The purpose of this bylaw is to protect the
wetlands, related water resources, and adjoining land areas in the
Town of North Reading by prior review and control of activities deemed
by the Conservation Commission (the Commission) to have a significant
or cumulative effect upon resource area values including but not limited
to the following: public or private water supply, groundwater, flood
control, erosion and sedimentation control, storm damage prevention,
water pollution control, fisheries, shellfish, wildlife habitat, recreation,
aesthetics, agriculture, and aquaculture (collectively, the "resource
area values protected by this bylaw").
Except as permitted by the Conservation Commission
or as provided in this by-law, no person shall remove, fill, dredge,
build upon, degrade, or alter the following resource areas: any freshwater
wetland; marshes; wet meadows; bogs; swamps; vernal pools; banks;
reservoirs; lakes; ponds; rivers; streams; creeks; beaches; dunes;
estuaries; flats; land under water bodies; lands subject to flooding
or inundation by groundwater, surface water or tidal action; and lands
within 100 feet of any of the aforesaid resource areas (collectively
the "resource areas protected by this bylaw").
Any person filing a permit application or a
request for determination with the Commission shall provide copies
to be delivered by the Conservation Commission to the Community Planning
Commission, Board of Appeals, Board of Health, Building Inspector
and Town Engineer. The Commission shall not take final action until
such boards and officials have had 14 days from receipt of notice
to file written comments and recommendations with the Commission,
which the Commission shall take into account but which shall not be
binding on the Commission. The applicant shall have the right to receive
any such comments and recommendations, and to respond to them at a
hearing of the Commission, prior to final action.
After public notice and public hearing the Commission
shall promulgate rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes
of this bylaw. Failure by the Commission to promulgate such rules
and regulations or a legal declaration of their invalidity by a court
of law shall not act to suspend or invalidate the effect of this bylaw.
As part of a permit issued under this bylaw,
in addition to any security required by any other municipal or state
board, agency or official, the Commission may require that the performance
and observance of the conditions imposed hereunder be secured wholly
or in part by one or more of the methods described below:
A. By a proper bond or deposit of money or negotiable
securities or other undertaking of financial responsibility sufficient
in the opinion of the Commission, to be released in whole or in part
upon issuance of a certificate of compliance for work performed pursuant
to the permit;
B. By a conservation restriction, easement or other covenant
enforceable in a court of law, executed and duly recorded by the owner
of record, running with the land to the benefit of this municipality
whereby the permit conditions shall be performed and observed before
any lot may be conveyed other than by mortgage deed.
The applicant for a permit shall have the burden
of proving by a preponderance of the credible evidence that the work
proposed in the application will not have unacceptable significant
or cumulative effect upon the wetland values protected by this bylaw.
Failure to provide adequate evidence to the Commission supporting
this burden shall be sufficient cause for the Commission to deny a
permit or grant a permit with conditions.
A decision of the Commission shall be reviewable
in the Superior Court in an action filed within 60 days thereof, in
accordance with MGL c. 249, § 4.
This bylaw is adopted under the Home Rule Amendment
of the Massachusetts Constitution and the Home Rule Statutes, independent
of the Wetlands Protection Act, MGL c. 131, § 40, and regulations
310 CMR 10.00 thereunder.
The invalidity of any section or provisions
of this bylaw shall not invalidate any other section or provision
thereof, nor shall it invalidate any permit or determination which
previously has been issued.