Yes. Legally built homes and structures continue as nonconforming structures under city code chapter 20.212, which the draft leaves in place. Nothing requires you to move, remove, or plant anything on day one. The new rules apply when you apply for a permit to build, expand, or rebuild. If adopted Oct 28, the ordinance takes effect Dec 31, 2026.

Yes. The draft allows maintenance and repair of existing buildings, fences, roads and utilities as long as the work does not encroach further into the buffer, and lets you keep mowing, weeding, pruning, gardening, and maintaining pathways and patios as they existed before adoption. Fences can be replaced or newly built.

The draft says new structures must be outside the buffer and the 15-foot setback, and it has no rule for additions to homes already inside the band. Existing city code (20.212) lets a nonconforming building extend along its existing line but not closer to the stream. Whether a landward addition or ADU on a house inside the band will be allowed, or will need a critical-areas report and a buffer reduction (averaging and enhancement reductions both stop at 75 feet on a 100-foot buffer; a separate rule lets the director exclude buffer areas cut off by pavement or buildings) or a reasonable-use exception, has not been answered in writing. A new patio or uncovered deck is allowed in the 15-foot setback but not in the buffer.

Yes, if you apply within six months. The draft itself is silent and defers to existing city code 20.212, which says a damaged nonconforming structure loses its grandfathered status unless a building-permit application to repair or rebuild is filed within six months of the damage. Under that same existing code, reconstruction costing more than 25% of replacement value also needs a conditional-use permit. Miss the six-month window and the structure loses its grandfathered status, so a rebuild would have to meet the new 100-foot buffer and setback. The draft adds no fix, although residents and a commissioner asked for one at the Sept 14 hearing.

The regulated buffer starts at the ordinary high water mark (the edge of the channel), top of bank, or channel migration zone, not the centerline shown here, so it extends farther than this map draws. Only a field survey by a qualified professional sets the real line, and the City has published no parcel list.

The draft requires buildings to sit 15 feet back from the buffer edge, up from 5 feet today; the director can reduce it to 5 feet with a critical-areas report. Landscaping, uncovered decks, roof overhangs up to 24 inches, walkways, patios, and rain gardens are allowed in that setback; buildings are not.

The City's own consultant (Facet, July 2026, in the Council packet) says the buffer area nearly triples, from 269 to 757 acres (2.1% to 5.8% of the city), on 43.2 stream miles. Our count on the City's own GIS layers shows about 1,490 parcels inside city limits touching the band on mapped creeks, up from about 980 at today's 35 feet. The City must plan for 2,348 new homes by 2046, state middle-housing, ADU and lot-split laws exclude lots inside critical-area buffers, and no one has counted what the band subtracts.

No. On Sept 14, 2026, after 13 people testified, the Planning Commission voted 7-0 to recommend that Council direct staff to revise the draft to fit the City's infill goals using 'available science matching local conditions.' The draft posted Oct 9 is unchanged: 100 feet on every creek.

It is the County's working GIS layer, not an adopted rule. Treat it as the best available preview until the County publishes its draft.

Inside city limits the map uses the City's layer; outside it uses the County's. They are different datasets with different rules.

The County has not published a draft yet. Its August 2026 buffer map is tiered rather than one width. Watch for its hearing dates this fall.

The County has not published a draft yet. Its August 2026 buffer map is tiered rather than one width. Watch for its hearing dates this fall.

It is the County's working GIS layer, not an adopted rule. Treat it as the best available preview until the County publishes its draft.

Mill Creek is regulated under the City's Shoreline Master Program, not the proposed Critical Areas Ordinance. The SMP sets a 35-foot buffer along the flood channel (Gose St to the Bennington Lake diversion) and shoreline jurisdiction extends 200 feet; the 100-foot creek buffer in the draft does not apply here.

College Place publishes no public GIS buffer layer. The County-mapped creek lines are shown for orientation only; the County's working buffer does not apply inside College Place.

Every Growth Management Act city in the county is on the same Dec 31, 2026 periodic-update deadline, but we have not found a College Place draft. Ask College Place Planning.