This Chapter
164 shall be known as the "Stormwater Management and Erosion and Sediment Control Law of the Village of Phoenix."
It is hereby determined that:
A. Land development activities associates 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;
B. This stormwater runoff contributes to increased quantities
of water-borne pollutants, including siltation of aquatic habitat
for fish and other desirable species;
C. Clearing and grading during construction tends to
increase soil erosion and add to the loss of native vegetation necessary
for terrestrial and aquatic habitat;
D. Impervious surfaces allow less water to percolate
into the soil, thereby decreasing groundwater recharge and stream
baseflow;
E. Substantial economic losses can result from these
adverse impacts on the waters of the municipality;
F. Stormwater runoff, soil erosion and nonpoint source
pollution can be controlled and minimized through the regulation of
stormwater runoff from land development activity;
G. 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, and nonpoint source pollution associated with stormwater
runoff is in the public interest and will minimize threats to public
health and safety;
H. 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.
The purpose of this chapter is to establish minimum stormwater management requirements and controls to protect and safeguard the general health, safety, and welfare of the public residing within this jurisdiction and to address the findings of fact in §
164-2 hereof. This chapter seeks to meet those purposes by achieving 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 NYS Department of Environmental
Conservation State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES)
General Permit for Construction Activities GP-02-01, or as amended
or revised;
C. Minimize increases in stormwater runoff from land
development activities in order to reduce flooding, siltation and
streambank erosion and maintain the integrity of stream channels;
D. Minimize increases in pollution caused by stormwater
runoff from land development activities which would otherwise degrade
local water quality;
E. Minimize to the extent otherwise legally required,
the peak rate of stormwater runoff which flows from any specific site
during and following development to an amount equal to or less than
the peak rate prior to development; and
F. Reduce stormwater runoff rates and soil erosion and
nonpoint source pollution, wherever possible, through stormwater management
practices and to ensure that these management practices are properly
maintained and eliminate threats to public safety.
In accordance with § 10 of the Municipal
Home Rule Law of the State of New York, the Village Board of Trustees
of Phoenix has the authority to enact local laws and amend local laws
and for the purpose of promoting the health, safety or general welfare
of the Village of Phoenix and for the protection and enhancement of
its physical environment. The Village Board of Trustees of Phoenix
may include in any such local law provisions for the appointment of
any municipal officer, employees, or independent contractor to effectuate,
administer and enforce such local law.
The following activities may be exempt from
review under this chapter:
A. Agricultural activity as defined in this chapter;
B. Routine maintenance activities that disturb less than
five acres and are performed to maintain the original line and grade,
hydraulic capacity or original purpose of a facility;
C. Repairs to any stormwater management practice or facility
deemed necessary by the Stormwater Management Officer;
D. Any part of a subdivision if a final plat for the
subdivision, or part thereof, has been approved by the Village of
Phoenix on or before the effective date of this chapter;
E. Land development activities for which a building permit
has been approved on or before the effective date of this chapter;
G. Installation of fence, sign, telephone, and electric
poles and other kinds of posts or poles;
H. Emergency activities immediately necessary to protect
life, property or natural resources;
I. Activities of an individual engaging in home gardening
by growing flowers, vegetable and other plants primarily for use by
that person and his or her family.
The terms used in this chapter or in documents
prepared or reviewed under this chapter shall have the meaning as
set forth in this section:
AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY
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 operation of a dude ranch or similar operation, or the construction
of new structures associated with agricultural activities.
APPLICANT
A property owner or agent of a property owner who has filed
an application for a land development activity.
BUILDING
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 or as defined under
the New York State Building Code.
CHANNEL
A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and
banks that conducts continuously or periodically flowing water.
CLEARING
Any activity that removes the vegetative surface cover.
DEDICATION
The deliberate appropriation of property by its owner for
general public use.
DEPARTMENT
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
DESIGN MANUAL
The "New York State Standards and Specifications for Erosion
and Sediment Control" manual, commonly known as the "Blue Book" or
any different or successive manual adopted or recommended by the New
York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
DEVELOPER
A person who undertakes land development activities.
GRADING
Excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions
thereof.
IMPERVIOUS COVER
Those surfaces, improvements and structures that cannot effectively
infiltrate rainfall, snow melt and water (e.g. building rooftops,
pavement, sidewalks, driveways, etc.)
INDUSTRIAL STORMWATER PERMIT
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.
INFILTRATION
The process of percolating stormwater in the subsoil.
JURISDICTIONAL WETLAND
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.
LAND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY
Construction activity including clearing, grading, excavation,
soil disturbance or placement of fill that results in land disturbance
of equal to or greater than one acre, or activities disturbing less
than once acre of total land area that is part of a larger common
plan of development of sale, even though multiple separate and distinct
land development activities may take place at different times on different
schedules.
LANDOWNER
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.
MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT
A legally recorded document that acts as a property deed
restriction, and which provides for long-term repair, replacement
and maintenance of privately owned stormwater management facilities
and practices.
NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION
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.
PHASING
Clearing or developing of a parcel of land in distinct pieces
or parts, with the stabilization of each piece completed before the
clearing of the next.
POLLUTANT OF CONCERN
Sediment of a water quality measurement that addresses sediment
(such as total suspended solids, turbity 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.
RECHARGE
The replenishment of underground water reserves.
SENSITIVE AREAS
Cold water fisheries, shellfish beds, swimming beaches, ground
water recharge areas, water supply preserves, habitats for threatened,
endangered or special concern species.
STABILIZATION
The use of practices that prevent exposed soil from eroding.
STOP-WORK ORDER
An order issued which requires that all construction activity
on a site can be stopped.
STORMWATER
Rainwater, surface runoff, snowmelt and drainage.
STORMWATER HOTSPOT
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.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
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.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT FACILITY
One or a series of stormwater management practices installed,
stabilized, and operating for the purpose of controlling stormwater
runoff.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT OFFICER
An employee or officer designated by the municipality to
accept and review stormwater pollution prevention plans, forward the
plans to the applicable municipal board, inspect stormwater management
practices and/or delegate and supervise over any of the foregoing
to a legally qualified and delegated to third-party agent, employee,
independent contractor or consultant.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (SMPs)
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.
SURFACE WATERS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
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 disposal area
in wetlands) nor resulted from impoundment of waters of the state.
VILLAGE
The Village of Phoenix, Oswego County, New York or any legally
authorized body, officer, employee, or agent thereof.
WATERCOURSE
A permanent or intermittent stream or other body of water,
either natural or man-made, which gathers or carries surface water.
WATERWAY
A channel that directs surface runoff to a watercourse or
to the public storm drain.
All land development activities shall be subject
to the following performance and design criteria:
A. Technical standards. For the purpose of this chapter,
the following documents shall serve as the official guides and specifications
for stormwater management. Stormwater management practices that are
designed and constructed in accordance with these technical documents
shall be presumed to meet the standards imposed by this chapter:
(1) "The New York State Stormwater Management Design Manual"
(New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, most current
version or its successor, hereafter referred to as the "Design Manual")
(2) "New York Standards and Specifications for Erosion
and Sediment Control" (Empire State Chapter of the Soil and Water
Conservation Society, 2004, most current version or its successor,
hereafter referred to as the "Erosion Control Manual").
B. Water quality standards.
(1) Any land development activity shall not cause an increase
in turbidity that will result in substantial visible contrast to natural
conditions in surface waters of the state of New York.
The Village of Phoenix may require any person
undertaking land development activities regulated by this chapter
to pay the costs of the Village Engineer, Attorney, or other consultants
retained by the Village of Phoenix and their prevailing rates for
review of preliminary drainage reports/studies, SWPPPs, inspections,
or SMP maintenance or enforcement performed by the Village of Phoenix
or performed by such third party for the Village of Phoenix.