House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

Posted:	March 21, 2017 04:27 PM
From:	Representative Cris Dush
To:	All House members
Subject:	Grandfather Clause- Clean Streams Law (Act 162 of 2014)

In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation which would provide a grandfather clause to restore the 150 foot riparian buffer along streams to any tax-payer funded project(s) prior to the enactment of Act 162 of 2014. When Act 162 of 2014 was passed it increased the riparian buffers along certain trout streams from 50 feet to 150 feet. There was no grandfather clause for projects that were already under development. The Nine Star Development at Exit 81 along Interstate 80 already has some $600,000 of the taxpayers money invested for water, sewer, development etc. An area of some 34 football fields now crisscross the development that has been rendered unusable by the strict interpretation of the new regulations even though the water coming from the ground in this location has a high iron content due to it being a former surface mine operation. This has caused a number of businesses to move on to other locations, some out-of-state. The legislation I’m requesting would amend Act 162 to grandfather any project that has received taxpayer money, from whatever the source, prior to Act 162 becoming law. Further, it would grandfather any development that had put private funds into developing lands to meet matching fund obligations for developing a property and for any project for which significant private investment (based on the wealth of the individual or investing company) was made in good faith to develop said property, prior to the law.
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