All Exceptions require additional documentation. See I01 Exception Documentation Summary Table.
PL-001 Protection or Interpretation of L1 and other Priority Natural Lands
Projects may be sited in an L1 Transect and on other Priority Natural Lands when the project’s primary purpose is related to the protection or interpretation of those sites, and when the project team can demonstrate how the project contributes to the conservation of the subject ecology. The project should be sited in a location that affords the greatest level of protection and the least disturbance of the Priority Natural Lands.
Project teams must provide evidence of the organization’s primary purpose of protection, restoration, and/or interpretation of the sensitive ecology. In floodplains, project teams must also document how the project is appropriately designed to be resilient during and after a 100-year flood.
PL-002 Working Farms, Ports, or Docks
Projects that have a primary purpose related to farming or are a working farm/farmhouse, that are a working port or dock operation, or that are Landscape or Infrastructure projects, may build within the 100-year floodplain. Project teams must provide at least one legal and one economic document to prove the farm, port, or dock is currently operating, as well as documentation that the project is designed appropriately to be resilient during and after a flood. Farm operations may also build on prime farmland.
PL-003 Historic or Urban Communities in Floodplains
Projects that are part of an existing historic community developed prior to 1945, or that are within Transects L5 or L6, may build within the 100-year floodplain. Projects not in L5 or L6 must show that the project is either on a site that was developed by 1945, or is outside of the floodplain.
PL-004 Educational Landscapes
Landscaped areas can be maintained as specific types of ecosystems for educational purposes. Project teams must provide documents verifying the educational purpose of maintaining the ecosystem in a particular state.
PL-005 Sites Designated for Increased Density
Sites in Transects L3–L6 containing USDA NRCS designated Prime Farmlands, which are located within areas designated for increased density through a regionally-sanctioned and managed urban growth boundary, may be developed under this Imperative. The project team must document that the regionally-sanctioned and managed urban growth boundary meets the following characteristics:
- Geographically defined to proscribe a contained urban development area.
- Modified only through a regional authority (i.e., county or multijurisdictional metropolitan area) and higher.
- Established based on both human and environmental needs, limiting sprawl and growth based on appropriate infilling and densification strategies.
- Based on growth-management planning that addresses protection and continuity of agriculture and farmland within the overall planning area in all cases where the site in question includes prime farmland.
