This chapter shall be known as the "Stormwater Management and Erosion
Control Ordinance."
The City of Canandaigua finds that uncontrolled drainage and runoff
associated with land development has a significant impact upon the health,
safety and welfare of the community. Specifically:
A.
The City's stormwater drainage system is currently
stressed during heavy rain events, causing flooding in multiple locations.
B.
Land development activities and associated increases
in site impervious cover often alter the hydrologic response of local watersheds
and increase stormwater runoff rates and volumes, flooding, stream channel
erosion, or sediment transport and deposition.
C.
This stormwater runoff contributes to increased quantities
of water-borne pollutants, including nutrients, pathogens and siltation of
aquatic habitat for fish and other desirable species.
D.
Clearing and grading during construction tends to increase
soil erosion and add to the loss of native vegetation necessary for terrestrial
and aquatic habitat.
E.
Improper design and construction of stormwater management
practices can increase the velocity of stormwater runoff, thereby increasing
streambank erosion and sedimentation.
F.
Impervious surfaces allow less water to percolate into
the soil, thereby decreasing groundwater recharge and stream base flow.
G.
Substantial economic losses can result from these adverse
impacts on the waters of the municipality.
H.
Stormwater runoff, soil erosion phosphorus loading and
other nonpoint source pollutants can be controlled and minimized through the
regulation of stormwater runoff from land development activities.
I.
The regulation of stormwater runoff discharges from land
development activities in order to control and minimize increases in stormwater
runoff rates and volumes, soil erosion, stream channel erosion, phosphorus
loading and other nonpoint source pollutants associated with stormwater runoff
is in the public interest and will minimize threats to public health and safety.
J.
Regulation of land development activities by means of
performance standards governing stormwater management and site design will
produce development compatible with the natural functions of a particular
site or an entire watershed and thereby mitigate the adverse effects of erosion
and sedimentation from development.
It is the purpose of this chapter to protect, maintain and enhance both
the immediate and the long-term health, safety and general welfare of the
citizens of the City of Canandaigua, by regulating site preparation and construction
activities, including excavation, filling, grading, stripping, and paving,
in order to prevent problems related to erosion, flooding, sedimentation,
or drainage. In relation to this purpose, this chapter has the following objectives:
A.
Meet the requirements of minimum measures 4 and 5 of
the SPDES general permit for stormwater discharges from municipal separate
stormwater sewer systems (MS4s), Permit no. GP-02-02 or as amended or revised;
B.
Require land development activities to conform to the
substantive requirements of the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) general
permit for construction activities GP-02-01 or as amended or revised and additional
requirements in this chapter and the Enhanced Phosphorus Removal Supplement
(Chapter 10, New York State Stormwater Management Design Manual);
C.
Minimize increases in stormwater runoff from land development
activities in order to reduce flooding, siltation, increases in stream temperature,
and streambank erosion and maintain the integrity of stream channels;
D.
Minimize increases in pollution (especially phosphorus)
caused by stormwater runoff from land development activities which would otherwise
degrade local water quality;
E.
Minimize the total annual volume of stormwater runoff
which flows from any specific site during and following development to predevelopment
conditions; and
F.
Reduce stormwater runoff rates and volumes, soil erosion
and phosphorus and other nonpoint source pollutants, wherever possible, through
stormwater management practices, and ensure that these management practices
are properly maintained and eliminate threats to public safety.
In accordance with Article 2-A of the General City Law of the State
of New York, the City of Canandaigua has the authority to enact ordinances
for the purpose of promoting the health, safety or general welfare of the
City of Canandaigua, including the protection of the property of its inhabitants.
By the same authority, the City of Canandaigua may include in any such ordinance
provision for the appointment of any municipal officer or employees to effectuate
and administer such ordinance.
A.
Severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause,
phrase, or portion of these regulations is for any reason held invalid or
unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such provision or
such holding shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of these
regulations.
B.
Conflicts. The provisions of this chapter shall be held
to be the minimum requirements adopted for the promotion of the public health,
safety, and welfare. Whenever the requirements of this chapter are at variance
with the requirements of any other lawfully adopted rules, regulations, or
ordinances, the most restrictive, or that imposing the higher standards, shall
govern.
Unless specifically defined below, words or phrases shall be interpreted
so as to give them the meaning they have in common usage and to give this
chapter its most effective application. The definition of words used in the
singular shall include the plural and the plural the singular; words used
in the present tense shall include the future tense. The word "shall" connotes
mandatory and not discretionary; the word "may" is permissive.
The activity of an active farm, including grazing and watering livestock,
irrigating crops, harvesting crops, using land for growing agricultural products,
and cutting timber for sale, but shall not include the operation of a dude
ranch or similar operation or the construction of new structures associated
with agricultural activities.
A property owner or agent of a property owner who has filed an application
for a land development activity.
Any structure, either temporary or permanent, having walls and a
roof, designed for the shelter of any person, animal, or property, and occupying
more than 100 square feet of area.
A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and banks
that conducts continuously or periodically flowing water.
Any activity that removes the vegetative surface cover.
The deliberate appropriation of property by its owner for general
public use.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The New York State Stormwater Management Design Manual, most recent
version, including applicable updates, that serves as the official guide for
stormwater management principles, methods and practices.
A person who undertakes land development activities.
The most recent version of the "New York Standards and Specifications
for Erosion and Sediment Control" manual, commonly known as the "Blue Book."
Excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions
thereof.
Those surfaces, improvements and structures that cannot effectively
infiltrate rainfall, snowmelt and water (e.g., building rooftops, pavement,
sidewalks, driveways, etc.).
A State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued to a
commercial industry or group of industries which regulates the pollutant levels
associated with industrial stormwater discharges or specifies on-site pollution
control strategies.
The process of percolating stormwater into the subsoil.
An area that is inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater
at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence of vegetation
typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions, commonly known as
"hydrophytic vegetation."
Construction activity, including clearing, grading, excavating, soil
disturbance or placement of fill, that results in land disturbance.
The legal or beneficial owner of land, including those holding the
right to purchase or lease the land, or any other person holding proprietary
rights in the land.
A legally recorded document which acts as a property deed restriction
and which provides for long-term maintenance of stormwater management practices.
Pollution from any source other than from any discernible, confined,
and discrete conveyances and shall include, but not be limited to, pollutants
from agricultural, silvicultural, mining, construction, subsurface disposal
and urban runoff sources.
Clearing a parcel of land in distinct pieces or parts, with the stabilization
of each piece completed before the clearing of the next.
Phosphorus and sediment or a water quality measurement that addresses
sediment (such as total suspended solids, turbidity or siltation) and any
other pollutant that has been identified as a cause of impairment of any water
body that will receive a discharge from the land development activity.
Land development activity.
The replenishment of underground water reserves.
Measures that prevent eroded sediment from leaving the site.
Cold-water fisheries; shellfish beds; swimming beaches; groundwater
recharge areas; water supply reservoirs; habitats for threatened, endangered
or special concern species.
A permit under the New York State Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (SPDES) issued to developers of construction activities to regulate
disturbance of one or more acres of land.
A permit under the New York State Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (SPDES) issued to municipalities to regulate discharges from municipal
separate storm sewers for compliance with EPA-established water quality standards
and/or to specify stormwater control standards.
The use of practices that prevent exposed soil from eroding.
An order issued which requires that all construction activity on
a site be stopped.
Rainwater, surface runoff, snowmelt and drainage.
A land use or activity that generates higher concentrations of hydrocarbons,
trace metals or toxicants than are found in typical stormwater runoff, based
on monitoring studies.
The use of structural or nonstructural practices that are designed
to reduce stormwater runoff and mitigate its adverse impacts on property,
natural resources and the environment.
One or a series of stormwater management practices installed, stabilized
and operating for the purpose of controlling stormwater runoff.
An employee or officer designated by the municipality to accept and
review stormwater pollution prevention plans, forward the plans to the applicable
municipal board and inspect stormwater management practices.
Measures, either structural or nonstructural, that are determined
to be the most effective, practical means of preventing flood damage and preventing
or reducing point source or nonpoint source pollution inputs to stormwater
runoff and water bodies.
A plan for controlling stormwater runoff and pollutants from a site
during and after construction activities. SWPPPs are broken down into two
categories (basic and full) based on site and watershed conditions. The basic
SWPPP focuses on erosion and sediment control, and the full SWPPP includes
all the components of the basic, along with postconstruction stormwater quality
and quantity.
Flow on the surface of the ground, resulting from precipitation.
Lakes, bays, sounds, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, wells,
rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Atlantic
Ocean within the territorial seas of the State of New York and all other bodies
of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt,
public or private (except those private waters that do not combine or effect
a junction with natural surface or underground waters), which are wholly or
partially within or bordering the state or within its jurisdiction. Storm
sewers and waste treatment systems, including treatment ponds or lagoons which
also meet the criteria of this definition are not waters of the state. This
exclusion applies only to man-made bodies of water which neither were originally
created in waters of the state (such as a disposal area in wetlands) nor resulted
from impoundment of waters of the state.
A permanent or intermittent stream or other body of water, either
natural or man-made, which gathers or carries surface water.
A channel that directs surface runoff to a watercourse or to the
public storm drain.
