T he 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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