Item B: Ordinance Concerning Goal 5 Natural Resources Study

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these actions have been and are being tolerated because there is nothing (other than common sense and a healthy respect for our natural amenities) in the local land use code or metro plan policies that REQUIRES even a cautious consideration of natural resources in conjunction with residential development. Considering that Eugene and the remaining unannexed areas of Lane County within the UGB can only consider conservation strategies for water resources (streams, creeks, ponds), it is imperative to the livability of our community to do as much as possible to protect what remains. The double speak of promoting our wonderful city to out-of-the-area corporations via tax breaks and other public giveaways while at the same time doing little or nothing to protect the beauty and livability that we are promoting to get business to locate here does not benefit our community. We should be proud of our commitment to preserving the natural beauty and splendor of uplands, rivers, and wetlands, and we should be making it clear to businesses interested in locating here that resource protection is not something we take lightly and are willing to forgo for the highest bidder. To address these sentiments concerning our responsibility to be good stewards of the natural bounty this area has been blessed with, please consider the. following comments in your deliberations concerning proposed policies for protecting and conserving water resources within urban growth boundary. ORDINANCE "NO.1" IWR WATER RESOURCES CONSERVATION OVERLAY ZONE .:. Please consider applying the IWR zone to all PUBLIC properties on the adopted NR inventory, even where channelization and impervious surfaces constrain the full range of functions of the resource. Protections for public lands should not be compromised to satisfy development desires or other high impact activities proposed on private land. .:. 9.4920(5) offers private property owners an exclusion from the requirements of the IWR overlay zone if they show that the area in question was developed prior to adoption of this ordinance. o SUGGESTION: Please consider including language in this provision, and throughout the ordinance, as appropriate, that establishes that only LEGALLY PERMITTED development in areas proposed for implementation of the IWR zone can be considered for an exclusion from the criteria of the zone. In addition to requiring proof of LEGALLY PERMITTED development in conjunction with requests for exclusions from the IWR zone, please consider limiting exclusions from the criteria of the zone to those stream corridor reaches in excess of 50 - 100 linear feet. In areas where just a smidgen of corridor remains (i.e. less than 50 linear feet), it should be our responsibility to protect the remainder of a resource area for future generations. Slides and photos of sites on the inventory already show many degraded and diminished resource sites. Segmented and degraded streams are the result of human activity that failed to consider the value ofthe resource. At this point, even remnants of the riparian system deserve protection.