The General Assembly of the State of North Carolina has delegated to local governmental the responsibility to adopt regulations designed to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare of its citizenry. Pursuant thereto, the Town Council of the Town of Franklin, North Carolina, makes the following legislative findings of fact.
(A) The flood prone areas within the Town of Franklin and its extraterritorial jurisdiction are subject to periodic inundation which results in loss of life, property, health hazards, safety hazards, disruption of commerce and governmental services, extraordinary public expenditures of flood protection and relief, and impairment of the tax base, all of which adversely affect the public health, safety, and general welfare.
(B) The development activities listed herein contribute, individually and cumulatively, to the flood losses addressed above: (1) obstructions in flood plains causing increases in flood heights and velocities; (2) the occupancy in flood prone areas of uses vulnerable to floods or other hazards; (3) the loss of wetlands, streamside riparian areas, and other lands that slow, absorb, retain, and cleanse storm and flood waters; and (4) the expansion of impervious surfaces both within and outside of flood prone areas that cause increases in the velocity and rate of the discharge of storm water into bodies of water.
(C) The discharge of urban pollutants and sedimentation into bodies of water results in health and safety hazards and the impairment of environmentally and economically significant aquatic wildlife habitat, adversely affecting the public health, safety, and general welfare.
(D) Development activities cause sedimentation pollution through untreated and uncontrolled storm water from impervious areas, improper land disturbance, and the loss of wetlands, streamside riparian areas, and other lands that absorb and cleanse storm and floodwaters.
(E) The steeply sloping areas within the Town of Franklin and its extraterritorial jurisdiction are particularly susceptible to erosion and landslides, and pose particular difficulties in the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure and the provision of public services. Development activities in such areas are likely to result in the loss of life and property, health and safety hazards, disruption of commerce and governmental services, extraordinary public expenditures, and impairment of the tax base, all of which adversely affect the public health, safety, and general welfare.
(Ord. passed 10-1-07; Am. Ord. passed - - )