Letter: Conservation Commission Proposes Revised Wetlands Bylaw

The following is a letter to the editor:

The Burlington Conservation Commission is proposing a revised wetlands bylaw (Article XIV, Section 1.0) for approval by our May 2013 Town Meeting.  The current bylaw, last revised in 2000, is lacking in many areas of resource area protection.  The Commission's intent is to protect Burlington’s natural resource areas while simplifying and streamlining the development permitting process for applicants.

The Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act provides protection for the “Riverfront Area”, defined as an area of land 200 feet from the edge of a perennial stream. Riverfront Area provides natural flood storage, slowing down surface water runoff and limiting property damage caused by storm events.  Maintaining land along rivers in its natural state contributes to higher infiltration capacity, increasing the yield to our Town water supply wells.  Mature vegetation within the Riverfront Area provides shade to moderate water temperatures and slow algal growth, which can result in unpleasant odors or flavors in our drinking water.  The Riverfront Area provides food, breeding habitat, shelter during migration, and overwintering areas for wetland and upland species of mammals, birds and amphibians.  The fragile headwaters of the Ipswich River and the Mystic River are within Burlington and more than half of the town contributes to the Shawsheen River providing drinking water to many communities, including Burlington.

The Commission has typically not made a determination as to the perennial or intermittent status of streams and instead looks for improvements along all stream corridors – a performance standard for Riverfront Area – when development is proposed.

State regulations provide that an applicant may rebut the presumption that a stream is perennial, but to do so must hire consultants at his or her own expense. This permitting burden can be costly and time-consuming to an applicant. The Commission is attempting to ease the added cost and schedule burden by clearly defining those streams that are perennial and likely perennial and thus presumed to have Riverfront Area.  These streams will be based on named streams and their main tributaries and will be clearly depicted on a designated map, which will be made available to the public for review prior to Town Meeting. 

The Commission will administer the bylaw exactly as it has the State Riverfront area regulations.  The Commission reviews a project to determine that (1) no practicable alternative to the proposed project exists with less adverse effects, and that (2) the project with proposed mitigation measures will have no significant adverse impact on the resource area.  The Commission has a long history of working with each applicant (both homeowner and business community) to achieve some practical Riverfront Area restoration as part of the permitting process.

For more information, you are invited to attend our next hearing on this bylaw at 7:00 p.m. on January 24, 2013.  You may also read the draft bylaw at http://www.burlington.org/community_development/conservation.php

The Conservation Commission is thankful for your continued support for its efforts to best serve the Burlington community through continued protection of our precious natural resources.

Respectfully submitted,

Larry Cohen, Chairman on behalf of the

Burlington Conservation Commission