1996-04-25_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

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' Y'ater 8illlBoard Local government liability The changes would require the state to assist in the defense of and pay any judgements against a local government properly imple- menting the law. De inimus The changes would increase the deminimus (the maximum amount of wetland that can be affected without following the sequencing requirements in the WCA) as follows: In counties with more than 80 percent of their presettlement wetlands re- maining, the changes would: •exempt 10,000 square feet of wetland, except for types 3, 4, 5, and 8, outside of shoreland wetland protection zones (which are defined as 1,000 fee# from a lake and 300 feet from a river or stream). The deminimus would remain 400 square feet within those shoreland wetland protection zones. •allow the local government to increase the deminimus amount within the shoreland wetland protection zones to 1,000 square feet in areas beyond the building setback if the wetland is isolated and is determined to have no surficiai hydrologic connection to the public water. In counties with between 50 and 80 percent of their presettlement wet- lands remaining, the changes would: •exempt 5,000 square feet outside of shoreland wetland protection zones. In counties with less than 50 percent of their presettlement wetlands re- maining, the changes would: . •exempt 2,000 square feet of wetland outside of shoreland wetland protection zones.. Public roads The original BWSR proposal reduced the minimum replacement ratio from 2:1 to 1:1 statewide when replacement was done through restoration. However, based on consensus reached at the Wetlands Roundtable in St. Cloud on January 4 and 5, the BWSR now supports the following. changes: •road authorities would not have to do individual replacement plans if the wetland draining. or filling was the result of repair, maintenance or reha- bilitation of existing roads and the wetland impact was minimized; •creation of a state fund to cover mitigation costs in critical watershed areas; •allowing road authorities to deviate from design and safety standards for environmental protection purposes; and •requiring road authorities to report annually on draining and filling associ- ated with local transportation projects. Agricultural activities The BWSR-supported changes would: •define agricultural land more broadly as: 1) land used for horticultural, row, close grown, pasture, and hayland 2