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Normal council: Buffer zone ordinance under study

By Mary Ann Ford
mford@pantagraph.com

NORMAL — A portion of the Epiphany Church parking lot and a corner of the school gymnasium encroaches on a waterway.

In east Normal, Eagle’s Landing subdivision was developed in the middle of a natural waterway.

Neither of those things will happen in the future if a proposed stream buffer ordinance is approved by the City Council.

Carbon copies of the proposed ordinances ideally also will be adopted by Bloomington City Council and the McLean County Board.

Representatives from all three entities and the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District got their first public look at the proposal during a work session Tuesday night.

“It’s a work in progress,” said Normal City Manager Mark Peterson. “It’s a great first effort. All of this makes good sense, other communities are doing it and it helps us comply with storm water management regulations.”

No timeline on adoption of the ordinance was suggested. It took about a year for representatives from the three governments to create the proposal. It follows guidelines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but is adapted to meet the needs of McLean County’s topography.

While the ordinance would mainly affect new developments by requiring buffer zones around waterways, it also could have an impact on existing properties by banning owners from building additional structures or non-porous surfaces near waterways.

“The stream buffer ordinance is designed to protect waterways from encroachment and development,” said Mercy Davison, town planner.

The ordinance would encourage developments like Bloomington’s Tipton Trails subdivision which has native plants growing in drainage ways to help filter the water before it goes into a larger water way.

Stream buffers also can include a lot of trees. Trails also can be used in the buffered areas.

Marshall Kaisner of Kaisner Homes believes the ordinance will create a hardship for developers by decreasing the area that can be developed.

“I fully support protecting waterways,” Kaisner said in a letter to Davison. “I believe they are the basis to a contiguous park and trail system. However development in McLean County is done by a small businessman. The risk is not small and it is growing.”

Councilman Jason Chambers suggested if the ordinance was adopted, the town would need to be more flexible with its requirements for lot size and setbacks to ease some of that concern.

One question still remaining is who will maintain the buffer zones — the municipality or the homeowner. Peterson suggested Normal follow Peoria’s lead and maintain the large water ways while leaving the others to homeowner associations and individual residents.

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Reader comments on this story - 6 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

good grief wrote on Aug 29, 2007 5:07 PM:

" Why change something that has not caused any of us a problem. This town can't wait to regulate something that they forgot to regulate before. There is so much regultion you can hardly breathe and not break some rule. You can't cut down a dead tree unless the town says it is ok. Water is the probperty owners problem, he can't block and he can't change the flow so why doesn't the town butt out! "

people wrote on Aug 29, 2007 2:06 PM:

" it is not about mosquitos, external obsolence or any other minute detail. this is about maintain illinois waterways. All water systems are interconnected through these simple streams, and what we put into these streams travels to larger water ways where we get drinking water, have our kids swim, and eat fish from. It is not for looks, vegatation acts as a filter for pestacides, herbacides and runoff from increased impermiable surfaces. use your head, and Synder, your rich already so shut up. "

To john wrote on Aug 29, 2007 11:11 AM:

" That water tower has been there for decades. "

LH wrote on Aug 29, 2007 9:17 AM:

" Just what we need.......More regulations and restrictions. "

Tipton Trails wrote on Aug 29, 2007 8:56 AM:

" Mosquito breeding ground. Lets create more! "

john wrote on Aug 29, 2007 6:46 AM:

" like the town of normal cares, they stuck the huge water tower up on ft jessee right in the back yard of homes, when they could have put it farther off the road. "

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