Innovative Approaches to Conserving Wetlands
University of Oregon, Environmental Law Conference
Eugene, Oregon
March 3, 1995
Steven C. Gordon, Principal Planner
Originally Presented to Law Seminars International
Lane Council of Governments
125 E. 8th Avenue
Eugene, OR 97401
503-687-4426
FAX 503-687-4099
Wetlands: Federal Changes and Local Challenges
Portland, Oregon
December 16, 1994
Introduction | Why
Prepare a Plan and Inventory? | The Planning
Process | Plan Implementation | How Permitting Will Work | Conclusions
In 1987 when wetlands were identified in western Eugene in the midst of the region's
major industrial area, and when a major electronics firm wanted to expand and discovered
it was surrounded by wetlands, a crisis emerged in the community. Wetlands were identified
as the "problem". As it began to understand and consider the consequences of the
individual wetland permitting processes, the City Council sought a better way of doing
business. After consideration, it chose to prepare a wetland plan which would identify
wetlands in advance and determine, based on study and community involvement, which
wetlands deserved protection and which should be planned for eventual fill and
development.
The planning program began in January 1989. The program included wetland inventories
and evaluation, seven citizen workshops, field trips, newsletters, hundreds of one-on-one
conversations, some field visits to individual properties, development of seven
alternatives, a draft plan, and eventually public hearings before Lane County and City of
Eugene Planning Commissions and the City Council and Board of County Commissioners. In
August 1992, the West Eugene Wetland Plan was adopted by the Council and Commissioners. By
October 1993 when the Plan was submitted to the Oregon Division of State Lands (DSL) and
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), draft implementing ordinances and other detailed
supporting materials had been prepared and a second wetland inventory had been conducted.
In September 1994, the DSL, Corps and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
approved the inventory and the Plan. The Plan was the first "wetland conservation
plan" approved in Oregon. It was also the first plan in the nation to be approved by
EPA and the Corps to be followed with a streamlined permitting process, known as the
"abbreviated processing procedure" (APP) and "letter of permission"
(LOP) as approved by the Corps in November 1994.
The main strength of the West Eugene Wetlands Plan is that it puts conservation and
development decisions within a context; it adds certainty for environmental and
development interests. This paper will describe why the plan approach was chosen over the
individual permitting approach, what local implementation tools are being proposed and
applied, and how wetland permitting will occur based on the Plan.
In the absence of an inventory and a plan, wetland decisions are made on a case-by-case
basis. While soil mapping, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service National Wetland Inventory
maps, and air photographs can give some indication of potential wetland presence and
extent, these tools are not sufficient to make site determinations (is it a wetland
subject to state and federal jurisdiction?), delineations (where are the wetland
boundaries?), or a decision to protect or develop the wetland. Furthermore, individual
permit decisions are made in an incremental manner. Impacts of permit decisions
(individual and cumulative) can lead to loss of wetland functions. What is the relative
worth of the wetland at issue compared to other wetlands in the vicinity or region? When compensation for loss of wetlands is achieved, is the
mitigation site of benefit to other resources; is it in a good location to serve as part
of a natural system or to serve public values? Is there a guarantee that the permit
decision will be made in a timely manner? Will the permit be issued at all? Will each
owner/developer be successful in finding the right combination of scientist, engineer,
attorney, planner to weave through the permitting maze successfully?
An inventory, even at the planning level, can help add certainty about wetland
locations and their approximate extent and configuration. With owner permission, more
detailed boundaries can be determined. Even without a plan, this information can add a
greater level of certainty in a developing area. The community, regulators, and owners
have a pretty good idea about which areas contain wetlands and which don't. With an
assessment of the wetlands, some information about relative values can be obtained. The
question about what to do with the wetlands still remains after the inventory phase.
Developing the plan can assist in answering that question. Under Oregon's wetland
program, wetlands can be placed in a protection, conservation, or development category. In
the West Eugene Wetland Plan, criteria for protection and for development were applied to
each inventoried wetland unit (based on one or more wetlands within a common drainage
system). The plan can consider many factors from environmental to human. Environmental
factors include flood storage and floodplain relationships, habitat functions, individual
species (including endangered, threatened and other sensitive species), water quality, and
the relationships between surface and groundwater. Human factors include land use and
zoning patterns, investments in infrastructure, buildable land inventory impacts, existing
and future adjacent land uses, and recreational, educational, and open space values.
The plan can provide a more comprehensive view of wetlands in a larger context. Other
popular terms used to describe the planning approach include ecosystem management,
watershed management, holistic planning, sustainable development, and a landscape
perspective. Basically they take the same approach; how do the little parts fit into the
larger whole - how do the various systems (physical and human) relate to each other?
In Eugene, the City Council provided the following objectives for the wetlands study:
The process contained several steps that are summarized here:
The process involved the Eugene Planning Commission as the policy recommending body.
The City's committee on citizen involvement approved the citizen involvement program. The
City of Eugene contracted with the Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) to be project
manager for plan development. An interdepartmental and interagency staff team did the bulk
of the work. A technical advisory committee of -state and federal agency representatives
provided gudiance and review to the staff team. No citizen task force was formed; instead
an active outreach program focused on workshops was used to inform and receive comments
from citizens. The Wetland Plan was prepared as a refinement plan to the City's
comprehensive land use plan, requiring it to go through the Land Conservation and
Development Commission's post-acknowledgment review and approval process.
The West Eugene Wetland Plan was being implemented before it was ever formally adopted.
Examples include: 1) successful individual wetland permits that relied upon the
inventories and draft recommendations; 2) selection of private mitigation sites identified
through the planning process; and 3) federal funding to purchase wetlands from willing
sellers.
This latter point is a significant one which may not be replicated in every community.
Through a well organized lobbying effort, the City obtained appropriations and grants from
EPA and DLCD/DSL to prepare the plan as a national model and to conduct inventories. The
City matched these funds with general fund revenues and sewer funds to support studies and
plan development. The federal lobbying effort resulted in appropriation of $1.97 million
in Land & Water Conservation Funds to the Eugene District of the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM), U.S. Department of the Interior. BLM owned a parcel in west Eugene where
it planned to place a new office building. Upon discovery of wetlands and federally listed
rare plants on the site, BLM built elsewhere, but this parcel became the anchor for BLM's
land acquisition program. By the end of 1994, a total of $4.47 million had been
appropriated to BLM for land acquisition over four consecutive fiscal years.
In addition, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) purchased lands at its Willow Creek Natural
Area after more than a decade of managing this area through lease arrangements with
private owners. Currently, the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has purchased options
on 125 acres adjacent to the TNC holdings at Willow Creek and may participate in wildlife
habitat restoration as part of the Northwest Power Planning Act. Another public player in
the wetlands arena was the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). With planned
improvements to one state highway in the region and planning for a new highway extension,
ODOT began a cooperative land acquisition program in conjunction with BLM. By cooperating
with each other, confusion among owners was reduced. ODOT has also worked cooperatively
with West Eugene Wetland planners on its wetland mitigation projects.
In February 1994, the City, BLM, and TNC had formed a management partnership to develop
a shared management responsibility for the wetlands.
Other projects in the planning stages include a two mile stream restoration along
Amazon Creek, the major stream draining the study area, and bicycle path extension using
the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) enhancement funds -over $2
million, and a Corps' Water Resources Development Act, section 1135, project to widen
lower Amazon Creek and to restore wetland habitats that were damaged by earlier Corps
projects in the region - a $5 million project. Both of these projects require local match
provided by the City of Eugene.
In response to federal and state mandates, the City of Eugene prepared its permit for
reducing non-point storm runoff. In addition, the City adopted a Comprehensive Stormwater
Management Plan (CSWMP) in Novmember 1993. CSWMP is unique in that it integrates
floodplain managment, stormwater conveyance, water quality purification, and natural
resources protection and management into one program within the public works department.
The method of charging for the storm portion of the sewer fee was changed from water meter
size to amount of impervious surface. This shifted more of the funding to industrial and
commercial users and away from residential users. The change also generated over $2
million in additional revenues to fund the stormwater and wetlands programs within the
city.
Other implementation tools included:
With approval of the inventory and plan by the DSL, Corps and EPA in September,
conditions and concerns raised by state and federal agencies and the public review and
comments are being reflected in the draft ordinances. Those ordinances are now going
through planning commission and elected official public hearings with adoption targeted
for early 1995. At that time, the West Eugene Wetlands Plan will be in full effect and
local, state and federal actions will use the plan as the blueprint for future decisions.
Return to Top There are four keys to the wetland permitting process:
Developing a wetland plan is not necessary in every situation. It serves a better
purpose in urban regions where development needs and wetland conservation appear to be in
conflict and some balance can be struck. Developing the plan takes hard work, and
implementing the plan is even harder. Because it takes several years to develop and
implement a plan, change is inevitable - changes in laws, rules and personnel are certain
to occur. So an important part of the process is adjusting to change.
But, the payoff is potentially great. A comprehensive plan can result in a balance
between protection and development; realizing that the balance is skewed toward
protection. Wetlands are important links between water resources and our land base.
Involving the community includes education, honest debate, and compromise. Often, these
things do not come easily. Human needs and natural values are important. The plan, with
its inventories, maps, goals and policies provides direction. With vision, a dream can be
captured with enough detail to make it come true.
The plan can deal with more than wetlands. The West Eugene Wetlands Plan is a multiple
objective plan which addresses issues in floodplain managment, recreation, urban
development, rare species, habitat management, scenic and open space values. It also deals
with infrastructure issues.
Just scanning the acroymns used in this paper gives some idea of the number of players
involved in the process. Over 150 land owners, over 1,000 names on the interested parties
mailing list, many state and federal agencies, and many local agencies and organizations
were involved. The Plan was adopted or approved by the City of Eugene, Lane county, DLCD,
DSL, BLM, Corps and EPA. It takes a level of trust for that many diverse organizations to
approve a locally prepared plan. The partnerships being formed to implement the plan hold
hope that a new way of doing business is possible. More partners are expected to join in
the managment of the system over time.
While the state permit gets issued by the City with DSL oversight, and while the Corps
still makes the ultimate decision on the federal wetland permit with EPA oversight in a
streamlined manner, individual permits are still issued. The difference is that the plan
provides an advance view of the ultimate decision. Certainty and shorter decision making
are the positive outcomes of the planning process.
Most importantly, the plan can be the framework for future decisions. We never know all
we want to know about complex systems and interrelationships affecting wetlands, but based
on
the best knowledge we have, and a broad view of the big picture, individual,
incremental decisions can be based on a plan. That plan can be amended over time to
reflect new information and new laws. The amendment process may not be easy, but what else
about wetlands is?
In Eugene, Oregon, the West Eugene Wetland Plan is being implemented and can be a model
for other areas. In the near future, a 2,500 acre open space system will exist where
protected and restored wetlands border the creeks and streams in the drainage basin. Some
created wetlands will treat stormwater pollution. When the next big flood affects Amazon
Creek, floodwaters will spread onto adjacent wetlands and lessen property damage.
Businesses will choose to locate near this wetland area. The 214,000 citizens of the
Eugene-Springfield region will have a wetland natural area available to them to enjoy in a
variety of ways. Students, young and old, can use the area as an outdoor laboratory.
Research by scientists and university students will be conducted through the University of
Oregon, Oregon State Univsersity and other institutions.
The future looks bright for the West Eugene Wetlands Program; through a planning
approach to a wetlands crisis, an opportunity has been created.
LCOG:
L:\WETLANDS\LAWSEM.DOC
Introduction
Why Prepare a Plan and Inventory?
Use the best information
available and affordable to help the community understand the choices available,
Find a balance between
protection and development that meets state and federal laws,
Provide opportunities for
involvement of all interested segments of the community in Plan development, and
Turn a perceived
"wetlands problem" into an opportunity.
The Planning Process
Plan Implementation
A local wetland permitting
process (to begin when the City assumes the State wetland permitting function),
A draft wetland mitigation
manual (describes ratios of replacement, cost formulas, and management of the mitigation
bank),
A draft natural resources
zoning district (with provisions for varying width buffers to protect adjacent wetlands
based on the value of the adjacent wetland and the management techniques used by the
property owner),
A draft waterside protection
ordinance (with setbacks of varying widths depending on the nature of the stream or water
feature to be protected), and
A draft memorandum of
understanding (MOU) among BLM, City, and TNC for the joint management of the wetlands.
How Permitting Will Work
Conclusions
Last Saved: February 23, 1995