The wetlands and watercourses of the Village of Franklin are indispensable but sensitive natural resources, subject to flooding, erosion, soil bearing capacity limitations and other hazards. In their natural state, wetlands and watercourses serve multiple functions for flood control, storm water storage and release, pollution control, erosion control, wildlife habitat, aesthetics, open space and recreation. The continued destruction and loss of wetlands and watercourses constitute distinct and immediate dangers to the public health, safety and general welfare. These standards are intended to define wetlands and watercourses for the purpose of regulating uses within them, to develop use permit standards for the alteration of wetlands and watercourses, to develop regulations for the preservation and continued function of wetlands as a healthy ecological system, to establish an administrative procedure for review of development petitions involving wetlands and watercourses, to provide for the enforcement of this chapter and to prescribe penalties for violations thereof.
The Village finds that it is necessary to adopt this chapter in order to implement the goals and policies of the Village of Franklin General Development Plan for Land Use, dated December 14, 1977, in particular, Goal No. 8 and the policies which accompany it. It is, therefore, the policy of the Village of Franklin:
(a) To protect wetlands, watercourses and flood and natural retention basins, while taking into account varying economic, ecological, hydrologic, recreational and aesthetic values.
(b) To provide for the protection, preservation, replacement, proper maintenance and use of wetlands, watercourses and flood and natural retention basins located in the Village of Franklin in order to minimize disturbance to them and to prevent damage from erosion, siltation and flooding.
(c) To provide for the issuance of permits and approved activities.
(d) To establish standards and procedures for the review of proposed activities in wetlands and watercourses.
(e) To establish penalties for violations of this chapter.
(Ord. 190. Passed 5-9-94.)