Friday, November 05, 2010
 
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Officials discuss flood plain maps, flood plain ordinance, GIS, enterprise zone and bicycle path bridges

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[November 05, 2010]  New flood plain maps, a proposal to amend the county's flood plain ordinance, GIS development, enterprise zone and pursuit of old railway bridges were all topics of discussion when two groups of Logan County's officials met on Wednesday evening.

The Logan County Board's planning and zoning committee, chaired by David Hepler, and the Logan County Regional Planning Commission, chaired by Bill Martin, oversee zoning, land use and structural development in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Modified flood plain ordinance

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Federal Emergency Management Agency recently completed a flood plain modernization project. IDNR created new digitized flood plain maps, which meshed the old paper flood maps with new parcel maps for a digitized product

The new maps and information led to recommendations to amend the county's flood plain ordinance.

The ordinance is important to adopt because it defines protective flood measures, which then allows property owners to be eligible for flood insurance.

Logan County zoning officer Will D'Andrea said the changes in the ordinance are few and they primarily provide more allowances. The language expands on what we have now, he said.

A little bit of the ordinance allows some of the smaller structures to be built in a flood plain. Accessory structures 500 square feet or less are now allowed.

It also provides slight leniencies, such as with a garage under a certain size and other small structures you don't need to comply with flood-proofing the structure at all, D'Andrea said.

Building elevation would be the same as the current requirements. A structure must be a foot above base flood level, which would mean adding fill or some elevating structure such as a wall, tier, stilts or crawl space.

For example, he said, if the flood level for an area is 450 feet elevation (above mean sea level) and the ground on the building site is at 445 feet, then there would need to be something to raise the structure level 6 feet to get it one foot above the 450-foot level.

D'Andrea also said that in comparison with adjacent counties, such as Tazewell and McLean, the language is basically the same, as it all comes from regulations released by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in conjunction with Federal Emergency Management Agency criteria, he said.

On Wednesday, the Logan County Board's planning and zoning committee and the Logan County Regional Planning Commission each recommended passing the amended ordinance.

On Thursday, the Logan County Zoning Board of Appeals held a public hearing.

D'Andrea said the appeals board made a recommendation that would be forwarded to the county board to approve the proposed modified flood plain ordinance with two recommendations:

On Pages 5 and 9 they recommended the "subsequent" option and on Page 15 (variance) they recommended that the variance stay at the level set by the appeals board (just like all variance applications do now -- the county board does not review variances).

The appeals board noted that the building protection measures are basically the same as our current ordinance with the exception that there is a new section, 6.7-6, that allows greater flexibility for accessory structures than our current regulations allow.

The measure now moves forward to be heard by the board of whole on Nov. 11, then to be voted on at the adjourned session on Nov. 16. Both meetings take place at the Logan County Courthouse at 7 p.m.

Flood plain maps, zoning and GIS

The Logan County GIS construction began when a precise map of Logan County was created using computer-aided aerial, digital photographs taken in 2004. Engineers then aligned roadways and property lines to create a parcel map, which is now part of the base layer in the Logan County Geographic Information System.

The new digitized flood plain maps will overlay the new parcel maps in Logan County's GIS.

Contour interval maps with 5-foot intervals were created by the United States Geological Survey and will also be available in the county's new GIS.

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ISU has been contracted through the end of December to work on building a zoning layer for the Logan County GIS.

Now that they are available, D'Andrea would see about adding the flood plain map as a layer as well. That work is expected to become available through Logan County's GIS at the start of the new year.

D'Andrea was hired by the county at the end of last month to take over the management and development of the county's GIS from highway engineer Bret Aukamp. He also continues as zoning officer and has taken over the duties of enterprise zone director for the regional planning commission.

Planning commission preparing for the future

During the planning commission meeting, Martin encouraged commission members to look at the recently completed Logan County Economic Development Master Plan. He told members that they need to read it; it has some interesting figures and the commission would be one of several entities asked for their approval of it.

Through various personal events, the commission is short four of its 13 members. Discussion was held and new appointments would be made soon.

D'Andrea was asked to assess the division of time he would spend serving the county and commission in differing capacities, as he will be paid out of various funds.

Enterprise zone

One of D'Andrea's first goals is to spend time reconstructing enterprise zone territories and dates.

Enterprise zone participants are eligible for 100 percent property tax abatement on construction improvements the first five years, 50 percent abatement in the next five years and then begin paying 100 percent on the improved property value.

D'Andrea would like to set up a flow sheet that would show how much the county has benefited from the state-sponsored economic development incentive. It would define where there are enterprise zone participants, when they began and where they are in abatement schedules. The goal would be to see how much the enterprise zone currently and in the future would contribute to revenues that benefit various taxing bodies, such as schools.

Abandoned railroad bridges

Previously, it was brought to the attention of county officials that abandoned railroad bridges might be suitable for future bicycle path development. The railroad was contacted and asked not to destroy current bridges.

Planning and zoning chair David Hepler said he received a letter back from the railroad offering the bridges to the county.

However, Jan Schmacher said she heard from John Sutton, who is part of the bike path planning committee. Sutton has viewed the bridges and said that none of the remaining bridges here would be usable.

The committee determined that pending consultation with county engineer Bret Aukamp, a letter would be sent to the railroad saying that the county does not want the bridges.

[By JAN YOUNGQUIST]

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