Actually the Senate amended a House Bill to include a July 1 date. The question has been will the House to go along with it. It will take a few days for the House committee that the bill goes back to now to hear the bill. If they concur with the Senate's amendments then it goes full Senate for final vote, then to the Governor's desk for signature. (Funny I seem to find myself humming "I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill..." from the old Saturday morning schoolhouse rock cartoon waaayyy too often lately...) The revised CSPA is still in effect.
For those of you that want try to get projects in during the interim if it gets rolled back, please be careful. Find a copy of the old law and read it. Make sure that what you're doing does not violate the CSPA. The simple truth of the matter is that the only parts of the CSPA that are any stricter are the impervious surface limits, the fact that you need a permit, and the inclusion of the duff layer in the defination of ground cover.
For example, the removal of the shrub and herbaeceous layer has always been prohibited but was violated about as frequently as the 150 ft headway speed rule. Under the previous language of the CSPA the removal of this layer was prohibited within the full 150 ft woodland buffer. Now it is only prohibited in the first 50 ft and in the minimum, required undisturbed areas between 50 and 150 ft. So again, please make sure that whatever you're doing is not a violation of the version of the law that is in effect at the time you are doing it. When in doubt about what version of the law is in effect and what that particular version actually says, call us at (603) 271-2147. We always have a technical staff member dedicated to answering incoming phone calls.
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