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._ zZ -9 Lo cal wetlands plan • provokes activists By HARRY ESTEVE taking itself out of the permitting process that is The Register-Guard the concern we have." Typically, if a developer wants to build on prop - Just as city officials prepare to celebrate what erty that has been declared a wetland, he or she they consider to be the end of a 10 -year debate must obtain a permit form the Corps of Engineers. over west Eugene wetlands, along comes a nation- To get the permit, the developer must include a al environmental group to rain a lawsuit on the plan for building or improving wetlands elsewhere party. to make up for the wetlands that would be ruined At a ceremony today, Mayor Ruth Bascom will by the development. receive the federal stamp of approval on a city Under the Eugene plan — the first of its kind in plan that stipulates which parcels of land may be the nation — most of the planning already has developed for business in west Eugene and which been completed and the developer needs only to must be protected for rare plants, birds and other apply to the city for a building permit. critters. Developers still must mitigate for the loss of But Bascom, if she doesn't have it already, may the wetland, but they also have the choice of buy - also receive a copy of a letter that lays out plans ing into a "bank" of wetland property at a cost of for a lawsuit to block the city's wetlands plan. $30,000 an acre. Friends of the Earth, a group that pushes for "We're quite concerned about this as a prece- stronger wetlands protection, has filed an "intent dent," Ortman said. "The camel's nose is under the to sue" memorandum with the U.S. Army Corps of tent in Eugene, and now they're going to be run - Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection ning around doing this all over the place." Agency, the two offices with federal jurisdiction In fact, the Eugene plan is being treated as over wetlands. something of a national model. Communities look - The memo the potential required to unravel step in a legal at least a ing to resolve entrenched arguments over the val- d that has s the poten ue of wetlands are emulating Eugene's innovation decade cade of work on the Eugene e plan. The plan of sorting out well in advance which wetlands may allows industrial development to proceed west of the city while still preserving a network of season- be developed and which must be saved. al marshes. Up to now, the plan has enjoyed support from "It's not the wetlands planning that we're upset developers as well as environmentalists. If a law- about," said David Ortman, of the Friends of the suit is filed, it would represent the first organized Airth regional office in Seattle. "It's Vhe Corps Turn to WETLAND, Page 4C WETLANDS Continued from Page 1C opposition to the city's wetlands doc- lands plan during the public coin- , ument. . ment period, said Steve Gordon, wet - Friends of the Earth said it plans lands specialist with the Lane Coun- to file the lawsuit in Federal District cil of Governments. Gordon is the Court. The lawsuit will claim that chief architect of the plan. the plan violates the Clean Water "The Corps has worked with us Act and the National Environmental over the years to craft this abbrevi- Policy Act. ated permitting procedure based on Federal environmental laws re - the plan, and we believe we have the quire each wetland development to legal authority to do it," Gordon be treated individually, Ortman said. said. The public has a right to dispute At 1:30 p.m. today, Army Corps c 'ft each case on its own merits. Col. Tim Wood will present Mayor Army Corps spokesman Byron Bascom with a certificate that recog- - Blankenship said his agency isn't nines the Eugene plan as the first worried by the threat of a lawsuit. one in the country to establish the The concerns expressed by Friends new wetland development permit of the Earth are unfounded, Blank- system. The ceremony takes place enship said. in the Hult Center lobby. "We're not withdrawing from the process," he said. "We will play an The plan has received approval active role in reviewing each case." not only from the Army Corps, but Friends of the Earth initially from the EPA, the state of Oregon filed its objections to the local wet- and the city of Eugene: