wetlands

[rantumscoot]

Anyone have experience is dealing with agricultural acreage that is also a wetland? I bought a parcel in New England that is a producing apple orchard and also declared as wet (when previous owner tried to build on it, he was turned down).

My state's Wetland Protection Act says that "this section shall not apply to..... work performed for normal maintenance or improvement of land in agricultural use..."

rantumscoot

 

[Darren]

A lot depends on how much of a budget the agency enforcing the law gets and the amount of staff. Lot's of money and lots of inspectors means someone looking over your shoulder. I recently visited an area on the Jersey shore which is mostly wetland. I was surprised to hear that the Army Corps of Engineers had been out looking at areas that landowners had raised with sand. Some were forced to remove the sand. Others now have to pay a yearly fee for each pile in a riparian area.

I'd get an official rulling on what maintenance and other work is permitted if you're a by the book kind of person. Recognize that based on the day of the week, the phase of the moon, the barometric pressure and the color of the car driving by the window of the bureaucrat responding, you'll get some sort of answer you may or may not be able to live with.

The local building permit office may also be able to provide some guidance. Here in rural West Virginia which doesn't have lots of money thus few if any bureaucrats, we have a part time dog catcher for the whole county and no building inspector at all, things are much looser. It sounds like you're in a much tighter area since the previous owner already went to bat and struck out. I'd be careful.

 

[Junkman]

New England is one of the worse places to get a answer on wetland questions. Once it is declared "wetland" I have heard that it is just about impossible to have it declared anything else. I suggest that you hire a qualified engineer to look at the parcel and make suggestions as to how you could make the best use of it. I have also seen some towns that will allow almost anything. Some of the Wetland Commissions are lenient and others go "by the book" and some go overboard sometimes.

 

[PhoneGuy]

As was mentioned previously a lot of state agency oversight
has to do with their level of manpower, but also they tend to get a lot of help from disgruntled neighbors and the like. Here
in Florida, of course, we have a lot of wetland issues, and I have seen it happen a number of times where someone with
wetlands will dump loads of dirt on their property or try and improve it in some way and then be turned in by a neighbor with a grudge.
In our state you can grow a crop like you mentioned or you can have animals roam on it. You can even possibly get a waiver to build but they wont' give you much.