10.0 The Agency may consider the following in making its decision on an application:

a. the application and its supporting documentation,

b. public comments, evidence and testimony form a public hearing,

c. reports from other agencies and commissions including but not limited to the City of Shelton:

1. Conservation Commission

2. Planning, Zoning, or Planning and Zoning Commissions

3. Building Official

4. Health Officer

d. The Agency may also consider comments on any application from the Fairfield County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Valley Regional Planning Agency or other regional organizations (i.e. Council of Elected Officials); agencies in adjacent municipalities which may be affected by the proposed activity, or other technical agencies or organizations which may undertake additional studies or investigations.

e. Non-receipt of comments from agencies and commissions listed in 10.1 c above within the prescribed time shall neither delay nor prejudice the decision of the Agency.

10.2 Standards and criteria for decision.

The Agency shall consider all relevant facts and circumstances in making its decision on any application for a permit, including but not limited to the following:

a. The environmental impact of the proposed action, including the effects on the inland wetland's and watercourse's capacity to support fish and wildlife, to prevent flooding, to supply and protect surface and ground waters, to control sediment, to facilitate drainage, to control pollution, to support recreational activities, and to promote public health and safety.

b. The alternatives to the proposed action including a consideration of alternatives which might enhance environmental quality or have a less detrimental effect and which could feasibly attain the basic objectives of the activity proposed in the application. This consideration should include, but is not limited to, the alternative of requiring actions of different nature which would provide similar benefits with different environmental impacts, such as using a different location for the activity.

c. The relationship between the short-term uses of the environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity including consideration of the extent to which the proposed action forecloses or predetermines future options.

d. Irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be in involved in the proposed activity. This requires recognition that the inland wetlands and watercourses of the City of Shelton are an indispensable, irreplaceable and fragile natural resource, and that these areas may be irreversibly destroyed by deposition, filling, and removal of material, by the diversion, diminution or obstruction of water flow including low flows, and by the erection of structures and other uses

e. The character and degree of injury to, or interference with, safety, health, or the reasonable use of property. including abutting or downstream property, which would be caused or threatened by the proposed activity, or the creation of conditions which may do so. This includes recognition of potential damage from erosion, turbidity, or siltation, loss of fish and wildlife and their natural habitat loss of unique habitat having demonstrable natural, scientific, or educational value, loss or diminution of beneficial aquatic organisms and wetland plants, the dangers of flooding and pollution, and the destruction of the economic, aesthetic, recreational, and other public and private uses and values of wetlands and watercourses to the community.

f. The suitability of the activity to the area for which it is proposed. This requires a balancing of the need for the economic growth of the city and the use of its land, with the need to protect its environment and ecology for the people of the city and the benefit of generations yet unborn, taking into account whether the public benefit of the proposed activity justifies any possible degradation to the regulated area.

g. Measures which would mitigate the impact of any aspect of the proposed regulated activity(ies). Such measures include, but are not limited to, actions which would avoid adverse impacts or lessen impacts to wetlands and watercourses and which could be feasibly carried out by the applicant and would protect the wetlands or watercourse's natural capacity to support fish and wildlife, prevent flooding, supply water, control sedimentation, prevent erosion, assimilate wastes, facilitate drainage, and to provide passive recreation and open space.

10.3 The Commission shall consider the following in the process of implementing section 10.2 in evaluating the importance of a regulated area:

a. the ability of the regulated area to continue to absorb, store or purify water, or to prevent flooding;

b. the increased erosion problems, during construction and after, resulting from changes in grades, ground cover, or drainage features;

c. the extent of additional siltation or leaching and its affect on water quality and aquatic life;

d. the influence of toxic materials on water supplies, aquatic organisms or wildlife;

e. the changes in the volume, velocity, temperature or course of a waterway and their resulting effects on plant animal aquatic life;

f. the natural, historic, educational, or economic features that might be damaged, destroyed, rendered unaccessible or otherwise affected by the proposed activity;

g. the changes in the suitability of the area for recreational and aesthetic enjoyment;

h. the existing or potential use of the area as a surface or ground water supply

1. the extent to which the area serves as a recharge area or purifier of surface or ground water,

j. the function of the area serves as part of a natural drainage system for the watershed;

k. the importance of the area as a natural wildlife feeding or breeding area including those upland species typically associated with wetlands or wetland edges.

l. the existence of rare or unusual concentrations of botanical species;

m. the existing and potential use of the area for passive recreation purposes;

n. the availability of other open spaces in the surrounding area to augment the importance of the regulated area in question.

10.4 In the case of any application which received a public hearing, a permit shall not be issued unless the Agency finds that a feasible and prudent alternative does not exist. In making this finding, the Agency shall consider the facts and circumstances set forth in Section 10 of these regulations. This finding and the reasons, therefore, shall be stated on the record in the decision of the Agency.

10.5 In reaching its decision on any application after a public hearing, the Agency shall base its decision on the record of that hearing. Documentary evidence or other material not in the hearing record shall not be considered by the Agency in its decision. However, the Agency is not precluded from seeking advice from its own experts on information already in the record of the public hearing.