Springfield Township Riparian Corridor Conservation District Study

July 2, 2008 • Prepared by MCPC • not to scale

This map was developed using hydrologic data published by the Philadelphia Water Department working in conjunction with the Wissahickon Watershed Partnership. The data was developed using accurate two-foot contour intervals and provides the best, currently available, source of measurement from the top of streambanks. The data does not however, discriminate between perennial and intermittent streams.

Click pictures for enlargements

1 This is a map of the township with stream location data derived from the Montgomery County soil survey. The solid lines are perennial streams and the dotted lines are intermittent streams. This data is quite inaccurate being that it was created in 1967. Until the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) published data from its study of stormwater basins in the watershed, this was the best available information.
2 The yellow box is the area enlarged in map 3, at right.	3 The dotted blue line is the center of the stream from the soil survey data. The transparent area in the streambed is the PWD data. It is much more accurate and more closely approximates the location of the streambank. The set of parallel red lines is the Riparian Conservation District (RCD) overlay. The inner portion is Zone 1 and the outer area is Zone 2. The blue area is the approximate location of the Floodplain Conservation District (FCD). As you can see, many existing structures are impacted by the RCD and FCD.
4 We were able to create a better map of the RCD overlay with this information.	5 We found that 634 properties would be impacted by the RCD.
6 Of those 634, 324 had a home or business located in the RCD (shown with red dots). That means that when the aerial photograph was examined, some portion (or in some cases all) of the structure intersected the RCD (either Zone 1 or Zone 2).	7 Of those 324, 215 were already located in the FCD and most likely nonconforming structures (shown with red dots), having been built prior to enaction of the FCD. Therefore, 109 structures (shown with yellow dots) would be newly impacted by the RCD. These owners would be regulated by the nonconforming section of the Springfield Zoning Code, which limits expansion to 25% of gross floor area or 25% of the lot coverage.

Please contact Sean Metrick at the Montgomery County Planning Commission with any questions concerning the contents of this presentation.