"They're penalizing about 2,000 property owners along the streams with undue economic hardship," Darley said. "It changes the nature of my ability to use my property."

The proposed ordinance details the do's and don'ts for property within 100 feet, 50 feet and 25 feet of creek or stream banks, growing more restrictive closer to the waterway. The ordinance calls for all existing construction and structures to be grandfathered in.

For Darley, those restrictions would prevent him from making just about any changes to his property — other than yard cleanup and structure maintenance — without first getting special permits.

"Twenty-five feet is through my bedroom, 50 feet is through my garage and 100 feet takes in the whole dang house," he said. "My bedroom is about 15 feet from the water."

Some residents own more property on the other side of the creek from their homes, Condie said, meaning their property rights would be restricted on as much as 200 feet of land.

"They lose twice," he said.

Condie said his main gripe with the proposed ordinance is that it doesn't accomplish its objective. The ordinance only addresses pollution, he said, not erosion control or stream-bed stabilization, and the 2,000 or so property owners along city creeks are responsible for very little — if any — of that pollution.

The main pollution problem, Condie said, is that there's no sewer main up Emigration Canyon. Then there's the fact that the city has been using creeks as the dumping destinations of storm drains.

"The entire population equally shares in polluting the creek because the storm drains empty into them," he said. "Yet this moratorium has affected approximately 2,000 owners who have stream banks passing through their property."

Love, however, said she sees the ordinance as a first step in tackling some of those larger pollution issues.

"There are lots of pieces of that pie," she said, "and as a council, we intend to get to those pieces. Right now, we're dealing with this one piece."

The ordinance has support of several environmental groups, including the nonprofit Utah Rivers Council, which agrees that the ordinance is a positive start.

Love said she expects the council to adopt something Tuesday, because the moratorium is set to expire at the end of the week. Still, she said the council hasn't had enough time to "thoroughly plan and do this ordinance right" and that it likely will be revisited after studies are done to better gauge what protections are needed for specific stream corridors.

"We will adopt something, but my guess is it won't be the final thing," Love said.