By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

Implementing a local freshwater wetlands management program in South
Portland’s code of ordinance could help the city find a balance between
preserving important natural areas and strengthening the local economy,
said City Councilor and Committee Chairman Maxine Beecher.

Committee members, along with a wetland scientist and a planning
consultant appeared before the planning board Tuesday to present a set
of draft amendments to Chapter 24 of the city’s ordinance, which
outlines regulations for the subdivision of land. The amendments will
move forward to a planning board public hearing, which has yet to be
scheduled due to the potential some of the wetland proposals will
overlap with the committee’s future changes to shoreland zoning
regulations.

The nine-member zoning improvement committee was established in 2006
and charged with updating the city’s land use regulations, which had
not been updated in 20 years. Amendments to Chapter 27 of the
ordinance, which outlines zoning regulations, were adopted by the city
council in October, allowing the committee to move forward with
examining wetland regulations and shoreland zoning.

Planning Consultant Mark Eyerman, with the South Portland firm Planning
Decisions, said the proposed freshwater wetland amendments were drafted
to “piggyback” on existing state and federal regulations regarding the
alteration of wetlands. In the case of small-scale alterations, the
proposal would add an additional layer of scrutiny to the existing
regulations.

The purpose of the proposal is to minimize adverse impacts from
residential and commercial development near freshwater wetlands, but if
an alteration cannot be avoided to allow use of a property, changes to
the wetlands must be limited to the minimum amount necessary to
complete the project, according to the draft amendments. If alteration
does occur, developers would be responsible for completing a mitigation
project elsewhere in the city or paying a compensation fee, which would
be put into a fund to protect or enhance other wetlands in the city.
The proposed fee is two dollars per square foot of wetland alteration
for the first 4,300 square feet and four dollars per square foot for
alterations in excess of 4,300 square feet. If the wetland meets the
criteria of a freshwater wetland of special significance (FWOSS),
however, the fees would increase to four dollars and then eight dollars
per square foot.

A FWOSS contains significant wildlife habitat and has been mapped and
identified by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife,
said wetland scientist, Jim Boyle. Eyerman said there is an FWOSS on
Cummings Road that is a significant habitat for waterfowl, but there
are very few such wetlands in the city.

Alteration of an FWOSS requires a permit from the Maine Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP) and locally, requires the developer
provide a 25-foot upland buffer strip along freshwater wetlands and a
50-foot buffer adjacent to a FWOSS or pay a buffer compensation fee.
The proposed fees are $1.50 per square feet for residential projects
and four dollars per square foot for commercial projects with the first
20 percent of the required buffer area exempt from the requirement.

The proposed amendments would not just have an effect on large
commercial projects undergoing planning board review. Anyone living on
a lot with mapped wetlands or wet soils would be required to provide
wetland information to the city as part of the building permit process,
Eyerman said. As part of that information, the landowner would be
responsible for determining if there is a FWOSS on their property and
if there is, the DEP would have to approve the wetland alteration.

Planning Board Member Don Russell favored making landowners accountable
for providing the information, but questioned whether there might be a
way to map the city’s wetlands to make the public aware of where they
are located and also identify areas that maybe should be exempt from
any possibility of development all together.

Members of the planning board and the committee, however, said the
existing wetland data tends to be inaccurate and sending people out
into the field would be too costly.

They also favored moving forward on a case by case basis.

“It won’t be a casual exercise to build on wetlands,” South Portland
Planning Director Tex Haeuser said, adding, at the local level, there
is currently no protection for the city’s wetlands.