Selectmen OK Standalone Flood & Erosion Board

The Board of Selectmen approved a measure Monday to create a standalone Flood and Erosion Control Board, the first recommendation of the Flood Mitigation Strategy Committee to see direct action by the town.

The potential ordinance now heads to the Representative Town Meeting, whose next meeting is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 27.

Describing it the "low-hanging fruit" of the recommendations unveiled by the committee in July, Town Administrator Karl Kilduff said Monday that the move "undoes prior action to merge them together."

Currently, authority over flood and erosion control rests with the Environmental Protection Committee, but Kilduff explained that this presented a conflict.

"The problem with the two put together was that EPC's role is to deal with environmental protection," Kilduff said. "Sometimes environmental protection doesn't always square with pulling something out of the impact of a floodplain. They become two different animals."

According to Kilduff, a building proposal would only come before the FECB if it was located in or would otherwise impact a floodplain.

"It depends on the unique features of your project and the site that it's on," he added.

"I think this is a good idea," Selectman David Bayne said. "We already have a Flood and Erosion Control Board, it's just in with the EPC right now, and the problem is that there's an inherent conflict between the two roles."

First Selectman Dave Campbell said that board members had not been identified yet, and that the town is aware that finding five people "takes time."

The measure passed unanimously save for Selectman Callie Sullivan, who was not present at Monday's meeting.