Draft CAO proposes new wetland exemptions, updated buffers and mitigation protections

Consultant Dan Nickel walked the Planning Commission through the draft wetland provisions of the Critical Areas Ordinance, identifying several substantive changes the county plans to adopt to reflect current state guidance. Key technical changes include a five‑year requirement for ground‑verified wetland delineations; explicit inclusion of vernal pools in wetland ratings; and new regulated‑activity language that adds impacts such as “significant change in water temperature” or “changes in timing, frequency, depth or duration of water” to activities that trigger regulation.

The draft also adds limited exemptions: category 4 wetlands under some conditions and any wetland under 1,000 square feet that meets listed qualifiers would be exempt from buffer standards; category 4 wetlands smaller than 4,000 square feet may qualify for other narrow exemptions. Nickel said the draft updates minimization measures (Table 9.2) that, if implemented, allow certain reduced buffers; if those measures are not implemented, standard buffer Table 9.3 applies. He also said mitigation sites should be placed under long‑term protection (critical area tract or conservation easement) and monitored (a typical monitoring period is five years) to document mitigation performance.

Commissioners did not take final positions on the wetland language and asked staff to circulate the redline draft so they can review specific edits before the public hearing. “If the table 9.2 measures are not implemented, then you defer your wetland buffers to table 9.3,” Nickel said; commissioners asked staff to provide the redline copy for detailed line‑by‑line review.