During our meeting on 3/3, the Committee on Government Regulations voted unanimously to amend Chapter 13 Wetlands. Proposed changes were made in consultation with the chair of the Conservation Committee. Specific changes include:
- Clarifying the purpose of the bylaw;
- Correcting spelling errors;
- Expanding jurisdiction of the bylaw to include "any work in a resource area defined under the Wetlands Protection Act or these bylaws that impacts wildlife or the ability of a resource area to serve as a wildlife habitat;"
- Expanding jurisdiction of the bylaw to include "any work in a resource area defined under the Wetlands Protection Act or these bylaws that reduces the ability of that resource area to mitigate the effects of a changing climate or to provide resilience to the impacts of a changing climate;"
- Adding electronic communication as a means of communication in addition to mail; and
- Deleting the table of permit fees from the bylaw and noting that the table of fees are included in the regulations to this bylaw.
Please note that new Sections 1(g) and 1(h) were flagged by Town Counsel as expanding the jurisdiction of the current wetlands bylaw. Town Counsel also noted that a local wetlands bylaw may be written to exceed the jurisdiction beyond that of the state wetlands protection.
A PDF of the amended chapter, as voted, may be found here:
