On April 19, 2006, the Stafford County Planning Commission held a special meeting on ordinance O06-15, “An Ordinance to Amend and Reordain Article IV. Planned Development and Overlay District Regulations, by Creating Section 28-65, Water Resource Protection Overlay District, of the Zoning Ordinance.” This ordinance would establish a new overlay district in Stafford County that would greatly extend the Critical Resource Protection Areas (CRPA) in selected parts of the county, though these areas have not been determined. After over 50 citizens spoke in the public hearing and the Commissioners discussed the issues, the Commission voted to send the ordinance on to the County Board of Supervisors (BOS) with a recommendation to send it back to the Planning Commission for another 90 days of further study. The BOS hearing is scheduled for May 2, 2006, at 1:00 P.M.

The current CRPA in Stafford County (Section 28-62) is defined as:

1. Tidal wetlands;
2. Nontidal wetlands connected by surface flow and contiguous to tidal wetlands or water bodies with perennial flow;
3. Tidal shores; and
4. A one-hundred-foot vegetated buffer area located adjacent to and landward of the components listed in subsection (1) through (3) above, and along both sides of any water bodies with perennial flow.

Within the proposed Water Resource Protection Overlay District, the CRPA would be expanded to include:

• A 100-foot buffer around intermittent streams;
• Any highly erodible soils where contiguous to tidal water bodies, perennial streams, and intermittent streams;
• Critical slopes greater than 25% where contiguous to tidal water bodies, perennial streams, and intermittent streams; and
• The CRPA buffer would also be extended in areas containing steep slopes contiguous to tidal water bodies, perennial streams, and intermittent streams between 10% and 25% based on percent slope as follows:

Percent Slope:	Width of Buffer:
10-12%	Add 10’ to CRPA
13-15%	Add 20’ to CRPA
16-18%	Add 30’ to CRPA
19-21%	Add 40’ to CRPA
22-25%	Add 50’ to CRPA

Proponents of the ordinance noted that as proposed, the ordinance would not affect any property until the Board of Supervisors designates the actual location of the overlay district in a separate ordinance, which it was noted, would require notification to all affected property owners. The extended CRPA would then only apply to the specific parts of the county specified in the Board of Supervisors’ ordinance.

WSSI’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department worked with the Stafford Council for Progress to estimate the impact of this ordinance as if the overlay district were placed on the whole county. Utilizing Stafford County’s GIS data layers, the current CRPA (i.e., core components and buffer) encompasses 19,885 acres or 13.6% of Stafford County (excluding Quantico Marine Base). Placing a proposed 100-foot buffer on all intermittent streams as defined by the County’s GIS layer, increased the CRPA buffer by 36,866 acres. The additional buffer extensions based on soils and slope, again using the County’s GIS soils layer, added another 19,859 acres, bringing the total proposed CRPA to 76,610 acres. Using our assessment, 52.3% or approximately 21,000 parcels in Stafford County (excluding Quantico Marine Base) could potentially be encompassed by the proposed ordinance.

Please make reference to the CRPA Comparison Map, as well as the Overall Proposed CRPA Map as prepared by WSSI to better illustrate the proposed Stafford County Water Resource Protection Overlay District.

If you have specific questions on this topic, contact Mary Landgrebe at Stafford Council for Progress or Mike Rolband, Mark Headly, Ben Slater, or Yeoanny Venetsanos.