Don Mitroff, president of Mitroff Cos., a home building firm in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, had a project that involved three acres of wetlands. The Corps required him to mitigate .6 acres. He chose mitigation banking. It was easy. Once I paid the money, the process was over for me.
Time is worth money, especially up here, where building seasons are short.
That s why Stan Settle of Pulte Home Corp. used the Julie J. Metz Mitigation Bank in Northern Virginia for a recent 125-acre project. There was really no room to mitigate on site, says Settle, vice president of land for the Washington, D.C. area builder. Without the option of buying mitigation credits, we would have had to do something different and much more expensive. If you re working with a proven bank, however, the Corps is less likely to feel the need to include all that stuff. There are no national average numbers on the costs of credits.