Housing starts down? Attack Amy Morrison instead
Oconee groups want revised plan tweaked
Stormwater management
By Merritt Melancon | juliana.melancon@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 9:56 PM on Tuesday, May 16, 2006
WATKINSVILLE - Though turnout was low and public comment virtually nonexistent at the first public hearing on Oconee County's revised stormwater management plan, local advocacy groups are hoping officials will tweak the plan before it's approved June 6.
Since Amy Morrison, the county's stormwater coordinator, first introduced the proposed stormwater management plan last fall, it's been consolidated from three ordinances into one and lost some of its teeth.
Now members of the Athens Area Home Builders Association are inspecting the ordinance looking for any other objectionable regulations, while members of the county's smart-growth advocacy group Citizens for Oconee's Future are hoping that county officials will restore some of the regulations cut from the first draft.
County officials have to put a stormwater ordinance in place by June 30 as part of the county's stormwater management, a document required by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
When first introduced, the ordinance included up to 60 days in jail for habitual stormwater polluters and required developers in both rural and urban areas to take measures to reduce the amount of pollutants washed into streams by stormwater runoff.
Today's county codes only protect against flooding, not water pollution.
The current draft of the ordinance wouldn't carry any criminal penalties for stormwater violations and would require developers in only 22 square miles of the northeastern Oconee County - the area of the county considered urbanized - to use detention ponds that reduce the debris and pollutants washing into streams.
Beth Rivenbark, the government affairs director for the Athens Area Home Builders Association, said that those changes are a step in the right direction, but might not be enough.
"Obviously, we prefer this draft of the ordinance because it only puts the water-quality requirements on the urbanized part of the county," Rivenbark said. "But there are other little things in there that may affect building, and we're still going over those."
Rivenbark was one of three people at a public hearing about the proposed ordinance last week, but she did not leave any comments, either written or verbal. She said home builders still are studying the ordinance's nuances and plans to submit a formal comment on behalf of the association before the June 2 end to the public comment period.
Charles Baugh, president of Citizens for Oconee's Future, has similar plans to study the ordinance.
County officials should reinstate the part of the ordinance that requires subdivision developers throughout the county to include stormwater ponds that reduce the pollution washed into streams because the entire county will be urbanized in just a few years, Baugh said.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 051606
Stormwater management
By Merritt Melancon | juliana.melancon@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 9:56 PM on Tuesday, May 16, 2006
WATKINSVILLE - Though turnout was low and public comment virtually nonexistent at the first public hearing on Oconee County's revised stormwater management plan, local advocacy groups are hoping officials will tweak the plan before it's approved June 6.
Since Amy Morrison, the county's stormwater coordinator, first introduced the proposed stormwater management plan last fall, it's been consolidated from three ordinances into one and lost some of its teeth.
Now members of the Athens Area Home Builders Association are inspecting the ordinance looking for any other objectionable regulations, while members of the county's smart-growth advocacy group Citizens for Oconee's Future are hoping that county officials will restore some of the regulations cut from the first draft.
County officials have to put a stormwater ordinance in place by June 30 as part of the county's stormwater management, a document required by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
When first introduced, the ordinance included up to 60 days in jail for habitual stormwater polluters and required developers in both rural and urban areas to take measures to reduce the amount of pollutants washed into streams by stormwater runoff.
Today's county codes only protect against flooding, not water pollution.
The current draft of the ordinance wouldn't carry any criminal penalties for stormwater violations and would require developers in only 22 square miles of the northeastern Oconee County - the area of the county considered urbanized - to use detention ponds that reduce the debris and pollutants washing into streams.
Beth Rivenbark, the government affairs director for the Athens Area Home Builders Association, said that those changes are a step in the right direction, but might not be enough.
"Obviously, we prefer this draft of the ordinance because it only puts the water-quality requirements on the urbanized part of the county," Rivenbark said. "But there are other little things in there that may affect building, and we're still going over those."
Rivenbark was one of three people at a public hearing about the proposed ordinance last week, but she did not leave any comments, either written or verbal. She said home builders still are studying the ordinance's nuances and plans to submit a formal comment on behalf of the association before the June 2 end to the public comment period.
Charles Baugh, president of Citizens for Oconee's Future, has similar plans to study the ordinance.
County officials should reinstate the part of the ordinance that requires subdivision developers throughout the county to include stormwater ponds that reduce the pollution washed into streams because the entire county will be urbanized in just a few years, Baugh said.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 051606
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