§ 19-51. Setbacks, buffers, berms.

(a)

Setbacks. The following minimum distances from the permittee property line shall be maintained for the identified adjacent property uses:

(1)

Residential subdivisions (lots less than one acre), multifamily, hospitals, life care centers:

Excavation: Five hundred (500) feet (three hundred (300) feet for sand mining)

Stockpiles: Five hundred (500) feet

Blasting: Five hundred (500) feet

Processing: One thousand five hundred (1,500) feet (five hundred (500) feet for sand mining or for portable crushers)

Dikes: Three hundred (300) feet

(2)

Commercial, office, institutional, active and developed passive recreation, agriculture/residential subdivision (lots one acre and larger):

Excavation: Three hundred (300) feet

Stockpiles: Three hundred (300) feet

Blasting: Three hundred (300) feet (minimum five hundred (500) feet from protected structure, including cemeteries)

Processing: One thousand (1,000) feet (three hundred (300) feet for sand mining or for portable crushers)

Dikes: Two hundred (200) feet

(3)

Agriculture, industrial, utility, public roads, forest, open space:

Excavation: One hundred (100) feet

Stockpiles: One hundred (100) feet

Blasting: One hundred (100) feet (minimum five hundred (500) feet from protected structure)

Processing: Five hundred (500) feet (three hundred (300) feet for sand mining; one hundred (100) feet for portable crushers)

Dikes: One hundred (100) feet

(b)

Buffers. The following are minimum buffer requirements for mining operations:

(1)

Where required. If mining activity is located within one thousand five hundred (1,500) feet of land not owned or controlled by the mine operator, it shall be considered to be contiguous and must provide a visual buffer.

(2)

Length. The buffer shall be of sufficient length so as to shield mining activity from land uses protected in (b)(1), above.

(3)

Depth. A minimum of one hundred (100) feet measured perpendicular from the property line.

(4)

Opacity. Where required, the buffer shall shield adjoining properties when viewed from the property line. The buffer mu;st shield the operation at the time excavation begins. Shielding shall meet on eighty (80) percent opacity standard. Berms, towers, stockpiles and other similar items which extend above the buffer need not be shielded. The clearing and stripping of vegetation from the land shall not require the pre-establishment of a buffer.

(5)

Makeup. The buffer shall consist of a vegetated screen, augmented by a berm if required to obtain opacity. The following conditions apply to the vegetated screening:

a.

A one-hundred-foot vegetative screen is standard, except where a berm is necessary. Where a berm is necessary, the outer fifty (50) feet of the buffer must consist of the vegetative screen;

b.

If trees exist in the vegetative screen area they must remain;

c.

If sufficient vegetation does not exist, the vegetative screen area shall be planted at spacings and with species to be established in the mining operation plan. All plantings shall consist primarily of perennial species native to the area;

d.

All plantings used in the buffer must be compatible with the soils in the area as specified by the county forester.

(6)

Removal. A buffer must remain in place until mining activity (not including reclamation) has been moved one thousand five hundred (1,500) feet from the property line. The vegetative screening should remain in place until a future land use is established, unless the area is included in the reclamation plan.

(c)

Berms. The following are requirements for berms where utilized to augment vegetative buffers:

(1)

The berm shall generally run parallel to, and no closer than fifty (50) feet from, the property line. The above two (2) standards may be modified where there are impeding physical features (wetlands, etc.)

(2)

The berm shall be built to the height necessary (not to exceed ten (10) feet above the natural surface of the ground) to shield mining activity located within one thousand five hundred (1,500) feet of the property line (excluding booms, towers, stockpiles or other similar items which extend above the buffer) so that it cannot be viewed through the buffer from adjoining properties when viewed from the property line.

(3)

The berm must be stabilized with the planting of vegetation. Sloping requirements for the exterior face of the berm shall not exceed 2:1.

(4)

Adequate control shall be provided to protect the adjacent properties from additional runoff caused by the earthen berm.

(d)

Allowable activities. The following activities are allowed within the setbacks and buffer areas:

(1)

Within setbacks, the following activities are allowed: Roads, fences, berms, utility services, buffers, agriculture, silviculture, reclamation, and monitoring.

(2)

Within buffers, the following activities are allowed: Berms (for a buffer), reclamation, monitoring and fences located within the inner or outer five (5) feet of the vegetated screening.

(e)

Reduction in requirements. The county may eliminate or reduce the setback, buffer and berm standards set out above if one of the following circumstances exist:

(1)

Written authorization has been provided from the adjacent property owner(s) agreeing to the elimination of, or reduction in, setback, buffer and/or berm requirements.

(2)

A variance has been obtained in accordance with section 19-6 of this chapter.

(Ord. No. 93-13, § C-1, 6-29-93)