A.Â
Unless a contrary intention clearly appears, the following
words and phrases shall have, for the purpose of these regulations,
the meanings in the following clauses.
B.Â
For the purpose of these regulations, words and terms
used herein shall be interpreted as follows:
(1)Â
Words used in the present tense include the future.
(2)Â
The singular includes the plural.
(3)Â
The word "person" includes a corporation, institution,
partnership and association as well as the individual.
(4)Â
The word "lot" includes the word "plot" or "parcel."
(5)Â
The word "Commission" and the words "Planning Commission"
always means the Crisfield Planning Commission.
(6)Â
The word "Council" and the words "City Council" shall
always mean the Crisfield Mayor and City Council.
(7)Â
The word "county" shall always mean Somerset County.
(8)Â
The word "City" shall always mean the City of Crisfield.
(9)Â
The word "Administrator" shall always mean the Public
Works Administrator.
C.Â
Any word or term not defined herein shall be used
with a meaning of standard usage.
D.Â
ALLEY
APPLICANT
BUILDING
BUILDING SETBACK LINE
EASEMENT
IMPROVEMENTS
LOT
RIGHT-OF-WAY
RIGHT-OF-WAY, FUTURE
STREET
STREET LINE
SUBDIVISION
(1)Â
(2)Â
SUBDIVISION, MINOR
General definitions.[1]
A minor way which is used primarily for vehicular service
access to the back or the side or properties otherwise abutting a
street.
Any person who submits to the City Council and the Planning
Commission subdivision plans for the purpose of obtaining approval
thereof.
A structure having a roof which is used or intended to be
used for the shelter or enclosure of persons, animals or property.
The word "building" shall include any part thereof.
The rear line of the minimum required front yard. The building
setback line shall be measured from the future right-of-way line.
A grant of the use of a parcel of land to the use of the
public, a corporation or person for a specific purpose, without including
title to the land.
Those physical additions, installations and changes, such
as streets, curbs, sidewalks, water mains, sewers, drainage facilities,
public utilities and other appropriate items required to render land
suitable for the use proposed.
A parcel of land used or set aside and available for use
as the site of one or more buildings and buildings accessory thereto
or for any other purpose, in one ownership and not divided by a street
nor including any land within the limits of a public or private street
right-of-way.
A strip of land occupied or intended to be occupied by a
street, alley, crosswalk, sanitary or storm sewer, drainage ditch
or for another special use. The usage of the term "right-of-way" for
land-plotting purposes in the City shall mean that every right-of-way
hereafter established and shown on the final plan is to be separate
and distinct from lots or parcels adjoining such right-of-way and
not included with the dimensions or areas of such lots or parcels.
A public or private way used or intended to be used for passage
or travel by automotive vehicles and pedestrians and to provide access
to abutting properties.
The dividing line between the street and the lot. The street
line shall be the same as the legal right-of-way line, provided that
where a future right-of-way width for a street has been officially
established, the street line shall be the side of the future right-of-way
so established.
The division of a single lot, tract or parcel
of land or part thereof into two or more lots, tracts or parcels of
land for the purpose, whether immediate or future, or transfer of
ownership or of building development.
Includes resubdivision and, when appropriate
to the context, shall relate to the process of subdividing or to the
land subdivided.
The division of a single lot, tract or parcel of land into
four or fewer lots, tracts or parcels of land for the purpose, whether
immediate or future, of transfer, ownership or of building development,
provided that the proposed lots, tracts or parcels of land thereby
created have frontage on an improved public street or streets and
providing further that there is not created by the subdivision any
new street or streets.
E.Â
AFFORESTATION
ANADROMOUS FISH
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMP'S)
BUFFER
CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT
COMMUNITY PIERS
CONSERVATION EASEMENT
CRITICAL AREA
(1)Â
(2)Â
(3)Â
CRITICAL AREA COMMISSION
DENSITY
DEVELOPED WOODLANDS
DEVELOPMENT OR DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
DEVELOPMENT PAD
DISTURBED AREA
DRAINAGEWAYS
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
EXEMPTION, BUFFER
FISHERIES ACTIVITIES
FOREST
FOREST MANAGEMENT
FOREST PRACTICE
GRANDFATHERED
GROWTH ALLOCATION
(1)Â
(2)Â
HIGHLY ERODIBLE SOILS
HYDRIC SOILS
IMMEDIATE FAMILY
LAND CLEARING
MARINA
MEAN HIGH-WATER LINE
NATURAL FEATURES
NATURAL VEGETATION
NONTIDAL WETLAND
(1)Â
(2)Â
(3)Â
OFFSETS
OPEN SPACE
OPEN WATER
PAD, DEVELOPMENT
PHYSIOGRAPHIC FEATURES
REDEVELOPMENT
REFORESTATION
SHORE EROSION CONTROL MEASURES
(1)Â
(a)Â
(b)Â
(c)Â
(2)Â
SIGNIFICANT SHORELINE EROSION
SOIL CONSERVATION AND WATER QUALITY PLANS
STEEP SLOPES
TIDAL WETLANDS
TOPOGRAPHY
TRIBUTARY STREAMS
WATER-DEPENDENT FACILITIES
WILDLIFE CORRIDOR
Critical area definitions.[2]
The establishment of a tree crop on an area from which it
has always or very long been absent, or the planting of open areas
that are not presently in forest cover.
Fish that travel upstream (from their primary habitat in
the ocean) to fresh water in order to spawn.
Conservation practices or systems of practices and management
measures that control soil loss and reduce water quality degradation
caused by nutrients, animal waste, toxic substances and sediment.
Agricultural BMP's include, but are not limited to, strip cropping,
terracing, contour stripping, grass waterways, animal waste structures,
ponds, minimal tillage, grass and naturally vegetated filter strips
and proper nutrient application measures.
As spelled with a capital "B," a naturally vegetated area
or vegetated area established or managed to protect aquatic, wetland
shoreline and terrestrial environments from man-made disturbances.
In the Critical Area District, the "minimum Buffer" is a continuous
area located immediately landward of tidal waters (measured from the
mean high-water line), tributary streams in the critical area and
tidal wetlands and has a minimum width of 100 feet. The Buffer shall
be expanded beyond the minimum depth to include sensitive areas as
per requirements established in the Zoning Ordinance.[3]
A residential development in which dwelling units are concentrated
in a selected area or selected areas of the development tract so as
to provide natural habitat or other open space uses on the remainder.
Boat docking facilities associated with subdivisions and
similar residential areas and with condominium, apartment and other
multiple-family dwelling units. Private piers are excluded from this
definition.
A nonpossessory interest in land that restricts the manner
in which the land may be developed in an effort to conserve natural
resources for future use.
All lands and waters defined in § 8-1807 of the
Natural Resources Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland. They
include:
All waters of and lands under the Chesapeake
Bay and its tributaries to the head of tide as indicated on the State
Wetlands Maps and all state and private wetlands designated under
Title 9 of the Natural Resources Article of the Annotated Code of
Maryland.
All land and water areas within 1,000 feet beyond
the landward boundaries of state or private wetlands and the heads
of tides designated under Title 9 of the Natural Resources Article
of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
Modification to these areas through inclusions
or exclusions proposed by the City of Crisfield and approved by the
Commission as specified in § 8-1807 of the Natural Resources
Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
The Maryland Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission.
The number of dwelling units per acre of gross area of a
development tract, unless otherwise specified.
Areas one acre or more in size that predominantly contain
trees and natural vegetation and that also include residential, commercial
or industrial structures and uses.
Any construction, modification, extension or expansion of
buildings or structures; placement of fill or dumping; storage of
materials; land excavation; land clearing; land improvement; or any
combination thereof, including the subdivision of land.
The area of a lot within a larger overall lot area that is
devoted to structures and septic systems. In general, where a development
pad is prescribed, the remaining area of the lot must be maintained
in natural vegetation.
The area of a site where natural cover has been removed for
construction of buildings, placement of septic systems or shared facilities,
drives, roads, parking areas, etc., and not replaced.
Minor watercourses that are defined either by soil type or
by the presence of intermittent or perennial streams or topography
that indicates a swale where surface sheet flows join, including the
land, except where areas are designated as floodplain, on either side
of and within 50 feet of the center line of any intermittent or perennial
stream shown on the United States Geological Service's Seven-and-One-Half-Minute
Quadrangle Sheets covering the unincorporated areas of Somerset County.
A comprehensive report that describes the natural features
and characteristics of a proposed development site, the changes that
will occur as the result of proposed development activities on the
site, the anticipated environmental impacts and consequences of the
proposed development and mitigation measures to be taken to minimize
undesirable impacts to the environment.
An act of the Mayor and Council, approved by the Critical
Area Commission, that relieves any areas of the City from the Buffer
provisions of the Critical Area District.
Commercial water-dependent fisheries facilities, including
structures for the packing, processing, canning or freezing of finfish,
crustaceans, mollusks and amphibians and reptiles, and also including
related activities, such as wholesale and retail sales, product storage
facilities, crab shedding, off-loading docks, shellfish culture operations
and shore-based facilities necessary for aquaculture operations.
A biological community dominated by trees and other woody
plants covering a land area of one acre or more. This also includes
forests that have been cut but not cleared.
The protection, manipulation and utilization of the forest
to provide multiple benefits, such as timber harvesting, wildlife
habitat, etc.
The alteration of the forest either through tree removal
or replacement in order to improve the timber, wildlife, recreational
or water-quality values.
The status accorded certain properties and development activities
that are of record prior to the date of adoption of the Zoning Ordinance
or provisions of the Zoning Ordinance.[4]
An area of land calculated as 5% of the total
resource conservation area (excluding tidal wetlands and federally
owned land), that the county may convert to more intense management
areas to accommodate land development.
An act of the Mayor and Council, i.e., approving
the (GA) Growth Allocation Floating Zone, which provides for conversion
of a property or properties located in a resource conservation area
(RCA) and/or the limited development area (LDA) in the Critical Area
District to another land management classification which allows an
increase in the permitted density.
Soils with a slope greater than 15% or those soils with a
K value greater than 0.35 with slopes greater than 5%.
Soils that are wet frequently enough to periodically produce
anaerobic conditions, thereby influencing the species composition
or growth, or both, of plants on those soils.
The father, mother, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmother,
grandson or granddaughter.
Any activity that removes the vegetative ground cover.
Any facility for the mooring, berthing, storing or securing
of watercraft, but not including community piers and other noncommercial
boat docking and storage facilities.
The average level of high tides at a given location.
Components and processes present in or produced by nature,
including but not limited to soil types, geology, slopes, vegetation,
surface water, drainage patterns, aquifers, recharge areas, climate,
floodplains, aquatic life and wildlife.
Plant communities that develop in the absence of human activities.
An area that is inundated or saturated by surface
water or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support,
and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of
vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions,
commonly known as "hydrophytic vegetation";
Is determined according to the Federal Manual;
Does not include tidal wetlands regulated under
the Natural Resources Article, Title 9, Annotated Code of Maryland.
Structures or actions that compensate for undesirable impacts.
Undeveloped land used primarily for resource protection or
recreational purposes; land and water areas retained for use as active
or passive recreation areas in an essentially underdeveloped state
or land areas retained in natural cover, agricultural or commercial
forestry use.
Tidal waters of the state that do not contain tidal wetlands
and/or submerged aquatic vegetation.
The area of a lot within a larger overall lot area that is
devoted to structures and septic systems. In general, where a development
pad is described, the remaining area of the lot must be maintained
in natural vegetation.
The soils, topography, land slope and aspect and local climate
that influence the form and species composition of plant communities.
The process of developing land that is or has been developed.
The establishment of a forest through artificial reproduction
or natural regeneration.
Any of a number of structural and nonstructural methods or
techniques for controlling the erosion of shoreline areas. More specifically,
the term refers to:
Nonstructural: creation of an intertidal marsh
fringe channelward of the existing bank by one of the following methods:
Vegetation: planting an existing shore with
a wide band of vegetation.
Bank sloping/vegetation: sloping and planting
a nonwooded bank to manage tidal water contact, using structures to
contain sloped materials, if necessary.
Contained beach: filling along shore with sandy
materials, grading and containing the new beach to eliminate tidal
water contact with the bank.
An annual rate of erosion of two feet or greater.
Land use plans for farms that show farmers how to make the
best possible use of their soil and water resources while protecting
and conserving those resources for the future. It is a document containing
a map and related plans that indicate:
Slopes of an incline of 15% or greater.
State wetlands that are defined as any land under the navigable
waters of the state below the mean high-water line, affected by the
regular rise and fall of tide, and "private wetlands" defined as any
land not considered state wetlands bordering or lying beneath tidal
waters, that is subject to regular or periodic tidal action and supports
aquatic growth. Private wetlands includes wetlands transferred by
the state by a valid grant, lease, patent or grant confirmed by Article
5 of the Declaration of Rights of the Constitution to the extent of
the interest transferred. The term "regular or periodic tidal action"
means the rise and fall of the sea produced by the attraction of the
sun and moon uninfluenced by the wind or any other circumstance.
The existing configuration of the earth's surface, including
the relative relief, elevations and position of land features.
Perennial and intermittent streams in the critical area that
are so noted on the most recent United States Geological Survey Seven-and-One-Half-Minute
Topographic Quadrangle Maps (scale: 1:24,000) or on more detailed
maps or studies at the discretion of the local jurisdictions.
Structures or works associated with industrial, maritime,
recreational, educational or fisheries activities which the City of
Crisfield has determined require location at or near the shoreline
within the Buffer.
A strip of land having vegetation that provides habitat and
a safe passageway for wildlife.
