Defined phrases. As used in this chapter, the following
terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ADDITION
Any work on an existing structure that changes the external
dimensions of such structure.
ADJACENT PARCEL
All parcels contiguous to the subject parcel, as well as
all parcels downstream of the subject parcel within the natural or
actual drainageway or watercourse.
AGENT
Any Town of Somers official who is designated to administer
and enforce this chapter.
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 the operation of a dude ranch, or similar operation, or the
construction of new structures associated with agricultural activities.
ALTERATION
Any work on an existing structure that affects the interior
of the structure but does not change its external dimensions.
APPLICANT
A property owner or agent of a property owner who has filed
an application for a land development activity.
APPROVING AUTHORITY
The Planning Board, Town Engineer or his/her authorized representative,
or other approving authority to whom oversight of this chapter is
given by the Town Board.
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.
BUILDING PERMIT
A permit issued by the municipality for the construction,
erection, or alteration of a structure or building.
CERTIFICATION
A formal attestation that the specific inspections and tests,
where required, have been performed and that such tests comply with
applicable requirements of this chapter.
CERTIFIED CUBIC YARDS
The measurement used to determine the amount of material
in excavation and/or fill measured by the method of average end areas.
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.
DESIGN MANUAL
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.
DEVELOPER
A person who undertakes land development activities.
DEVELOPMENT
Any man-made change to unimproved real estate, including
but not limited to the building of other structures, mining, dredging,
filling, grading, paving, removal of vegetation, excavation, blasting
or drilling operations.
DRAINAGEWAY
Any channel that conveys surface runoff throughout the site.
EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL PERMIT
A permit issued by the Town of Somers for an approved erosion
and sediment control plan which allows for the construction or alteration
of ground improvements and structures for the control of erosion,
runoff and grading.
EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL PLAN
A plan or set of plans, prepared by a New York State licensed
engineer, architect, landscape architect, or certified professional
in erosion and sediment control (CPESC) or by the Westchester County
Soil and Water Conservation District, indicating the specific measures
and sequencing to be used to control sediment and erosion on a development
site both during and after construction.
EROSION CONTROL MANUAL
The most recent version of the New York Standards and Specifications
for Erosion and Sediment Control Manual, commonly known as the "Blue
Book."
EXCAVATION
Any act by which organic matter, earth, sand, gravel, rock,
or any other similar material is cut into, dug, quarried, uncovered,
removed, displaced, or spread, and shall include the resulting conditions.
EXISTING GRADE
The elevation of the existing ground surface prior to excavation
or filling.
FILL
Any act by which earth, sand, gravel, or other material is
deposited, placed, replaced, dumped, transported, or moved by man
to a new location.
FINAL GRADE
The elevation of the ground or pavement surface after the
grading work is completed in accordance with the approved plan.
FLOODWAY
The channel of a river, stream, brook, or other watercourse
and the adjacent areas that must be reserved in order to convey the
one-hundred-year flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface
elevation more than one foot, as shown on the Federal Emergency Management
Agency Floodway Map.
GRADING
Excavation or fill or any combination thereof, and shall
include the conditions resulting from any excavation or fill.
IMPERVIOUS COVER
Those surfaces, improvements and structures that cannot effectively
infiltrate rainfall, snowmelt 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 into 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 5,000 square feet of total land area that
is part of a larger common plan of development or 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 maintenance of stormwater
management practices.
NATURAL DRAINAGE
Channels formed in the existing topography of the land prior
to changes made by human activities.
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.
PARCEL
All contiguous land under one ownership.
PERIMETER CONTROL
A barrier that prevents sediment from leaving a site by either
filtering sediment-laden runoff or diverting the runoff to a sediment
trap or basin.
PERMANENT VEGETATION
Mature ground cover to control soil erosion satisfactorily
and to survive weather conditions.
PERMITTEE
Any person to whom a permit is issued.
PERMITTING AUTHORITY
The administrative board or public official empowered to
grant permits under this chapter.
PERSON
Any individual, firm, or corporation (public or private),
the State of New York, and its agencies or political subdivisions,
and the United States of America, its agencies and instrumentalities,
and any agent, servant, or employee of the foregoing.
PHASING
Clearing 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 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.
QUALIFIED INSPECTOR
A person that is knowledgeable in the principles and practices
of erosion and sediment control, such as a licensed professional engineer,
certified professional in erosion and sediment control (CPESC), or
licensed landscape architect, or other NYS Department of Environmental
Conservation (NYS DEC) endorsed individual(s). It also means someone
working under the direct supervision of the licensed professional
engineer or licensed landscape architect, provided that person has
training in the principles and practices of erosion and sediment control.
Training in the principles and practices of erosion and sediment control
means that an individual performing a site inspection has received
four hours of training, endorsed by the NYS DEC, from a Soil and Water
Conservation District, CPESC Inc. or other NYS DEC endorsed entity
in proper erosion and sediment control principles every three years.
RECHARGE
The replenishment of underground water reserves.
REMOVAL
Cutting vegetation to the ground or leaving it as stumpage;
complete extraction or killing by spraying.
SENSITIVE AREAS
Cold-water fisheries, shellfish beds, swimming beaches, groundwater
recharge areas, water supply reservoirs, and habitats for threatened,
endangered or special-concern species.
SITE
A parcel of land or a contiguous combination thereof, where
grading work is performed as a single unified operation (would include
all phases of a single development).
SITE DEVELOPMENT
Altering terrain and/or vegetation and any type of construction.
SOIL STABILIZATION
Measures that protect soil from the erosive forces of rain,
flowing water, and wind, including, but not limited to, vegetative
establishment, mulching, and the early application of gravel or stone
base on areas to be paved.
STABILIZATION
The use of practices that prevent exposed soil from eroding.
START OF CONSTRUCTION
The first land-disturbing activity associated with a development,
such as tree cutting, clearing, grading, and filling; installation
of streets and walkways; excavation for basement, footings, piers,
or foundations; erection of temporary forms; and installation of accessory
buildings, such as garages.
STOP-WORK ORDER
An order issued which requires that all construction activity
on a site 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 Town of Somers to
accept and review stormwater pollution prevention plans, forward the
plans to the applicable municipal board and inspect stormwater practices;
and under this chapter the duly appointed Town Engineer or his/her
designated representative.
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.
STRIPPING
Any activity which removes the vegetative surface cover,
including tree removal, clearing, and storage or removal of topsoil.
SURFACE WATERS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Lakes, bays, sounds, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs,
wells, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marches, inlets, canals,
the Atlantic Ocean within the territorial seas of the State of New
York and 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.
TEMPORARY STREAM CROSSING
A temporary structural span installed across a watercourse
for use by construction traffic. Structures may include, but are not
limited to, bridges, pipes, culverts, or fords.
TOWN ENGINEER
The duly appointed Town Engineer or his/her designated representative;
and under this chapter, an employee or officer designated by the Town
of Somers to accept and review stormwater pollution prevention plans,
forward the plans to the applicable municipal board and inspect stormwater
practices.
VARIANCE
A grant of relief from the requirements of this chapter which
permits a person to undertake construction in a manner otherwise prohibited
by this chapter where specific enforcement would result in unnecessary
hardship.
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.
WET SEASON
The period from October 15 to April 15.