Beware of council’s new storm water ordinance, all you property owners
by Jerry Sternbergpublished August 9, 2007 12:15 am
Attention, property owners — this is an alert. If you own property in the city of Ashe-ville or the one-mile extra- territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) adjacent to a river, stream, lake or have a creek as small as a garden hose running through your land, your property rights are in serious jeopardy.
Your City Council is preparing to pass an ordinance it calls the “Storm and Water Erosion Control Ordinance Revision,” with the stealth and secrecy that would make the CIA proud. This ordinance could render much of your land or house lot unusable and you have not been informed.
While council is big on citizen input, it has really kept this under the radar, as members know that if citizens understand what this will do to their property they will be at City Hall by the thousands screaming for redress.
The purpose of this act is to address storm water runoff and improve water quality in our rivers and streams, which is certainly desirable.
This is for the common good, but it penalizes only property owners who are affected — without compensation.
What it means
The ordinance mandates an undisturbed buffer of 50 feet on either side of any lake or running water.
This could mean that if you had a house and you wanted to add a porch, additional room, storage shed or even pave your driveway and it required construction of any kind in this restricted area, you would be prohibited from doing so.
Source: Asheville Citizen-Times
Hat Tip: PO and KR
Commentary
The ordinance mandates an undisturbed buffer of 50 feet on either side of any lake or running water.
Land Confiscation is what it amounts to.
Folks, its the same song, second verse, this time sung by loacl greenie weenies because the state greenie weenies couldn't get it done.
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4 comments :
Mr. Sternberg means well, I'm sure. But he's misinforming readers with his lopsided Op/Ed.
Link to the draft stormwater ordinance
While boring as hell, the ordinance is written in pretty plain english. In it you'll find oodles of exemptions for circumstances like those Mr. Sternberg describes above.
Further, Mr. Sternberg misrepresents the Council's process in creating this draft. He acts as though it was done under cover of darkness. The facts are entirely different:
City: “In 2006 the city established a watershed policy committee of stakeholders to provide input into the ordinance revision process. The group has been reconvened to make recommendations regarding specific key elements of the stormwater and related erosion control ordinances. The recommendations and proposed ordinances will be heard at the June 26 City Council meeting.
Update: Council will take action on the revised ordinance at their July 24 meeting.”
Who were these stakeholders?
Barber Melton - Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods
Starr Silvis - NC DENR
David Herbert - Property Owner
Jeff Van Hartsfeld - Crowfields Condominiums
John Broadbrooks - Landscape Architect
Jeff Slosman - Manufacturers Association
Bruce Tompkins - Biltmore Village
Hartwell Carson - Riverlink
Mike Goodson - Buncombe County
City: “On June 6, the Planning & Zoning Commission approved with a 5-0 vote the stakeholder recommendations for revisions to the Stormwater and Erosion Control Ordinance (Chapter 7 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Asheville).”
[…]
“The City of Asheville Stormwater Services Division held a public meeting July 19 to solicit input from residents on the proposed revisions to the City of Asheville Stormwater Ordinance. City Council was scheduled to vote on the proposed ordinance on July 24, 2007. (Postponed to August 21.)”
[…]
“The meeting schedule is as follows:
Thursday, August 9, 10 a.m.-noon. Topic: buffers.
Tuesday, August 14, 10 a.m.-noon. Topic: inspections and enforcement.
Wednesday, August 15, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Topic: follow-up and remaining issues.
All three meetings will be held at the Public Works Building at 161 S. Charlotte Street, Room A-109.”
Lastly - here's the part that really chaps - City Staffers met with Mr. Sternberg's organization, CIBO, to discuss the plan:
Proposed City Ordinance, top of page two: “Staff met with the Council of Independent Business Owners on June 8, 2007, the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods June 11, and a joint group of the North Carolina Homebuilders Association and the Asheville Board of Realtors on June 21, 2007.”
You can have a policy debate all you want, but don't think you'll get away with misrepresenting the facts. CIBO likes to call people like me, a middle class Ashevillian who cares, extremist. I'm about as extremist as corn flakes.
Stop with the nonsense, Mr Sternberg and Mr. Pig.
Beginning, Middle, and End.
My property. Take it at your own risk. I'm not a wild-eyed fanatic who believes in last stands like that Brown fella in Vermont or New Hampshire...I am proactive...bullets, grenades, and SA-14s are not my only weapons.
So if a government entity, in an attempt to protect drinking water for other residents, creates an environmental regulation for you to follow, you'll shoot and/or blow somebody up?
That's reasonable.
Only as a last resort, would I give the last full measure.
Physical Violence is a last resort. I leverage all my power to affect a stoppage of such legislation or regulation using methods of political warfare which are limited only by imagination.
Should that fail, I would seek a variance and apply financial lubrication to the problem.
I have already landscaped my creek bank the way I want it, concrete structures, and pool built. I also have muskrats living on a portion of it.
I thought you understood that organic means grown in feces.
I guess you have never seen a deer or a bear take a crap just above the water intakes of a water treatment facility have you? Happens all the time here in Franklin. hat's why they treat the water.
This is not about protecting "safe drinking water", this is about power, and telling other people what they can and can't do on their property.
No new laws are needed, just enforce what is already on the books!
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