10/20/2008 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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CONSERVATIONELEMENT Roland DeBlois, Chief of Environmental Planning, provided a summary of the major issues, which included protection, improvement of water quality in the Indian River Lagoon and St. Sebastian River, protection of ground water quality and quantity, sustainability of natural systems, conservation of wildlife corridors / greenways, and management of conservation lands. He noted that there are twelve (12) Objectives in this Element, nine (9) of which have been achieved and three (3) were partially achieved. Under Policies implementation, eighty-three (83) policies were implemented and nine (9) were not. Chief DeBlois pointed out that the Committee for a Sustainable Treasure Coast had their own recommendations, and staff was looking to adopt a policy to adopt some of those recommendations through that regional Committee, particularly related to various tools to conserve natural resources in the County. He thereafter presented staff's proposal for revised /new policies —commercial and miscellaneous uses. Commissioner O'Bryan commenting on Objective 2 (surface water quality) and talk about a regular maintenance program for the onsite disposal systems, basically septic tanks, repeated the old adage, "if it's not broken, don't fix it", because he thought going into some regular required "pump out thing" might just be a cost to homeowners that is not justified. He felt we needed to make sure that a regular maintenance system is something that is doing good, not just creating additional cost to homeowners. Under new policies, funding for hiring an additional management staff, Commissioner O'Bryan thought this was one year we have been very lacking in funding the maintenance and management of our conservation lands, and we needed to come up with a more dedicated funding source, so we have the manpower and the tools to 13 October 20, 2008 Public Workshop