[Amended AFTM 11-18-1996, Art. 61, approved 4-30-1997]
A. The purpose of this bylaw is to protect the wetlands,
related water resources and adjoining land areas in Falmouth by controlling
activities deemed by the Conservation Commission as likely 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 and plant species and habitats, agriculture,
aesthetics, recreation and aquaculture values. These values, collectively,
are the resource area values protected by this bylaw.
B. In the Black Beach/Great Sippewissett Marsh District
of Critical Planning Concern, the following resource area values are expressly
protected: prevention of flood damage by limiting of development in flood
hazard zones, prevention of damage to structures and natural resources as
a result of erosion, improvement of water quality, protection and enhancement
of existing vegetative cover in order to maintain water quality and wildlife
habitat, protection of wildlife, waterfowl and plant habitat and the maintenance
of existing populations and species diversity, prevention of loss or degradation
of critical wildlife and plant habitat, prevention of new stormwater runoff
discharges and the improvement of existing stormwater runoff discharges, protection
of coastal ecosystems which support the continued viability of harvestable
shellfish and finfish habitat, public access to water and land, improvement
of groundwater recharge, and the minimization of the impact of new development,
reconstruction and/or expansion on the resource area values protected by this
bylaw.
[Amended AFTM 11-18-1996, Art. 61, approved 4-30-1997]
Except as permitted by the Conservation Commission or as provided in
this bylaw, no person shall remove, fill, dredge, build upon, degrade or otherwise
alter the following resource areas: any freshwater or coastal wetland; marshes;
wet meadows; bogs; swamps; vernal pools; banks; reservoirs; lakes; ponds;
streams; creeks; beaches; dunes; estuaries; oceans; lands under water bodies;
lands subject to flooding or inundation by groundwater or surface water; lands
subject to tidal action, coastal storm flowage or flooding; lands within one
hundred (100) feet of any of the aforesaid resource areas; the lands and waters
within the entire Black Beach/Great Sippewissett Marsh District of Critical
Planning Concern; and the lands and waters within the entire Massachusetts
Executive Office of Environmental Affairs-designated Waquoit Bay Area of Critical
Environmental Concern (ACEC). These resource areas are, collectively, the
resource areas protected by this bylaw.
A copy of the public hearing notices shall be circulated to other Town
boards and departments, as appropriate.
As part of a permit issued under this chapter, 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 the 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 permit application
will not have unacceptable significant or cumulative effect upon the resource
area values protected by this chapter. 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.
[Amended AFTM 11-18-1996, Art. 61, approved 4-30-1997]
This chapter 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. With respect
to the Black Beach/Great Sippewissett Marsh District of Critical Planning
Concern, this bylaw is adopted under the Home Rule Amendment to the Massachusetts
Constitution and the Home Rule statutes, as well as c. 716 of the Acts and
Resolves of 1989, as amended, and Barnstable County Ordinance 96-1.