Mitigation & Restoration Plans
The addition of new permanent residents to the community will necessitate the construction of new and expanded roadways, utilities, stormwater management facilities and other public works projects. While all public works projects are designed to avoid negative impacts to natural resources, there are times when impacts cannot be avoided. Such impacts, even when minimized, must be mitigated for, and such mitigation cannot always effectively occur on the site of the project.
Offsetting the impacts of infrastructure projects that are necessary to accommodate ongoing growth is a means that can be used to further develop and enhance green infrastructure containing valuable wildlife habitat. To be successful in preserving the natural resources we must devise pragmatic means of capturing the impacts of growth without sacrificing the natural systems upon which our economy and quality of life depend. Tying green infrastructure restoration, management and acquisition to non-green infrastructure impacts in a growing county is one way to ensure wildlife and habitat conservation efforts are tied to the annual budgeting process and the local comprehensive planning processes. A coordinated mitigation plan can serve to facilitate and use the jurisdiction’s reoccurring planning and budgeting process for projects that will restore and protect natural resources of significant importance while continued growth proceeds.
The essence of the Mitigation Plan is to align its budgetary components with its regulatory component. A mitigation plan may provide a vehicle whereby a local government can bring consistency and a cumulative accountability for the primary and secondary impacts of its continuing public works program. In addition, mitigation plan requirements are addressed synergistically through local government planning, budgeting and operational efforts, capitalizing on larger landscape level restoration and preservation opportunities for water pollution abatement and wildlife and natural habitats conservation. Once in place, a mitigation plan will allows a jurisdiction to more effectively accommodate the growth that is occurring and ensure the restoration and protection of the important natural resources that provide the framework for our economy and quality of life. A local government mitigation plan is designed to compensate for the environmental impacts of infrastructure projects in a logical, environmentally and economically sound manner. The Mitigation Plan has three main purposes:
1. To provide a master strategy by which critical environmental features continue to be preserved.
2. To provide “safe harbor” approaches for mitigation projects that are required for the infrastructure needed to accommodate growth, which in turn will enable the budgeting process to be reliable.
3. To restore degraded resources that are important for the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
At the local level a mitigation plan may be developed and organized by a team of representatives of public and private entities. Members of the team may identify private and publicly owned parcels that could be candidate projects for preservation, restoration, or mitigation activities. These parcels can be assessed in a preliminary manner and deemed potentially suitable for such activities. It is beneficial to develop a map series to facilitate the initiation of more detailed analysis. As a mitigation plan is not intended to provide an in-depth analysis of potential projects the map serves as a starting point for efforts to select appropriate preservation, restoration, or mitigation opportunities.
A mitigation plan envisions some modifications to the Capital Improvements Program (CIP). As capital projects are identified in the five-year CIP, the Mitigation Plan calls for:
· including a gross quantification of impacts that will result from each capital project.
· listing of mitigation projects that may provide the remedy for these impacts. These mitigation projects may stand alone, or be part of larger restoration, remediation, or preservation efforts that are also underway.
· funding estimates and identification of sources for mitigation.
It should be noted that the Five Year CIP is just a component of longer range capital planning. Recognizing that transportation is a primary infrastructure that requires longer range (up to 25 years) planning and mitigative work, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) process develops maps and project lists for such a period. In that planning process, the MPO distinguishes between those projects that are needed to meet a level of service (Needs Plan) and those that can only be afforded under today’s budgeting and taxation structure (Financially Feasible).
A Capital Improvement Mitigation Plan captures this information and serves as an addendum to the overall CIP. Implementation of the Mitigation Plan may be facilitated through the local government’s Annual Work Plan. It draws from the CIP the forthcoming year’s capital needs and identify and fund the implementation of the Mitigation Plan will depend on several key elements:
· its adoption as a supporting document to the Comprehensive Plan,
· the partnership of regulatory agencies
· a process that ensures ongoing review and updating so that it reflects changes that occur in the restoration and protection priorities.
Once in place, the Mitigation Plan will allow the local government to more effectively accommodate the growth that is occurring and ensure the restoration and protection of the important natural resources that provide the framework for economy and quality of life.
Here is an example. Roadway X is in the Five Year CIP. The roadway is initially assessed through a preliminary planning phase to have impacts on specific resources -- wetlands, water storage, listed species, and associated water quality. Through overall plan review with the appropriate regulatory agencies, the degree to which impacts can be satisfied “off site” is ascertained. Then, using the sample calculations for mitigation, the Five Year CIP can include an estimate of some permitting costs affiliated with each capital project. These costs can then be aggregated and compared to projects (or a series of projects) on a Master Mitigation List that are deemed suitable. That project is then added to the CIP as the Capital Improvement Mitigation Plan (CIMP) addendum. The CIMP will have several components. In addition to straight-up mitigation, there is a section on land acquisition, a section addressing water quality/remediation and some corollary expenditures by Parks and recreation Departments.
Mitigation Plans need to be designed to be reviewed and updated on an annual basis as a part of the capital budgeting process. They can be expected to continually evolve and be influenced by the development of new or improved management techniques; increased coordination with other regional programs and conservation organizations; and changes in Federal, State and local regulations.
Click Here to view the Lee County Master Mitigation Plan Material here adapted from this plan.
