The Resource Protection District includes areas in which development could adversely affect water quality, productive habitat, biological ecosystems, or scenic and natural values. This district shall include the following areas when they occur within the limits of the shoreland zone, exclusive of the Stream Protection District, except that areas which are currently developed and areas which meet the criteria for the General Development District need not be included within the Resource Protection District:
(1) Areas within 250 feet, horizontal distance, of the upland edge of freshwater wetlands and wetlands associated with great ponds and rivers, which are rated "moderate" or "high" value waterfowl and wading bird habitat, including nesting and feeding areas, by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIF&W) that are depicted on a Geographic Information System (GIS) data layer maintained by either MDIF&W or the Maine Department of Environmental Protection as of May 1, 2006. For the purposes of this subsection, "wetlands associated with great ponds and rivers" shall mean areas characterized by nonforested wetland vegetation and hydric soils that are contiguous with a great pond or river, and have a surface elevation at or below the water level of the great pond or river during the period of normal high water. "Wetlands associated with great ponds or rivers" are considered to be part of that great pond or river.
(2) Floodplains along rivers and floodplains along artificially formed great ponds along rivers, defined by the 100-year floodplain as designated on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps or Flood Hazard Boundary Maps, or the flood of record, or in the absence of these, by soil types identified as recent floodplain soils.
(3) Areas of two or more contiguous acres with sustained slopes of 20% or greater.
(4) Areas of two or more contiguous acres supporting wetland vegetation and hydric soils, which are not part of a freshwater wetland as defined, and which are not surficially connected to a water body during the period of normal high water. NOTE: These areas usually consist of forested wetlands abutting water bodies and nonforested wetlands.
(5) Land areas along rivers subject to severe bank erosion, undercutting, or river bed movement, which are subject to severe erosion or mass movement.
(6) Other land areas designated as resource protection on the Windham Official Land Use Map.