April 2017 Skinny

1. Inside views and news
The SKINNY
G E O R G E T O W N - S C O T T C O U N T Y
P L A N N I N G C O M M I S S I O N
April 2017
March
New building permits
City 71
County 34
Subdivision plats
reviewed and recorded 15
LOC sureties $ 3.9M
Cash sureties $ 455K
Mapping Your World
You may have noticed that
Main Street in Stamping
Ground is getting a new look.
The first phase is the ten ban-
ners being installed along the
street, and planning for the sec-
ond phase is underway. Our
GIS department is working with
Stamping Ground to determine
appropriate placement and map-
ping of the banners. New land-
scaping is planned in the revital-
ization of Main Street as well!
Construction Progress
Camping World, as shown
looking east from a drone, is
scheduled to open in mid-
August.
Plant a tree!
How does your Planning Office help protect our environment?
We administer local ordinances and regulations intended for that purpose. Following are
some of these ordinances:
Environmentally sensitive area regulations encourage property owners to “design around”
sensitive areas and regulate what can go into and be built around karst features.
Stormwater Management regulations and the Best Management Practices (BMP) manual con-
trol how a developed site can discharge its excess runoff. These regulations address the quantity
and quality of runoff allowed to leave the site and requires a specified amount of the runoff to be
retained and allowed to infiltrate back into the ground to “recharge” our underground water sup-
plies. The quality of runoff is addressed by requiring new developments to provide a means of
filtering potential pollutants in stormwater from leaving their site and reaching our streams.
Erosion and sediment from construction sites with bare ground is controlled by local regula-
tions as well as Federal (EPA) and State (KDOW-KPDES). Construction sites disturbing more
than 5,000 square feet must install measures to prevent (to the Maximum Extent Practicable) sed-
iment from leaving the site during lower frequency (up to two year) storm events.
Our local Landscape Regulations help the environment by requiring trees and other vegetation
to be planted as part of development. The number of trees required is directly related to the
amount of vehicle usage area proposed and to meet a certain amount of canopy coverage after de-
velopment.
We also participate in the Royal Spring Wellhead Protection Committee, help the City of
Georgetown meet its EPA MS4 Requirements, and recycle our office paper, plastic, and aluminum!
Why is Earth Day on April 22?
The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, marked the beginning of the modern environmental
movement. Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson is credited with suggesting April 22 in order
to maximize the number of students who could participate in a grassroots demonstration
aimed at protecting the environment, as this was spring break. But the April 22 date for the
first Earth Day also stemmed from the much earlier observance of Arbor Day, which began
in Nebraska in 1872.
J. Sterling Morton was a Nebraska pioneer, a writer and editor for Nebraska’s first news-
paper, and later secretary of the Nebraska Territory. He advocating planting trees in what
was then a dusty and treeless prairie. Morton proposed that Nebraska citizens set aside April
10 as a day to plant trees. He suggested offering prizes as incentives for communities and
organizations that planted the most trees. It’s said that
Nebraskans planted about one million trees on that first
Arbor Day in 1872. Ten years later, in 1882, Nebraska
declared Arbor Day as a legal holiday and the date was
changed to Morton’s birthday, April 22. Arbor Day grew
to become a national observance.
It seemed natural to schedule April 22, 1970 – Arbor
Day – as the first Earth Day. Today, a common practice in
celebration of Earth Day is still to plant new trees.