(a) Purpose. The purpose of this Section is to ensure that new development attempts limits/mitigates its impact to wildlife and wildlife habitat and that it minimizes environmental impacts.
(b) Standards.
(1) Protection of wildlife and natural areas. To the maximum extent practical, development shall be designed to ensure that disturbances which occur to any natural area as a result of development shall be minimized through the use of natural buffer zones. If any development materially disturbs a natural area, the development project shall mitigate such lost natural resource either on or off-site. Any such mitigation shall be roughly proportional to the loss suffered as a result of the disturbance.
a. Natural areas shall include:
1. Floodplains and floodways;
2. Natural drainage and water ways;
3. Significant native trees and vegetation; and
4. Wildlife travel corridors.
b. The natural area buffer zone shall be used between natural areas and proposed development to ensure that the proposed development does not degrade the natural area. The size of the buffer zone shall be determined in conjunction with the Colorado Division of Wildlife or a City approved wetland or wildlife ecologist. The City may decrease this buffer when strict application of this Subsection will impose an exceptional and undue hardship upon the property owner or developer.
(c) Exceptions. The Board of Trustees may allow disturbance or construction activity within the natural area or natural area buffer zone for the following limited purposes:
(1) Mitigation of development activities;
(2) Restoration of previously degraded areas;
(3) Emergency public safety activities and utility installations when such activities and installations cannot reasonably be contained within other nearby developed areas;
(4) Construction of a trail that will provide public access for educational or recreational purposes; or
(5) The enhancement of the habitat value and/or other natural resource values of a natural area.
(d) Ecological characterization. If the City determines that the site likely includes areas with wildlife, plant life, and/or other natural characteristics in need of protection, the City may require the developer to provide a report prepared by a professional qualified in the areas of ecology, wildlife biology or other relevant discipline. The ecological characterization report should be included on the open space plan and describe the following:
(1) The wildlife use of the natural area showing the species of the wildlife using the area, the times or seasons the areas is used by those species and the "value" (meaning feeding, watering, cover, nesting, roosting, perching) that the area provides for such wildlife species;
(2) The boundary of wetlands in the area and a description of the ecological functions and characteristics provided by those wetlands;
(3) Any prominent views from or across the site;
(4) The pattern, species, and location of any significant native trees and other native site vegetation;
(5) The bank, shoreline and high water mark of any perennial stream or body of water on the site;
(6) Wildlife travel corridors; and
(7) The general ecological functions provided by the site and its features.
(e) Wildlife conflicts. If wildlife that may create conflicts for the future occupants of the development (including, but not limited to, prairie dogs, beaver, deer and elks) are known to exist in areas adjacent to or on the development site, then the development plan must, to the extent reasonably feasible, include provisions such as barriers, protection mechanisms for landscaping and other site features to minimize conflicts that might otherwise exist between such wildlife and the developed portion of the site. Any impacts to wildlife must be referred to the Colorado Division of Wildlife and, in the case of threatened or endangered species, United States Fish and Wildlife Services.
(f) Green building practices. The City seeks to promote the utilization of building practices which benefit the environment and the socio-economic well-being of current and future residents.
(1) Resource areas. There are five resource areas which should be addressed by a green building program:
a. Water (quality and quantity);
b. Energy (quantity and type);
c. Building materials (life cycle impacts);
d. Solid waste (construction and operation impacts); and
e. Health and safety.
(2) Compliance. Compliance with the requirements of the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program or any substantially similar green building program is strongly encouraged.
(Ord. 395 §3, 2016)