The following terms used in this chapter or in documents prepared
or reviewed under this chapter shall have the meanings indicated:
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.
AGRICULTURAL STRUCTURE
Any barn, stable, shed, silo, garage, fruit and vegetable
stand or other building or structure directly and customarily associated
with agricultural use.
APPLICANT
A landowner or agent of a landowner who has filed an application
for a land development activity.
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.
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY
Any clearing, grading, excavation, filling, demolition or
stockpiling activities that result in soil disturbance. Clearing activities
include, but are not limited to, logging equipment operation, the
cutting and skidding of trees, stump removal and/or brush root removal.
Construction activity does not include routine maintenance that is
performed to maintain the original line and grade, hydraulic capacity,
or original purpose of a facility.
CONSTRUCTION PERMIT
The SPDES general permit for construction activities GP-0-15-002,
or latest revision.
DEC
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.
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."
FACILITY OWNER
The person, persons or legal entity which owns or leases
the property on which a stormwater management facility is located,
and/or an entity that has legal responsibility for the long-term operation
and maintenance of a stormwater management facility.
GRADING
Excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions
thereof.
IMPERVIOUS COVER
Those surfaces, improvements and structures that cannot effectively
infiltrate rainfall, snowmelt and water (e.g., building rooftops,
pavement, sidewalks, driveways, etc.).
INDUSTRIAL 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.
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, including the construction of agricultural structures.
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/certified 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).
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.
PERSON
Any individual, association, organization, partnership, firm,
corporation or other entity recognized by law and acting as either
the owner or as the owner's agent.
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 (such as phosphorus) that has been identified as a potential
cause of impairment of any water body that will receive a discharge
from the land development activity.
RECHARGE
The replenishment of underground water reserves.
REDEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY
Those Land Disturbance Activities that include the disturbance and reconstruction of existing impervious surfaces and meet the requirements of Chapter
9 of the Design Manual.
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.
STEEP SLOPE AREA
Land area with a soil slope phase that is identified as an
E or F, or the map unit name is inclusive of twenty-five-percent or
greater slope, on the United States Department of Agricultural (USDA)
Soil Survey for Ontario County, New York, or as otherwise defined
by the construction permit as those areas where disturbance is not
eligible for coverage due to slope.
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 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.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (SWMP) COORDINATOR
An employee designated by, and serving at the pleasure of,
the Town Board to implement, manage, and supervise the Town's
MS4 program. The SWMP Coordinator shall be a health and safety officer,
superintendent, or other individual having responsibility for environmental,
health, or safety matters for the Town.
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.
TOWN
The Town of Canandaigua.
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.
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," including areas regulated
as wetlands under federal or state law.
This chapter shall be applicable to all land development activities as defined in §
170-2 of this chapter.
The following activities are 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 SMO.
E. Any part of a subdivision if a plat for the subdivision has been
approved by the Town 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.
L. Land development activities that are ineligible for coverage under
SPDES general permit GP-0-15-002 because they directly discharge into
Canandaigua Lake and disturb one or more acres of land with no existing
impervious cover and are located in steep slope areas.
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:
(2) The Erosion Control Manual.
(3) The Town's Site Design and Development Criteria.
B. Where stormwater management practices are not in accordance with technical standards, the applicant or developer must demonstrate equivalence to the technical standards set forth in §
170-7A of this chapter, and the SWPPP shall be prepared by a licensed professional.
C. 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.
(2) Any land development activity within the Town shall provide enhanced
phosphorus treatment as outlined by the Design Manual.
D. Water quantity standards. Any land development activity shall limit
stormwater discharge to an amount no more than 90% of that which occurs
currently, except:
(1) When the land development activity includes the disturbance of undeveloped
or agricultural lands, then the stormwater discharge shall be no more
than 90% of that which would normally occur under a natural, undeveloped
condition (meadows, brush, and/or woods in good condition as defined
by USDA NRCS Technical Release 55 (TR-55), Urban Hydrology for Small
Watersheds).
The Town may require any person undertaking land development activities regulated by this chapter to pay administrative fees as defined in Chapter
111 of the Town Code.