Stormwater shall be applied countywide
Good evening everyone. I thought I’d pass along this bit of good news from Lee Becker regarding the county’s stormwater ordinance. My apologies if this is a repeated post.
Cheers,
Tony Glenn
President, Citizens for South Oconee County
-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Becker [mailto:lbbecker@mindspring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 9:43 PM
Subject: Good News
Dear Friends,
Yesterday I spoke with Amy Morrison, who is in charge of the stormwater ordinance for the county. She said the overwhelming number of comments coming in to the county are calling for the stormwater ordinance to be rewritten so that the entire county will be required to follow the state standards for control of runoff.
As a result, she said, she has changed the ordinance. The version that she posted to the web on July 6 contains language designed, she said, to accomplish this.
The key provision is Section 3, part E, which says that the Oconee County Board of Commissioners "shall" compel a land development site in the non-urbanized area to follow the the requirements for the urbanized area. Earlier, it said the Board "may" compel this. (The entire ordinance is at www.oconeecounty.net)
This is all rather awkward, since the ordinance contains all kinds of language about provisions for the non-urbanized area that largely are made irrelevant by this single word change.
Also, as Ms. Morrison said, other changes may yet be made. So it is entirely possible that at the Planning Commission or the Board of Commissioners the "shall" will be changed back to "may."
I asked Ms. Morrison to summarize the reasons why she was asked by Commission Chair Melvin Davis to rewrite the ordinance in the first place. Originally the state standards were to cover the whole county.
She said that the development community argued that the stormwater structures and provisions required by the original ordinance were "too expensive" and that "they would lose buildable lots" because of the requirements for stormwater detention facilities.
In the end, it is that simple. It is a choice between the tougher standards and the desire of the developers to limit their costs.
The Planning Commission meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 17, and the Board of Commissioners meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25, will be crucial. Both groups are greatly influenced by citizen turnout.
Please let me know if you plan to attend. And please bring along neighbors.
If you cannot attend, please write to:
Melvin Davis, mdavis@oconee.ga.us, chairman
Jim Luke, jluke@oconee.ga.us
Don Norris, dnorris@oconee.ga.us
Margaret Hale, mshale@oconee.ga.us
Chuck Norton, chorton@oconee.ga.us
But it is better to attend.
Thanks
Lee
Lee Becker
lbbecker@mindspring.com
Cheers,
Tony Glenn
President, Citizens for South Oconee County
-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Becker [mailto:lbbecker@mindspring.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 9:43 PM
Subject: Good News
Dear Friends,
Yesterday I spoke with Amy Morrison, who is in charge of the stormwater ordinance for the county. She said the overwhelming number of comments coming in to the county are calling for the stormwater ordinance to be rewritten so that the entire county will be required to follow the state standards for control of runoff.
As a result, she said, she has changed the ordinance. The version that she posted to the web on July 6 contains language designed, she said, to accomplish this.
The key provision is Section 3, part E, which says that the Oconee County Board of Commissioners "shall" compel a land development site in the non-urbanized area to follow the the requirements for the urbanized area. Earlier, it said the Board "may" compel this. (The entire ordinance is at www.oconeecounty.net)
This is all rather awkward, since the ordinance contains all kinds of language about provisions for the non-urbanized area that largely are made irrelevant by this single word change.
Also, as Ms. Morrison said, other changes may yet be made. So it is entirely possible that at the Planning Commission or the Board of Commissioners the "shall" will be changed back to "may."
I asked Ms. Morrison to summarize the reasons why she was asked by Commission Chair Melvin Davis to rewrite the ordinance in the first place. Originally the state standards were to cover the whole county.
She said that the development community argued that the stormwater structures and provisions required by the original ordinance were "too expensive" and that "they would lose buildable lots" because of the requirements for stormwater detention facilities.
In the end, it is that simple. It is a choice between the tougher standards and the desire of the developers to limit their costs.
The Planning Commission meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 17, and the Board of Commissioners meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25, will be crucial. Both groups are greatly influenced by citizen turnout.
Please let me know if you plan to attend. And please bring along neighbors.
If you cannot attend, please write to:
Melvin Davis, mdavis@oconee.ga.us, chairman
Jim Luke, jluke@oconee.ga.us
Don Norris, dnorris@oconee.ga.us
Margaret Hale, mshale@oconee.ga.us
Chuck Norton, chorton@oconee.ga.us
But it is better to attend.
Thanks
Lee
Lee Becker
lbbecker@mindspring.com
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