committee on July 14 that New York State Department of Environmental Conservation changes to freshwater wetlands regulation now treat DEC maps as informational only and require jurisdictional determinations for potential wetlands on a property.
Kiley said the DEC process requires an applicant to request a jurisdictional determination; the DEC has 90 days to respond, and if DEC does not respond within that period an applicant may send a certified letter and, after a further 10 days without a reply, receive a negative jurisdictional determination. “So if you’re going to build a house and that shows an informational wetland on it, you actually need to get a jurisdictional determination,” Kiley said.
The change moves enforcement away from a simple map-based test used under the prior approach, Kiley said, and expands DEC permitting focus to “wetlands of unusual importance.” The county planning department has shared the DEC informational webinars and a DEC question‑and‑answer document with municipalities and asked municipalities to post DEC’s Q&A where residents can find it.
Committee members asked how the rule change would affect builders and local permitting. One member reported a builder’s frustration that the new approach adds time; Kiley said it is likely to add process and delay in some cases, noting she could not say whether the new rules would make construction categorically “difficult” but that they can increase time and permit steps.
Kiley said the department can schedule additional informational webinars or continue one‑on‑one outreach for municipalities that request help understanding the DEC guidance. She emphasized that enforcement remains with DEC and that municipalities should use DEC materials and the DEC jurisdictional‑determination tools when reviewing development proposals.
County planning staff offered to coordinate additional outreach with the DEC and to support municipalities that ask for help. The presentation was informational; the committee did not take a formal vote or adopt a policy during the meeting.
