Commissioners unanimously approved new standards for protecting environmentally-sensitive areas from development.

Commissioners agreed to modify previously approved rules that had become problematic in some areas.

The new standards remove the categories of rocky outcroppings, individually significant mature trees, native prairie remnants and steep slopes as categories that must be protected.

But the standards continue to protect floodway areas, woodlands and several other features. The new standards also will give developers the ability to increase the density of a project if they protect more environmentally-sensitive areas than the code requires.