Time for the Stafford Planning Commission to amend a proposed wetlands protection ordinance has expired.
But commissioners say they aren't convinced the current product will be the most effective way to limit pollution going into the Chesapeake Bay.
They voted unanimously last night to refer the ordinance to the Board of Supervisors with suggested modifications.
The ordinance, called the Water Resources Protection Overlay District, would require more and wider buffers around streams, especially those next to steep slopes and highly erodible soils. County officials plan to approve guidelines for water protection, then decide which properties will be impacted.
Landowners revolted against the proposal at a hearing last month. They accused the county of trying to slow growth and devalue their land.
But environmentalists still argue that the devastating impacts to property values won't be nearly as bad as the county's water quality, if the ordinance doesn't pass.
Planning commissioners have been equally divided. Several have pledged to amend the ordinance, balancing both sides of opinion.
Commissioner Ken Mitchell said in a committee meeting last week that the proposed ordinance seemed to consider new pollution problems, but not existing ones.
"You can put a Band-Aid on this, but you need heart surgery on the other items," he said.
Commissioners said the ordinance should be amended to include more definitions, strict enforcement and site specific design standards. Some suggested that additional regulations, such as erosion and sediment controls, should complement or replace the overlay district proposal.
Supervisors, however, gave commissioners just a month to make changes.
"We are consciously, effectively trying to give them an ordinance that we want, and its not going to be ready in 30 days," said Commissioner Arch DiPeppe, at a committee meeting about the proposal last week.
Landowners and environmentalists served on that committee. They said the county needs more engineering, science and economic information to determine the next step for the overlay district.
"Just putting a buffer in many areas is not going to solve the problem," said Mike Rolband, president of Wetlands Studies and Solutions in Gainesville, at the committee meeting.
He explained that a natural vegetation buffer filters some runoff. But other measures, such as erosion and sediment control systems, are needed to further protect watersheds from development.
Rolband's water, natural and cultural resources consulting firm created a map showing that the overlay ordinance could impact about 65,477 of the county's 177,280 acres, if applied countywide. Currently required stream buffers affect just 8,754 acres.
"[The ordinance] just looks to me like a big hammer. It's hard to understand the purpose of it," he said. "It's easy to write an ordinance with words, but no one knows what those words mean until you make a map."
But environmentalist and committee member Nan Rollison said Rolband's map delivers a different message to her.
"That map says we have a lot of steep slopes and wetlands that need protection, and that we need to be careful with how we go forward and develop Stafford County," she said.
County officials say they have no intention of including the entire county in an overlay district.
To reach MEGHANN COTTER:
Email: mcotter@freelancestar.com
| 'You can put a Band-Aid on this, but you need heart surgery on the other items.' Ken Mitchell Stafford commissioner |