It is hereby determined that:
A. 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;
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. Improper design and construction of stormwater management practices
can increase the velocity of stormwater runoff, thereby increasing
stream bank erosion and sedimentation;
E. Impervious surfaces allow less water to percolate into the soil,
thereby decreasing groundwater recharge and stream base flow;
F. Substantial economic losses can result from these adverse impacts
on the waters of the municipality;
G. Stormwater runoff, soil erosion and nonpoint source pollution can
be controlled and minimized through the regulation of stormwater runoff
from land development activities;
H. 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.
I. 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 §
353-1 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-0-10-002 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-0-10-001 or as amended or revised;
C. Minimize increases in stormwater runoff from land development activities
in order to reduce flooding, siltation, increases in stream temperature,
and stream bank 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 the volume of stormwater runoff which flows from any specific
site during and following development to the maximum extent practicable;
and
F. Reduce stormwater runoff rates and volumes, 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.
G. Establish provisions for the long-term responsibility for and maintenance of both structural and nonstructural stormwater control facilities and management practices to ensure that they continue to function as designed, are adequately maintained, and pose no threat to public safety (§
353-10B and
D).
In accordance with § 10 of the Municipal Home Rule
Law of the State of New York, the Common Council of the City of Kingston
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 City of Kingston and for the protection and enhancement of its
physical environment. The Common Council of the City of Kingston 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. Silvicultural activity, except that landing areas and log haul roads
are subject to this chapter.
C. 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.
D. Repairs to any stormwater management practice or facility deemed
necessary by the City Engineer.
E. Any part of a subdivision if a plat for the subdivision has been
approved by the City of Kingston on or before the effective date of
this chapter.
F. Land development activities for which a building permit has been
approved on or before the effective date of this chapter.
H. Installation of fence, sign, telephone, and electric poles and other
kinds of posts or poles.
I. Emergency activity immediately necessary to protect life, property
or natural resources.
J. Activities of an individual engaging in home gardening by growing
flowers, vegetables and other plants primarily for use by that person
and his or her family.
K. Landscaping and horticultural activities in connection with an existing
structure.
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 the 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.
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 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.
ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL
Shall be a Code Enforcement Officer of the City of Kingston
Building Department.
[Amended 3-5-2019 by L.L.
No. 1-2019, approved 3-19-2019]
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."
GRADING
Excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions
thereof.
IMPERVIOUS COVER
Those surfaces, improvements and structures that cannot effectively
infiltrate rainfall, snowmelts 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, excavating,
soil disturbance or placement of fill, that results in land disturbance
of equal to or greater than one acre, or activities disturbing less
than one acre 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.
LICENSED PROFESSIONAL
A person currently licensed to practice engineering in New
York State, a registered landscape architect or a certified professional
in erosion and sediment control (CPESC).
MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT
A legally recorded document that acts as a property deed
restriction and which provides for long-term maintenance of stormwater
management 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 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.
RECHARGE
The replenishment of underground water reserves.
SENSITIVE AREAS
Cold-water fisheries, shellfish beds, swimming beaches, groundwater
recharge areas, water supply reservoirs, 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 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
The City Engineer is 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.
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 a disposal
area in wetlands) nor resulted from impoundment of waters of the state.
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 as follows:
(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. 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.
Schedule A provides a list of stormwater management practices and
alternate management practices acceptable for water quality.
The DEC has identified a set of six practices which qualify
for stormwater credits. If these practices are implemented as described
in the document titled "The Use and Implementation of Stormwater Credits,"
they can result in a calculated reduction in the water quality treatment
volume, and occasionally in the water quantity storage volumes, required
for the projects subject to a full SWPPP.
A. The six credits are for the following practices:
(1) Natural area conservation.
(2) Stream and wetland buffers.
(4) Overland flow filtration to groundwater recharge zones.
(5) Environmentally sensitive rural development.
B. These practices must be implemented as described in "The Use and
Implementation of Stormwater Credits."
C. These practices must be reviewed and approved by the City of Kingston
before the credits can be taken.
D. DEC's procedure for application of these credits is currently
evolving. Projects making use of credits may require a sixty-day review
by DEC and/or a letter from the City of Kingston certifying that the
credit has been applied correctly.
E. Applicants should make use of these credits wherever site conditions
permit.
[Added 7-5-2011 by L.L. No. 9-2011, approved 7-27-2011]
A. All
newly constructed impervious surfaces, including adjacent impacted
surfaces, shall be regulated such that stormwater runoff generated
by said improvements shall not exceed previously existing conditions.
Differential runoff generated as a result of site improvements shall
be detained on site by suitable means approved by the Kingston Building
Department for a period of not less than 24 hours.
B. For
differential runoff as a result of the ten-year three-hour storm event
from an improved typical City lot (5,000 square feet) with 60% impervious
cover amounts to 4,000 gallons, deviations from the baseline improvement
shall be regulated on a proportionate basis.
C. The following activities are hereby exempt from conformance with §
353-11.1A:
(1) Existing impervious surfaces;
(2) Where physical lot constraints make on-site retention technically
infeasible as determined by the City Engineer;
(3) New impervious surfaces under 100 square feet already in planning;
and
(4) Improved gravel driveways.
D. New
porous pavement shall be provided a fifty-percent impervious surface
credit.
E. This
provision shall be enforced by the City of Kingston Building Department.
[Amended 3-5-2019 by L.L.
No. 1-2019, approved 3-19-2019]
The City of Kingston may require any person undertaking land
development activities regulated by this chapter to pay reasonable
costs at prevailing rates for review of SWPPPs, inspections, or SMP
maintenance performed by the City of Kingston or performed by a third
party for the City of Kingston. These fees shall be determined by
the Common Council of the City of Kingston, by resolution, which may
be revised by it as it is deemed necessary, from time to time.