Pickens County Progress
July 21, 2005

Residents, professional give Etowah Habitat plan a "maybe"

Although not as well attended as the first Etowah Habitat Conservation Plan meeting, three hours into the follow-up session Wednesday, Pickens residents, including development professionals, were delivering highly-mixed reviews of the latest conservation ideas. Planners from the University of Georgia River Basins Center are charged with finding a course that will allow development to continue in the Etowah watershed, but in a manner or at a level which protects endangered darters - several species of small fish found only in this area. A plan is necessary to meet federal requirements for protecting federally endangered species.

Following the meeting, Etowah Aquatic HCP Outreach Coordinator Curt Gervich said the Wednesday meeting had been inconclusive. He said the Etowah Aquatic HCP staff would meet with representatives from Pickens County and the City of Jasper to get an idea of where to go next in developing a plan.

Staff of the Etowah Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) presented basic information three weeks ago and took comments from a packed house on where they believed development is desired or inevitable in the county.

Wednesday at the Chamber of Commerce building a smaller crowd heard the results of how computer modeling predicted development here would affect endangered fish. There were no surprises in the areas fingered for fast growth by the public three weeks earlier: Highway 515, the City of Jasper and the corner of Steve Tate Highway and Highway 53.

Based on the presentation Wednesday, if Pickens County develops as indicated on the land use map and under current regulations, the Etowah Darter population should be spared extinction. However, the Etowah Aquatic HCP staff noted any "upzoning" of timber and agriculture lands into subdivision or commercial developments in east Pickens would likely push Etowah Darters toward extinction and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service into closer scrutiny of the plans. Biologists are now working on a plan to find some way to allow these east Pickens properties to be more densely developed and still protect the habitat and water quality necessary for darters and other aquatic species.

Most residents at the Wednesday afternoon meeting said upzonings in eastern Pickens are a certainty as owners of some of the most sensitive locations have already presented plans for subdivision development.

The overall consensus of those present is that stopping the growth or even holding it at the current land use map levels of density is impossible.

Gervich said there are advantages to using the county's land use plan for Pickens County as a starting point for a plan to protect the watershed, but there must be improvements in development techniques, if building is going to be more dense than currently shown.

Gervich said using the same plan the county has already adopted would be technically easy to implement. It has already been subject to extensive public involvement and "in some cases it's what the landowners are counting on in determining whether to sell their land or hold on to the property."

Biologist for the group, Seth Wenger, said he assumed in preparing the models there could be some rezoning, but the average number of acres for each housing unit needs to remain low density throughout east Pickens, which is in the Etowah watershed. West Pickens is in the Coosa watershed.

If the density of housing in eastern Pickens increases beyond what the land use plan currently stipulates, "there is a bit higher probability than we're comfortable with [that the darters could not survive]," the biologist said. "If they remain agricultural or undeveloped then the fish should persist."

Responding to a question/objection made several times during the meeting Etowah Aquatic HCP Director Laurie Fowler, said Pickens is not being forced to adopt any new regulations before other counties. Pickens is being used as a test area to see what conservation measures work. Then, that plan can be passed along to the other eight counties and 21 cities in the Etowah River Basin area.

Fowler said there are several reasons Pickens is the ideal county to develop a plan, including the strong set of current land use regulations, the amount of property here still undeveloped and environmentally active groups in the county.

"My feeling is if anything like this can happen anywhere in the state of Georgia, it could happen here in community," she said. "The Mountain Conservation Trust of Georgia established a track record with the Burnt Mountain Preserve [750 acres of land protected by the county and the local land trust]."

Most of the audience was blunt in assessing the chance of holding growth in eastern Pickens to the level shown on the current land use map.

"I hate to be the harbinger of bad news," said Pickens County Development Officer Rodney Buckingham. " I have plans already submitted to the office showing more than 2,000 acres in this area already planned as three acre lots. I have at least six sets of plans in the office awaiting permits."

Buckingham said developments with lots that are three to five acres or larger are selling well and maybe that would be a compromise. Under the current land use regulations, any property shown as agriculture / timber must be divided into lots 10 acres or larger.

Another member of the audience said he would like to see the Etowah Aquatic HCP staff present a plan suggesting an overall average density for east Pickens, so some areas could develop more densely and others remain undeveloped.

Brad Currey said, "It's very obvious that there is an overlap with this area [to be protected] that is already proposed to be developed, 750 acres up to 2,000 acres. That's where the rub comes." And Don Wells said, "Your green areas are nice, but it might be a pipe dream. Plans have already been submitted."

Wells later said, "The horse left the barn a long time ago." Buckingham pointed out that projections are Pickens will have a population of 65,000 within twenty years. "We're caught between a rock and a hard place," he said.

Several members of the audience questioned the staff as to whether they had considered topography or unbuildable terrain in establishing the maps. Planners said they had generally taken it into account, but couldn't look with that much detail at an area the size of half the county.

"It seems with any science that can be offered to keep people from making fools of themselves, to help the county enforce the rules, then we do need to look at that," said Edward Daugherty, a member of the audience.

One audience member questioned why U.S. Fish and Wildlife isn't more active in forcing compliance to save the darters. Dr. Steve Powers, a biologist specializing in darters from Reinhardt College, said, "Ultimately the law is already on the side of the darters."

Powers said the Etowah Aquatic HCP needs to publicize that it is already illegal for developers to destroy darter habitat. "You've got the carrot out there. Maybe we need to get the stick as well." Fowler said there have been people fined heavily for destroying the habitat. She affirmed that the biologist is correct when he says there are already federal laws protecting the fish and their habitat.

Lou Chastain of the DOT said he is well aware of this. He said the DOT takes every measure possible to protect habitats as Fish and Wildlife officials aren't like county erosion inspectors. "They [Fish and Wildlife] will come with guns and badges and take you away. You will not only be fined, you will be arrested."

However Chastain said complying with all required measures to protect endangered species makes projects more time-consuming and costly - something he didn't think developers will do. He said in one case a bridge elsewhere in North Georgia was originally budgeted for $1 million, but because of the presence of an endangered darter species there, it ended up costing $7 million due to all the additional work to protect them.

One idea proposed the Etowah Aquatic HCP staff is to allow some areas to develop more densely and protect others through a Transfer of Development Right (TDR) program. Under this plan, land in eastern Pickens could be permanently protected by allowing owners to sell the development rights to someone in another area.

As a very simple example someone in eastern Pickens could divide a tract into 20 lots under the land use plan. But by selling the development rights to a developer in western Pickens, the east Pickens tract would never be developed, but a west Pickens tract could be developed with 20 additional housing units.

Fowler said these are fairly complicated programs but are already used in other areas of the country. In some cases they work well and in some they don't, according to Fowler.

Several members of the audience said they were interested in seeing the Etowah Aquatic HCP staff develop this idea further for Pickens County.

But several members of the audience said they didn't believe the idea would work here as the public might be skeptical of it. One person said "it will be a tough sell."

Powers, who specializes in darters, openly challenged the plan as not providing sufficient protection to Etowah Darters. "There is no way the Etowah Darter will persist if that plan is what happens," he said. "The amount of forest that will be lost; the amount of exposed soil that finds its way into the water; there's no way."

Wenger said Powers assessment is correct if development is still conducted the way it has traditionally been, but with new measures he believes it can be done.

Fowler encouraged the Reinhardt Biologist to sit down with their group and go over his specific objections. She said they will not propose any plan to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the agency charged with enforcing the endangered species act) if it doesn't offer sufficient protection.

The county sent a representative to this meeting. But personnel from the city of Jasper were notably absent after Mayor John Weaver publicly criticized the whole program at the first meeting held by the Etowah Aquatic HCP staff.

Click here for information on the first Etowah Aquatic HCP meeting, or see www.etowahhcp.org.