There are two reasons that the rural area was included: 1) the amount of land available for mitigation within the Metropolitan Plan boundary just barely meets the acreage needs for mitigation to off-set the amount of lands to compensate for wetlands to be developed. If any of those property owners choose to not participate in the program, additional mitigation sites will be needed. It was also contemplated that the west Eugene area could meet other regional mitigation needs (for example, from the airport or county road projects in the general region). Without the rural portion of the Plan available for possible mitigation, west Eugene is not likely to have enough mitigation land to meet regional needs. and 2) At the early public workshops, citizens suggested a wetland corridor along the Amazon connecting west Eugene with Fern Ridge Reservoir.

No. There is no recommendation to change the land use designation or zoning through the Lane County Rural Comprehensive Plan on the lands shown on Map No. 4. If a willing seller sold property to the BLM as part of the wetland system, then the property could be redesignated to a natural resource or open space designation and rezoned accordingly. Because the impact on the secondary study area was to allow for wetlands mitigation through restoration, enhancement or creation, because most of the affected region is planned and zoned for farm use, and because wetlands restoration, enhancement and creation are allowed uses on land zoned for farm use under Oregon Revised Statutes 215, no change to the Rural Comprehensive Plan was needed for consistency with the draft Wetlands Plan.

No. The draft Plan does not place any new restrictions on private land in the secondary study area. Only restrictions which already apply from County, state or federal laws and regulations would govern allowable or prohibited uses. Normal farming and forestry practices can continue under the draft Plan. The portion of the Wetlands Plan affecting the secondary study area shows an area where there is an opportunity for willing sellers to begin negotiations to sell property or easements to BLM.

No. Most of the wetland restoration or enhancement envisioned in the secondary study area would be for replacement of prairie type wetlands which are seasonal in nature. Those wetlands tend to be saturated or slightly inundated in the winter and early spring, but are not as deep as a pond or marsh. Hydrological changes would not be made that impact adjacent lands in a negative way.

No. The identification of lands in the secondary study area involved analysis of existing information (hydric (wetland type) soils from SCS, federal National Wetland Inventory maps, historic wetlands from the 1852-3 Government Land Surveys, and elevations from topographic maps). No on-site or off-site evaluation of wetlands was conducted in the secondary study area. The Plan does NOT identify any jurisdictional wetlands (wetlands that meet state and federal definitions and would fall under permitting requirements). A more detailed field study would need to be completed to determine whether jurisdictional wetlands existed in the rural portion of the Plan.

No. The BLM's Land & Water Conservation Funds would be used to purchase land or conservation easements only from willing sellers. The acquisition process involves an independent appraisal to determine fair market value of the land. Even then, the owner must be agreeable to the offer sale price before a land transaction can occur. A action from the U.S. Congress would be required before ELM could use condemnation powers to acquire land.

No takings result when there are no additional regulations placed on the land and implementing the draft Plan relies on acquisition from willing sellers at a fair market value.

No. The draft Wetland Plan recognizes the route of the Amazon-Fern Ridge bicycle path negotiated when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers adopted the Fern Ridge Master Plan. That route follows the north bank of the Amazon Channel to Fir Butte Road and then follows County road rights -of-way to Orchard Point Park.

No. When a parcel or portion of a parcel is purchased by BLM, it is intended that the purchase would include enough land so a buffer can be formed between adjacent land and the restored or enhanced wetland. Buffers have been an effective way of mitigating the impacts from normal farming and forestry practices in most instances. However, the trend in the federal Clean Water Act has been to impose stricter and stricter standards over time on water pollution. There may be a future law or regulation which places additional controls on non-point sources (surface runoff of stormwater), but those regulations would take place with or without the draft Wetland Plan.

Yes. You can sell to another private party. There is nothing in the draft Plan which says you are required to sell only to BLM.

The plan does two things:

1. It shows areas that have hydric or wetland type soils that were once wetlands on Concept Map No. 4. These areas are lands that may be suitable for wetlands restoration in the future, and;

2. It allows a willing owner to sell areas which are suitable for restoration to the Bureau of Land Management or a non-profit conservation organization. This restoration could then become part of the west Eugene Wetland Plan's mitigation program.

The concept for the mitigation bank is as follows:

1. Lands with hydric soils will be purchased and a design plan for wetland enhancement, restoration or creation will be developed. Hydrological changes, regrading, and replanting would take place. As these wetland improvements are made, credits for acres and functions would be accounted for as if a deposit in the mitigation bank. When a wetland slated for development requires a fill permit, the developer (public or private) could come to the bank and pay for a withdrawal in the amount necessary to compensate for the loss due to the fill activity. By combining the bank with a regional permit system, the development community and owners can save in two ways: 1) time for obtaining a permit will be reduced and certainty will be increased; and 2) to the degree that BLM funds are used to acquire the land, the cost for mitigation can be reduced.

2. It would also be possible for private parties to restore, enhance or create wetlands to be used in the bank The draft Plan requires that mitigation take place in accordance with the Plan. A private party would be free to market those sites to developers. However, there are likely to be steps required that would place additional requirements on these transactions through the permitting process. Two major obligations are likely to be: 1) a requirement for a five year period of maintenance, monitoring and readjustment of the mitigation wetland site; and 2) some assurance that the mitigation wetland site will be protected as a wetland in the long term (a natural resource zone, open space zone, or some other legal instrument which will satisfy state and federal authorities that the replacement wetland will not be allowed to be converted to a non-wetland use once the permit period expires.

The advantages of a mitigation bank are that private, local, state, and federal dollars can be pooled to solve the wetland impacts on development, compensation would be in advance of fill and development to add certainty and predictability to the wetland permitting process, and assurance will be provided that the resulting wetland system works together better than a fragmented system does.

No. Detailed inventories were conducted within the Metropolitan Plan portion of the area, but no such inventories were conducted in the secondary study area as part of the wetland planning process. The recent request for access to private lands to search for rare plants was made only to owners within the primary study area (Metro Plan area) who have wetlands recommended for development. Before those wetlands are issued a wetland development permit, such an inventory will have to be undertaken, in all likelihood. This region contains the habitat for a federally listed endangered plant, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must consider the possibility of that plant's existence during its permitting process. If a regional permit is obtained from the Army Corps of Engineers for the west Eugene region, it is anticipated that the regional permit will carry a condition requiring documentation of whether that rare plant occurs on a site.

Private actions on land can continue. Unless there is a federal action associated with the use that carries a link to the Endangered species Act (for example, an economic development loan, a Corps wetland permit, or a federally funded highway project), there are no restrictions on private actions. See also the answer to #12 above.

The Plan should not decrease property values for three reasons: 1) Wetlands have not been determined; 2) It has not caused any rezoning or Rural Comprehensive Plan redesignation; and 3) It has not placed additional restrictions on uses now allowed (for example, normal farm or forest practices). Furthermore, the Plan should improve values because it creates a market for lands meeting certain criteria. Also, there is likely to be a market for wetlands restoration. That market and need should increase the land values. When willing sellers negotiate with ELM and a fair market appraisal is conducted, the market for wetlands restoration should be taken into account by the appraiser.

Property owners should always be cautious of individuals who might try to use the Plan, wetlands law, or other reasons to frighten owners by claims of devaluation. Until the first transactions are conducted, few people understand the value of potential wetland restoration sites or the value of a wetland.

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5-02-92

WHAT IS THE WEST EUGENE WETLAND SPECIAL AREA STUDY DRAFT PLAN? WHO PREPARED IT? WHY WAS IT DONE? WHY DOES IT GO OUT TOWARD FERN RIDGE?

The West Eugene Wetlands Special Area Study (WEWSAS) Draft Plan was prepared by the City of Eugene through a contract with the Lane Council of Governments from 1989 to 1992. It was prepared to address conflicts between environmental and development issues when wetlands were discovered in west Eugene in 1987. It also responds to federal and state laws and regulations governing wetlands.

The discovery of wetlands in west Eugene impacted the City's (and County's) largest future industrial area. There are more than $20 million of investment in public facilities in this region. The options for changing other land uses within the Metropolitan Plan's urban growth boundary or expanding the urban growth boundary are limited and difficult. Any change to the urban-growth boundary would likely affect farm and forest lands and require additional investments in limited public facility dollars. The uncertainty and difficulty of getting individual wetland permits beceme evident through the Spectra-Physics experience in 1988. As a result, the City Council decided that preparation of a wetland plan could add certainty to the process that current state and federal permitting programs lacked. Furthermore, the Council concluded that such a plan could address multiple objectives and could turn a community problem into a solution with many positive aspects.

The draft Wetlands Plan is divided into primaiy and secondary study areas: 1) the primary study area is within the Metropolitan Plan boundary. Within this study area, owners and other interested citizens were involved early on and throughout the study. Detailed mapping of wetlands and their characteristics were taken into account. In this portion of the study, policies and recommendations about individual sites were made in the draft Plan. Those recommendations include specific designations on Map No. 3 with indications about which wetlands should be protected, developed, or used for enhancement or restoration and how these sites relate to one another. The Plan addresses a variety of issues including wetlands protection, development, flood control, water quality, rare plant protection, wildlife habitat, recreation, open space, stormwater conveyance, education, and wetland mitigation.

In 1991 the secondary study area was added to the Plan. These lands were included to provide additional areas where wetland mitigation was a high probability. Unlike the primary study area, these lands were not inventoried for wetland status. Areas with hydric (wetland type) soils were mapped along with historic wetlands, floodplains, elevations, and the federal National Wetland Inventory to identify areas within the larger study area where wetlands enhancement and restoration might occur. These areas are shown on Map No. 4, the Concept Map in the draft Plan. With a federal appropriation of Land and Water Conservation funds to the Bureau of land Management (BLM), the intent in the secondary study area was to seek willing sellers who would be willing to sell land or conservation easements for purposes of inclusion in a regional mitigation system. The regional mitigation system was considered important as it could provide mitigation for both urban and rural needs within the Amazon Creek Basin. The concept plan map (No. 4) illustrates opportunities for future wetland restoration along the Amazon, "A" Channel, and east edge of Fern Ridge Reservoir and along Coyote Creek south of Cantrel Road. Map No. 5 illustrates the priorities for acquisition for the entire study area. Maps 4 and 5 combined are intended to show nothing more than properties that are eligible for willing sale as part of the overall wetland concept.

In the secondary study area of the draft Wetlands Plan:

1. The draft Wetland Plan identifies areas where wetlands restoration could occur in the region shown on Map No. 4.

2. The draft Wetlands Plan allows acquisition of private land from willing sellers. Before purchase, a site specific evaluation of the property would have to occur. If found suitable for the wetlands protection or restoration program and slated for purchase from a willing seller, an appraisal and negotiated sales agreement would have to be completed between the owner and the purchaser (which could be a federal agency or a non-profit organization).

3. If purchased as part of the regional wetland system, then the property could be redesignated as a natural area or as open space in the Lane County Rural Comprehensive Plan; it could be rezoned accordingly; and restoration of wetlands could occur (most likely to prairie grassland or ash forest with some ponds in certain places).

4. As part of the wetland restoration effort, buffers would be purchased and constructed so that activities occurring on the adjoining uplands would be compatible with the wetland resources.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SET UP AN APPOINTMENT TO DISCUSS THE PLAN FURTHER, PLEASE CALL:

For general information: Steve Gordon or Tim Bingham, at the Lane Council of governments, 687-4283 or Neil Bjorklund, City of Eugene Plannirig, 687-5481 or Mike Copely, Lane County Land Management Division, 687-3807.

For property acquisition information: Daniel Bowman, Bureau of Land Management, 683-6413.

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5-20-92