Town of Fairhaven, MA Definitions

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For the purposes of these rules and regulations, the following words and terms used herein are hereby defined or the meanings thereof explained, extended, or limited as stated in MGL c. 41, as amended. Where a term is defined in the Subdivision Control Law or the Fairhaven Zoning Bylaw and not herein, such definition shall be incorporated by reference herein. Other terms or words or phrases shall be construed according to the common and approved usage of the language, but technical words and phrases and such other terms or phrases as may have acquired a particular and appropriate meaning in law shall be construed and understood according to such meaning.

The following terms and words shall have the following meanings:

AASHTO

A policy on geometric design of highways and streets developed by AASHTO for highway materials and methods of sampling testing adopted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

ABUTTERS

The owners of land sharing a common property line with the owner of land referred to in a subdivision application and the owners of land directly opposite on any public or private street or way, and abutters to the abutters within 300 feet of the property line of land referred to in the application as they appear on the most recent applicable tax list, notwithstanding that the land of any such owner is located in another city/town.

ACI

Manual of Concrete Practice published by the American Concrete Institute.

APPLICANT

All owners of the land referred to in an application filed with the Planning Board, or the owner's duly authorized representative. Such representatives shall submit a letter of authorization from the record owner(s) of the land.

AQUIFER

A geologic formation composed of saturated, permeable material that contains significant amounts of potable groundwater capable of being withdrawn for public use.

BMPs

Best management practices are structural, nonstructural and managerial techniques that are recognized to be the most effective and practical means to prevent and/or reduce nonpoint source pollution.

BOARD

The Planning Board of the Town of Fairhaven.

BPW

The Board of Public Works or the Board of Public Work's authorized designee.

BUFFER STRIP

A dense planting of trees and shrubs and/or plants, which shall provide a year-round barrier that is sight impervious between the lot and the adjacent premises and provides for the proper treatment of drainage and surface water flows.

CERTIFIED BY (OR ENDORSED BY) A PLANNING BOARD

As applied to a plan or other instrument required or authorized by the Subdivision Control Law to be recorded, bearing a certification or endorsement signed by a majority of the members of the Planning Board or any other person authorized by the Planning Board to certify or endorse its approval or other action and named in a written statement to the Register of Deeds and Recorder of the Land Court, signed by a majority of the Planning Board.

DEAD-END STREET

Any street or series of streets which must be entered and exited from the same point, said point being the junction with the nearest through street.

DIGITAL FILE STANDARDS

For ANR, subdivision and as-built plans, the applicant shall submit a CD-ROM or DVD containing geographic data in accordance with the Standard for Digital Plan Submittals to Municipalities (Version 1.0) issued by the Office of Geographic and Environmental Information (MassGIS) in 2006, or the most recent edition of this publication. This publication, or any succeeding edition of this publication, is hereby incorporated as part of these regulations. The publication may be accessed via the MassGIS website: (http://www.mass.gov/mgis/standards.htm).

DRAINAGE

The outflow of water and other fluids from a site, whether by natural or artificial means.

DRAINAGE SYSTEM

All facilities, channels and areas that serve to convey, filter, store and/or receive stormwater, either on a temporary or permanent basis.

ENGINEER

Any person who is registered or otherwise legally authorized by the State of Massachusetts to perform professional civil engineering services.

EROSION

The process of wearing away the soil by either natural and/or man-made forces to other locations for desirable or undesirable reasons by means of wind, water, ice, gravity, and glaciers or by artificial means. Conditions usually, but do not always, create unvegetated and/or unstable soil conditions.

EROSION/SEDIMENTATION CONTROL

The implementation of controls which prevent erosion, restrict sedimentation movement and stabilize exposed soils during land disturbance and construction. (See the "Massachusetts Erosion and Sedimentation Control Guidelines for Urban and Suburban Areas," Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.)

EXTENDED DETENTION POND

An enhanced detention pond that provides both flood control and treatment of the first flush of stormwater runoff. Storage time for the first flush is a minimum of 48 hours.

FIRST FLUSH

The volume generated by the first 1.25 inches of stormwater runoff. This first 1.25 inches of runoff carries the majority of accumulated pollutants from impervious surfaces. The first flush treatment volume in cubic feet (V_t) is determined by the following formula:

	V_t = (1.25/12 inches)(Rv)(Site Area in square feet)
	where,
	Rv = 0.05 + 0.009(I) and I = the percent impervious area. "Impervious area" is defined as any man-made cover that is not vegetated. In residential areas, the percent impervious area is obtained from the TR-55 table "Runoff Curve Numbers for Urban Areas, Residential District by Average Lot Size."

FOREBAY

A storage area provided near a BMP inlet to trap incoming sediments before they accumulate in a basin/pond BMP.

FRONTAGE

A lot boundary line, which abuts a public or private way and across which line there is legal and physical access.

GROUNDWATER

All the water found beneath the surface of the ground. The term refers to the slowly moving subsurface water present in aquifers and recharge areas.

HAZARDOUS MATERIAL

Any substance or combination of substances, including any liquid petroleum product, that, because of quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, poses a significant present or potential hazard to water supplies or human health if generated or disposed of into or on any land or water in this Town. Any substance deemed a "hazardous waste" in MGL c. 21C, as amended, shall also be deemed a hazardous material for the purposes of these rules and regulations.

HYDROLOGIC SOIL GROUP

A soil characterization classification system defined by the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. Soils within the same group have the same runoff potential under similar storm and cover conditions.

IMPERVIOUS SURFACE/AREA

Impermeable surface, such as pavement or rooftop, which prevents the infiltration of water into the soil.

LEACHABLE WASTES

Waste material, including solid wastes, sewage, sludge and agricultural wastes that are capable of releasing waterborne contaminants to the surrounding environment.

LOT

An area of land in one ownership, with definite boundaries, used, or available for use, as the site of one or more buildings complying with the area, frontage and other requirements of the Zoning Bylaws of the Town of Fairhaven.

OWNER

The owner of record as shown by the records in the Bristol County S. D. Registry of Deeds or Land Court Registry or the most recent Assessors' records.

PEAK DISCHARGE

The maximum rate of flow during a storm, usually in reference to a specific design storm event (i.e., two-year, ten-year, twenty-five-year, one-hundred-year, twenty-four-hour storm event).

PERVIOUS SURFACE/AREA

Surfaces or soils which are permeable, allowing water to pass or migrate downward.

PLAN, DEFINITIVE

A proposed, detailed plan of a subdivision submitted by the applicant to be recorded in the Registry of Deeds or Land Court when approved by the Planning Board.

PLAN, PRELIMINARY

A plan of a subdivision submitted by the applicant showing sufficient information to form a clear basis for discussion and clarification of its general contents and for the preparation of a definitive plan.

RECHARGE

The return of water to an underground aquifer by natural or artificial means.

RECHARGE AREA

Any area of porous, permeable geologic deposits, especially, but not exclusively, deposits of sand and gravel, through which water from any source will recharge an aquifer.

RESERVE STRIP

A piece of land between the boundary of the subdivision street or way that would be used to prohibit the extension of the street to an adjacent street or subdivision.

SEDIMENT

Soil material, such as, but not limited to, organic matter, rock, sand, silt, or gravel and transported or deposited by erosion, the movement of wind, water, ice, gravity, glaciers or by artificial means.

STREET

(1)

An improved public way laid out by the Town of Fairhaven, or the Bristol County Commissioners, or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; or

(2)

A way which the Fairhaven Town Clerk certifies is maintained by public authority and used as a public way; or

(3)

A public or private way, improved in accordance with a plan approved and endorsed by the Planning Board under the Fairhaven Subdivision Rules and Regulations and the Subdivision Control Law; or

(4)

A way in existence as of January 1, 1957, having in the opinion of the Planning Board sufficient width, suitable grades and adequate construction to accommodate the vehicular traffic anticipated by reason of the proposed use of the land abutting thereon or served thereby and for the installation of municipal services to serve such land and the buildings erected or to be erected thereon. A public or private way shall not be deemed to be a street as to any lot of land that does not have rights of access to and passage over said way.

STREET, COLLECTOR

A street which collects, or may reasonably be expected to collect, traffic from several minor streets, or which handles traffic equivalent to that generated by 50 homes or more, or which serves nonresidential fronting property.

STREET, LANE

A street which, by its location and design, may not reasonably be expected to service nonresidential property, or serve as a means of access to more than 10 homes.

STREET, MINOR

A street which cannot qualify as a lane, but which can be expected to handle less traffic than a collector street.

STREET, PAPER

A street shown on a recorded plan but never built on the ground.

SUBDIVIDER

See "applicant."

SUBDIVISION

The division of a tract of land into two or more lots and shall include resubdivision and, when appropriate to the context, shall relate to the process of subdivision of the land or territory subdivided; provided, however, that the division of a tract of land into two or more lots shall not be deemed to constitute a subdivision within the meaning of the Subdivision Control Law if, at the time when it is made, every lot within the tract so divided has frontage on a public way or a way which the Clerk of the Town certifies is maintained and used as a public way, or a way shown on a plan theretofore approved and endorsed in accordance with the Subdivision Control Law, or a way in existence on January 1, 1957, when the Subdivision Control Law became effective in the Town, having, in the opinion of the Planning Board, sufficient width, suitable grades and adequate construction to provide for the needs of vehicular traffic in relation to the proposed use of the land abutting thereon or served thereby, and for the installation of municipal services to serve such land and the buildings erected or to be erected thereon. Such frontage shall be of at least such distance as is then required by zoning or other ordinance or bylaw, if any, of said Town for erection of a building on such lot, and if no distance is so required, such frontage shall be of at least 20 feet. Conveyances or other instruments adding to, taking away from or changing the size and shape of a lot in such a manner as not to leave any lot so affected without the frontage above set forth, or the division of a tract of land on which two or more buildings were standing on January 1, 1957, when the Subdivision Control Law went into effect in the Town, into separate lots on each of which one of such buildings remains standing shall not constitute a subdivision.

SUBDIVISION CONTROL LAW

MGL c. 41, §§ 81K to 81GG, inclusive, entitled "Subdivision Control," as last amended.

SURFACE WATER

Water on the earth's surface, exposed to the atmosphere, such as rivers, lakes, streams and creeks.

SURFACE WATER QUALITY CLASSIFICATIONS

Waters designated for protection under 314 CMR 4.04 (2).

SURVEYOR

Any person who is registered or otherwise legally authorized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to perform land-surveying services.

TR-20

A NRCS hydrology procedure for complex watersheds. The computer program calculates runoff volumes, peak discharges and hydrographs at various locations in the watershed. Design storms and actual rainfall events can be analyzed.

TR-55

Presents simplified hydrology procedures to calculate runoff volumes and peak discharge in small watersheds. It is based on TR-20 hydrology procedures and actual TR-20 computer runs.

VERNAL POOL HABITAT

Confined basin depressions which, at least in most years, hold water for a minimum of two continuous months during the spring and/or summer, and which are free of adult fish populations, as well as the area within 100 feet of the mean annual boundaries of such depressions, to the extent that such habitat is within an area subject to protection under MGL. c. 131, § 40, as specified in 310 CMR 10.02(1). These areas are essential breeding habitat, and provide other extremely important wildlife habitat functions during nonbreeding seasons as well, for a variety of amphibian species such as wood frog (Rana sylvatica) and the spotted salamander (Ambystoma macultum), and are important habitat for other wildlife species.

V_t = (1.25/12 inches)(R_v)(Site Area in square feet) where, R_v = 0.05 + 0.009(I) I = the % impervious area. Impervious area is defined as any man-made cover that is not vegetated. In residential areas, the percent impervious is obtained from the TR-55 table "Runoff Curve Numbers for Urban Areas, Residential District by Average Lot Size."

WETLANDS

As defined in MGL c. 131, § 40, as may be amended.

WETLANDS BUFFER

Areas that surround and protect a wetland from adverse impacts to its function and values.

WETLAND RESOURCE AREA

Those resource areas subject to the Wetlands Protection Act, MGL c. 131, § 40, enumerated in 310 CMR 10, as may be amended, and those resource areas subject to the Town of Fairhaven Wetlands Bylaw, as may be amended.