{"id":121,"date":"2016-08-16T13:41:54","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T13:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/?p=121"},"modified":"2023-04-25T15:38:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T19:38:56","slug":"rhode-island-implements-statewide-standards-for-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/2016\/08\/16\/rhode-island-implements-statewide-standards-for-wetlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhode Island Implements Statewide Standards for Wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, Governor Gina Raimondo signed into law legislation to establish statewide standards to bolster protections for wetlands while streamlining the permitting process during development.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Before the new legislation, each municipality in Rhode Island was vested with the authority to draft and enforce their own wetlands regulations in addition to the state-mandated standards.\u00a0 This piecemeal system resulted in overlapping and sometimes contradictory state and municipal regulations.\u00a0 Moreover, it allowed for significant differences in wetland regulation and enforcement across the state.<\/p>\n

A legislative committee was initially created to study the state of wetland regulations in Rhode Island.\u00a0 The committee found that the lack of uniform standards across the state resulted in duplicative reviews administered by both state agencies and local governments, which burdened applicants during the permitting process.\u00a0 The committee also found that uniform statewide standards were needed to effectively protect freshwater wetlands, buffers and floodplains.<\/p>\n

The new legislation received broad support from various constituencies, including the Small Business Administration, the Rhode Island Builders Association, Save the Bay and the Audubon Society.\u00a0 Pursuant to the new legislation, municipalities are no longer authorized to implement wetland buffers or setbacks.\u00a0 Instead, the Department of Environmental Management (\u201cDEM\u201d) and Coastal Resources Management Council (\u201cCRMC\u201d) are required to promulgate statewide standards for freshwater wetland buffers and setbacks by July 2016.\u00a0 Specifically, DEM or CRMC approval is required for \u201cany activity within a jurisdictional area\u2026that may alter the character of the freshwater wetland, buffer or floodplain\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 However, these regulations will allow municipalities to petition either DEM or CRMC to increase the size of the uniform buffer.\u00a0 Procedures also will be drafted to facilitate municipal input during the permit application review process.<\/p>\n

The new law redefines the \u201cjurisdictional areas\u201d that are subject to the new legislation to include freshwater wetlands, buffers, floodplains, areas subject to storm flowage and flooding as well as areas adjacent to these areas.\u00a0 The law also protects areas within 200 feet of the edge of a river, stream or drinking water supply reservoir and areas within 100 feet of \u201call other freshwater wetlands.\u201d\u00a0 It is also noteworthy that the definition of a \u201cmarsh\u201d is no longer limited to wetlands less than one acre; this will afford smaller marshes with protections that did not exist under the previous regulations.<\/p>\n

The new law allows for a predictable regulatory scheme that promotes development across the State and also protects wetlands.\u00a0 These amendments will likely streamline the permitting process to give property owners and developers the certainty required to develop property in the vicinity of wetlands in a cost-effective and efficient manner.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> http:\/\/webserver.rilin.state.ri.us\/BillText\/BillText15\/SenateText15\/S0737A.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, Governor Gina Raimondo signed into law legislation to establish statewide standards to bolster protections for wetlands while streamlining the permitting process during development.[1]\u00a0 Before the new legislation, each municipality in Rhode Island was vested with the authority to draft and enforce…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-estate-law","tag-real-estate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apslaw.com\/its-your-business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}