As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
ALLEY
A minor way which is used primarily for vehicular service
access to the back or the side of properties otherwise abutting a
street.
APPLICANT
Any person who submits to the Town Council and the Planning
and Zoning Commission subdivision plans for the purpose of obtaining
approval thereof.
BUILDING
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.
BUILDING SETBACK LINE
The rear line of the minimum required front yards. The building
setback line shall be measured from the future right-of-way line.
EASEMENT
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.
IMPROVEMENTS
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.
LOT
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.
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 Town 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.
RIGHT-OF-WAY, FUTURE
A.
The right-of-way width required for the expansion of existing
streets to accommodate anticipated future traffic loads.
B.
A right-of-way established to provide future access to or through
undeveloped land.
STREET
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.
STREET LINE
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.
SUBDIVISION
A.
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, of transfer of ownership or
of building development.
B.
The term "subdivision" includes resubdivision and, when appropriate
to the context, shall relate to the process of subdividing or to the
land subdivided.
SUBDIVISION, MINOR
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 of ownership or of building development,
provided the proposed lots, tracts, or parcels of land thereby created
have frontage on an improved public street or streets, and provided
further that no new street or streets are created by the subdivision.
[Added 10-20-1988 by Ord. No. O-88-11]
Definitions applicable to terms not already contained herein
shall be the same as those contained in the Chesapeake Bay Critical
Area Criteria, COMAR Section 14.15.01.
AFFORESTATION
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.
ANADROMOUS FISH
Fish that travel upstream (from their primary habitat in
the ocean) to freshwater in order to spawn.
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs)
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 BMPs 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.
BUFFER (spelled with a capital "B")
An existing, naturally vegetated area or an area established in vegetation and managed to protect aquatic, wetlands, shoreline and to terrestrial environments from man-made disturbances. In the Critical Area, 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 width to include certain sensitive areas as per requirements established in Chapter
290, Zoning. The Buffer may also be expanded 10 feet beyond the minimum width in conjunction with all development activities to provide an additional building restriction line (which shall include any other building restriction setbacks), at the discretion of the reviewing authority, to provide pollution and sediment control, if necessary, and to prevent incidental grading in the Buffer. Whenever "Buffer" is referred to in this chapter, such Buffer shall not apply to any area that has been exempted pursuant to Section IV, Buffer Exemption, of the Chesapeake Beach Critical Area Protection Program for the Town of Chesapeake Beach, as shown on the Critical Area Overlay Zone Maps, as may be amended from time to time.
[Amended 12-21-1989 by Ord. No. O-89-17]
COMMUNITY PIERS
Boat docking facilities associated with subdivisions and
similar residential areas, and with condominium, apartment, and other
multiple-family dwelling units. Private individual piers are excluded
from this definition.
CONSERVATION EASEMENT
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.
CRITICAL AREA
All lands and waters defined in § 8-1807 of the
Natural Resources Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, including:
A.
All waters of and lands under the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries
to the head of the tide as indicated on the state wetlands maps, and
all state and private wetlands designated under Title 9 of the Natural
Resources Article, Annotated Code of Maryland;
B.
All land and water areas within 1,000 feet of the landward boundaries
of state or private wetlands and the heads of tides designated under
Title 9 of the Natural Resources Article, Annotated Code of Maryland; and
C.
Modification to these areas through inclusions or exclusions
proposed by Chesapeake Beach and approved by the Critical Area Commission
as specified in § 8-1807 of the Natural Resources Article,
Annotated Code of Maryland.
DENSITY
The number of dwelling units per acre of gross area of a
development tract.
DEVELOPED WOODLANDS
An area or 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.
DEVELOPMENT or DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
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.
DEVELOPMENT PAD
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.
DRAINAGEWAYS
Minor watercourses that are defined either by soil type or
by the presence of intermittent or perennial streams of 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 U.S. Geological Service's 7.5 quadrangle sheets
covering the incorporated areas of Chesapeake Beach.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
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.
EXCLUSION
An act of the Town Council approved by the Critical Area
Commission that excepts an area of Chesapeake Beach from the Zoning
Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations applicable only to the Critical
Area.
EXEMPTION
An act of the Town Council approved by the Critical Area
Commission that relieves an area of Chesapeake Beach from the Buffer
provisions of the Critical Area.
FISHERIES ACTIVITIES
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.
FOREST
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.
FOREST MANAGEMENT
The protection, manipulation, and utilization of the forest
to provide multiple benefits, such as timber harvesting, wildlife
habitat, etc.
FOREST PRACTICE
The alteration of the forest either through tree removal
or replacement in order to improve the timber, wildlife, recreational,
or water quality values.
GRANDFATHERED
Describes the status accorded certain properties and development
activities that are of record prior to the date of adoption of these
regulations.
GROWTH ALLOCATION
A.
An area of land calculated as 5% of the total resource conservation
area of Calvert County, including Chesapeake Beach (excluding tidal
wetlands and federally owned land), that the Town may convert to more
intense land use management classification to accommodate land development;
and
B.
An act of the Town Council, approved by the Critical Area Commission,
and pursuant to agreement between Calvert County and the Town, that
provides for conversion of a property or properties located in Resource
Conservation Areas (RCAs) and/or Limited Development Areas (LDAs)
in the Critical Area District to another land use management classification
that allows an increase in the permitted density.
HIGHLY ERODIBLE SOILS
Soils with a slope greater than 15% or soils with a K value
greater than 0.35 and slopes greater than 5%.
HYDRIC SOILS
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.
LAND CLEARING
Any activity that removes the vegetative ground cover.
MARINA
Any facility for the mooring, berthing, storing, or securing
of watercraft, but not including community piers, private or individual
piers, and other noncommercial boat docking and storage facilities.
NATURAL FEATURES
Components and processes present in or produced by nature,
including but not limited to soil types, geology, slopes, vegetation,
surface water, drainage patterns, aquifer, recharge areas, climate,
floodplains, aquatic life, and wildlife.
NONTIDAL WETLANDS
Refers to lands in the Critical Area (excluding tidal wetlands
regulated under Title 9 of the Natural Resources Article, Annotated
Code of Maryland), farm ponds, and other man-made bodies of water whose
purpose is to impound water for agriculture, water supply, recreation,
or waterfowl habitat where the water table is usually at or near the
surface, or lands where the soil or substrate is covered by shallow
water at some time during the growing season, and that are usually
characterized by one or both of the following:
A.
At least periodically, the lands support predominantly hydrophytic
vegetation; and/or
B.
The substrate is predominantly undrained hydric soils.
OFFSETS
Structures or actions that compensate for undesirable impacts.
OPEN SPACE
Land and water areas retained for use as active or passive
recreation areas in an essentially underdeveloped state.
OPEN WATER
Tidal waters of the state that do not contain tidal wetlands
and/or submerged aquatic vegetation.
PHYSIOGRAPHIC FEATURES
The soils, topography, land slope and aspect, and local climate
that influence the form and species composition of plant communities.
REDEVELOPMENT
The process of substantially altering previously developed
property by the improvement or alteration of the property in a manner
that increases the value of the property by more than 50% or that
increases the total impervious area of the property by more than 25%.
REFORESTATION
The establishment of a forest through artificial reproduction
or natural regeneration.
SHORE EROSION CONTROL MEASURES
Any number of structural and nonstructural methods or techniques
for controlling the erosion of shoreline areas. More specifically
the term refers to:
A.
Nonstructural: creation of an intertidal march fringe channelward
of the existing bank by one of the following methods:
(1)
Vegetation: planting an existing shore with a wide band of vegetation;
(2)
Bank sloping/vegetation: sloping and planting a nonwooded bank
to manage tidal water contact, using structures to contain sloped
materials if necessary; and
(3)
Contained beach: filling along shore with sandy materials, grading,
and containing the new beach to eliminate tidal water contact with
the bank.
B.
Structural:
(1)
Revetment: facing laid on a sloping shore to reduce wave energy
and contain shore materials;
(2)
Bulkhead: excluded due to adverse impacts to the near-shore
marine environment, except in the following special cases:
(a)
Where erosion impact is severe and high bluffs and/or dense
woodland preclude land access, bulkheads can be installed by shallow-draft
barge and pile driver; and
(b)
In narrow, man-made lagoons for activities that require frequent
interchange between boats and land.
SOIL CONSERVATION AND WATER QUALITY PLANS
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. A plan is a document
containing a map and related plans that indicate:
A.
How the landowner plans to treat a farm unit;
B.
Which best management practices the landowner plans to install
to treat undesirable conditions; and
C.
The schedule for applying best management practices.
TIDAL WETLANDS
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 that are defined as any land not considered "state wetlands" bordering or lying beneath tidal waters, that are subject to regular or periodic tidal action and support 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, not influenced by the wind or any other circumstance.
TOPOGRAPHY
The existing configuration of the earth's surface, including
the relative relief, elevations, and position of land features.
TRIBUTARY STREAMS
Perennial and intermittent streams in the Critical Area that
are so noted on the most recent U.S. Geological Survey 7.5 foot topographic
quadrangle maps (scale 1:24,000) or on more detailed maps or studies.
WATER-DEPENDENT FACILITIES
Structures or works associated with industrial, maritime,
recreational, educational, or fisheries activities that require location
at or near the shoreline within the Buffer.
WATER COMPOUND
A body of water, such as a pond or lake, confined by a dam,
dike, or floodgates or other man-made barrier that:
A.
Captures drainage from an area in excess of 640 acres; or
B.
Has a normal depth of water greater than 15 feet; or
C.
Has a normal surface area of water in excess of 12 acres.
WILDLIFE CORRIDOR
A strip of land having vegetation that provides habitat and
a safe passageway for wildlife.