Stream corridors include four components: stream channels, floodplains,
contiguous slopes of 12% or greater, and associated preservation areas.
These components are regulated by this article. These components are
defined as follows:
A. Stream channels: Stream channels consist of the bed and banks of
a stream within which is conveyed the normal flow of the stream, as
identified on any one or more of the following:
(1) Streams identified as such in the NJ-GeoWeb mapping application provided
by the State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
(NJDEP) Bureau of GIS.
(2) The most current Flood Insurance Rate Map prepared by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
for the National Flood Insurance Program.
(3) Soil maps from the Soil Survey of Somerset County, New Jersey, at
a scale of one inch equals 1,230 feet, prepared by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service in cooperation with the New
Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, January 1972 or most current.
(4) Category 1 (C-1) waters are designated in the Surface Water Quality
Standards at N.J.A.C. 7:9B-1.15.
(5)
Additional state "open waters," delineated via letter of interpretation from New Jersey Department of Environment Protection (NJDEP), not delineated per §
112-227A(1) through
(4).
(6)
For purposes of delineation, the center line of the stream shall
constitute the stream channel for all watercourses other than the
Raritan River, Millstone River, and Delaware and Raritan Canal. For
the three specified watercourses, the outer edge of the actual stream
bed and banks shall be the stream channel from which setbacks shall
be measured.
B. Floodplains: The special flood hazard area (i.e., one-percent annual chance flood/one-hundred-year flood) as delineated in Subsection
A(2) above.
C. Critical slopes: Land whose slope exhibits a change in elevation
greater than 12% for a horizontal distance of 10 feet or greater and
where the toe of the slope lies within 50 feet of the stream channel
bank or floodplain shall be deemed critical slopes. The protection
area for critical slopes shall be the lesser of:
(1) A slope distance of 100 feet from the toe of slopes having a consistently
average slope of 12% or greater.
(2) A slope distance of 50 feet beyond the first point at which the slope
is less than 12%.
D. Preservation areas: The stream corridor preservation area is required
to be delineated as the most restrictive limit of any of the three
distances established in accordance with the following schedule:
|
Stream Category
|
Minimum Distance from
|
Minimum Distance from Outer Limit
|
Critical Slopes as
|
---|
|
Millstone River, Raritan River, D&R Canal, C-1 streams as
designated by NJDEP and upstream tributaries within the same HUC-14
watershed
|
300 feet
|
50 feet
|
100 feet or 50 feet
|
|
|
150 feet
|
50 feet
|
100 feet or 50 feet
|
|
|
50 feet
|
50 feet
|
100 feet or 50 feet
|
(1)
For C-1 streams, the stream corridor area shall be measured
as defined at N.J.A.C. 7:8-5.5(b), or as defined by this article,
whichever is wider.
(2)
When an activity is also reviewed by the Delaware and Raritan
Canal Commission under N.J.A.C. 7:45-7, Stream Corridor Impact Regulations
for the Review Zone of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park (adopted
February, 1994), or successive regulations and amendments, the result
that is more restrictive, and less permissive, to a landowner or applicant,
shall apply.
An approved application for development or use on a lot which
contains a stream corridor or portion of a stream corridor shall provide
a conservation easement delineated by metes and bounds for the continued
protection of the stream corridor. Conservation easements shall be
established by deed if no subdivision map is being filed, or by plat
filed with the county, recording officer in compliance with the Map
Filing Law.
Appropriate monuments shall be set by the licensed land surveyor.
Such markers shall be set at each conservation easement corner not
previously marked by a monument. All boundary markers shall be described
on the survey provided to show their relation to the property or corner
or, if appropriate, to the boundary lines.