Native Growth Protection Area / Critical Area Protection Area
All critical areas and buffers regulated under Chapter 30.62, 30.62A SCC shall be permanently protected by designating them as native growth protection areas (NGPA) / critical area protection areas (CAPA).
"Critical area protection areas" (formerly known as "Native growth protection areas") means those areas which are to be left permanently undisturbed in a substantially natural state and in which no clearing, grading, filling, building construction or placement, or road construction of any kind is allowed.
A PDS Biologist verifies the location of all CAPA's/NGPA's and insures that these areas designated for permanent protection are accurately identified on binding site development plans (subdivisions or plats). For other types of development activities, such as conditional use permits, shoreline permits, or certain utility projects, a Native Growth Protection Area (NGPA) Critical Areas Site Plan (CASP) (pdf) is the document used to designate and record native growth protection areas and restrictions thereof. There is an accompanying CASP Requirement document.
Other documents of interest:
Critical Area Protection Area (CAPA) Critical Areas Site Plan (CASP) with Acknowledgement (MS Word)
Critical Area Protection Area (CAPA) Critical Areas Site Plan (CASP) (pdf)
In order to receive project approval, there are three critical areas regulations requirements related to the designation of CAPA/NGPA that shall be fulfilled:
- Prior to any development activity occurring on-site, the applicant shall mark with temporary markers in the field, the boundary of all CAPA/NGPA using methods and materials acceptable to the county. The preferred method for this requirement is orange barrier fencing, in order to prevent accidental intrusion into critical areas during construction.
- Critical area boundaries shall be permanently marked on the site prior to final inspection by the county, using materials and methods acceptable to the county. For details, see NGPA Sign Installation Guidelines (pdf) and CAPA Sign Installation Guidelines (pdf)
An example of a properly installed Type 1 CAPA/NGPA sign. (Photo by Sean Curran)
- The native growth protection areas shall be delineated on binding site development plans or a CASP which shall be recorded with the County Auditor, in conjunction with approval from a PDS Biologist.
Many of the documents are in pdf format. To read these files you'll need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.