Proposed amendment to the Wetlands Bylaw (for STM 2023)

Special Town Meeting Warrant 2023-Proposed Bylaw 

Below is a summary of the proposed article to amend the Town's Conservation By-law (§233) (see attached PDF)

to add:

•Procedures (Requests for Determination of Applicability, Notices of Intent, Certificates of Compliance, Permit Extensions, to amend Orders of Conditions) These procedures already exist in the state regulations. They are repeated here because they refer to the proposed fee structure below and give guidance to the procedures needed for compliance with the Wetlands Protection Act regulations (310 CMR 10.00: Wetlands Protection Act Regulations | Mass.gov)

•local Fees Structure (local Town Wetlands Protection Act fees) These are local fees in addition to all state required fees which all the other adjacent communities (Cohasset/Hingham/Weymouth/Marshfield/Scituate) have adopted to cover administrative costs not captured in the state regulations.  (See the pdf attachment below for details.) Note: Fees doubled for after-the-fact work

•Special Local Wetlands Bylaws (2):

a)Any vegetated wetland determined to reduce flood risk by storing or conveying flood waters shall not be filled or altered from performing this function. To address the importance of wetlands in Town that serve to reduce flood risk by storing or conveying our coastal flood waters. Protection of these types of wetlands may be potentially weakened by the recent Sackett v. EPA Supreme Court Decision. This local bylaw would protect these types of wetlands to help mitigate flood waters.

b)The Conservation Commission shall take into account the cumulative adverse effects of loss, degradation, isolation, and replication of protected resource areas throughout the Community, resulting from past activities, permitted and exempt, and foreseeable future activities. This requires considering the whole wetlands resource (marshes, dunes, ground water, etc.) when considering minor impacts or minor activities. Similar language has been adopted by Quincy/Weymouth/Hingham/Norwood/many other MA Towns.)