Riparian Buffers temporarily extended to 75 feet for all streams

Dec. 6. Back in September, 2000 the first issue tackled by the newly formed Athens Grow Green Coalition was riparian buffer protection. We advocated for the application of 75 foot buffers to all perennial streams in the county, to protect water quality and lower drinking water treatment costs. We were delighted when the Commission narrowly adopted such a measure - at least, we thought they had. As happened with many other provisions of the new Zoning and Development Standards during that period, changes were made, but not publicized, to the proposal that severely weakened its impact. It was only after the standards had been adopted that we discovered that the proposal had been changed so that these buffers would only be applied to streams that appeared on the ACC Environmental Areas Map, which left numerous streams with only the state-mandated 25 foot buffers, not enough width to protect them from degradation.

At their December meeting, the ACC Commission voted to extend 75 foot riparian buffer protection to all perennial streams, including those not listed on the Environmental Areas Map, while the citizen Stormwater Advisory Committee comes up with a plan that would tailor buffer widths to individual stream characteristics.

Thanks to Commissioner David Lynn for spearheading this effort, and to Commissioners John Barrow, Carl Jordan, Kathy Hoard, States McCarter, Tom Chasteen, and Cardee Kilpatrick for voting in favor. Also to Mayor Heidi Davison for breaking the tie in favor of moving forward with the vote this month, rather than tabling it; and to our colleagues at UOWN for their successful effort to bring this issue before the Commission.

Read Commissioner David Lynn's editorial on this issue in the Dec. 27, 2003 Athens Banner-Herald.