Multimedia Journalist
Toby Mohr, from Sparta, is a multi-media journalist at News 18.
Members of the Chippewa Valley biodiversity partnership held a demonstration
EAU CLAIRE (WQOW)- An environmental group in Eau Claire is looking to make their input heard in the city’s century code update, claiming there isn’t enough focus on biodiversity.
As we’ve reported before, for the century code update the City of Eau Claire is going through and updating zoning codes and ordinances and currently taking input from the public.
On Monday members of the Chippewa Valley Biodiversity Partnership (CVBP) held a demonstration before the zoning commission’s public input session, pushing for the city to include more ordinances to support biodiversity.
Specifically, CVBP cofounder Jane Mohler said they want to see ordinances that support regulating bird-friendly first floor windows in commercial buildings, require 70% of plants that replace those cleared for commercial buildings to be native plant species, and ordinances to increase and protect the city’s tree cover to 40%.
“We want to work together with them [the city]. We’re not anti-growth, we’re pro-smart growth,” Mohler said. “We want to work with the city so our children and grandchildren can enjoy the very beauty and nature we enjoy today.”
Eau Claire’s city planning manager told News 18 they are looking to add new ordinances with the zoning update related to environmental conservation, including bird-friendly building rules, native plant considerations in landscaping, and pre-preservation ordinances for replacing trees. Noel said those ordinances would all be new to the city code.
Mohler said the latest code drafts don’t do enough to support biodiversity, and the group wants it to be a larger focus.
Have a story idea? Let us know here
Multimedia Journalist
Toby Mohr, from Sparta, is a multi-media journalist at News 18.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.
We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: