Golf

course fairways and greens right next to rivers

and streams will be a relic of the past under new

environmental regulations under consideration by

the Fayette County Planning Commission.

The

commission is ready for your comments on the

proposed rules. During last week's work session,

the group decided to put the three new laws on

its June 1 agenda for a public hearing and

possible vote.

The

meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the County

Administrative Complex.

The

proposed laws are designed to protect Fayette's

watershed areas, its wetlands/floodplains and its

groundwater recharge areas.

Many

of the provisions being proposed are already in

Fayette's development regulations, but new state

laws provide a new format for environmental

protection and require counties to fit their

ordinances into it.

One

change, said senior planner Pete Frisina, is in

how developers are required to measure the

required buffers.

Land

disturbance must be at least 1,000 feet from

local streams, and the new ordinances require

that the distance be measured from the stream

bank. Under current law, it's measured from the

stream center.

Recreational

uses permitted in the buffers and setbacks also

would change. Under the proposed regulations,

golf courses would have to be just as far away

from streams as other types of development.

"Golf

courses require a lot of grading, pesticides and

fertilizer and stuff like that," said county

engineer Dave Borkowski. Many courses have greens

right next to streams, he said.

If

the new regulations are approved, fairways and

greens will have to be 1,000 feet back. The only

recreation allowed in buffer areas will be

passive uses like walking trails and picnic

areas.

Commission

members questioned rules that livestock be kept

450 feet back from stream banks, but Frisina said

that provision is already in effect in Fayette.

Most

of Fayette's farms were in existence before that

regulation was enacted, he said, and are

therefore exempt. Future farms will have to keep

the animals out of the streams, though, he said.

"It creates erosion of the stream bank, plus

there's the fecal coliform problem."

State

law requires that a new comprehensive plan be in

place by the end of this year containing

environmental provisions that are at least as

restrictive as those in state law, said Frisina.

Fayette's proposed law is more restrictive than

the state's, he added.

The

proposals are redundant, Frisina admitted, but he

said that's necessary in order to meet the

state's requirements.

County

attorney Bill McNally wondered how far the state

might go in controlling local governments.

"One of these days we're going to be sending

our kids to the state to make sure they look like

they want them to look," he quipped.

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