In accordance with the Municipal Home Rule Law of the State of New York,
the Town of Cortlandt has the authority to enact local laws for the purpose
of promoting the health, safety or general welfare of the Town and for the
protection and enhancement of its physical environment. With this purpose
in mind, these regulations are enacted with the intent of providing stormwater,
erosion and sediment control practices within the Town of Cortlandt. It is
also the intent of this chapter to promote the public purposes identified
in this section by providing for the protection, preservation, and proper
maintenance of stormwater facilities and preventing or minimizing erosion
due to flooding and stormwater runoff.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
APPLICANT
A property owner or agent of a property owner who has filed an application
for a land development activity.
APPROVING AUTHORITY
The Town Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Planning Board or the Director
of the Department of Technical Services or his designee.
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs)
A practice or combination of practices that is the most effective
and practicable (including technological, economic and institutional considerations)
means of controlling point or nonpoint source pollutants at levels compatible
with environmental quality goals.
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 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."
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 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.
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.
MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT
A legally recorded document or a municipally formed drainage district
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.
SEDIMENT CONTROL
Measures that prevent eroded sediment from leaving the area of disturbance.
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 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.
WETLAND(S)
An area that is regulated by the Department or by other local laws and ordinances of the Town of Cortlandt. See also Chapter
179, Freshwater Wetlands, Water Bodies and Watercourses.
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.
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 baseflow.
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 §
262-3 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-02-02, when adopted or as amended
or revised;
B. Require land development activities to conform to the
substantive requirements of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) General Permit for Construction
Activities GP-02-01, 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 total annual 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 ensure that these management practices are properly maintained
and eliminate threats to public safety.
The following activities may be exempt from review under this chapter:
A. Agricultural activity as defined in this chapter.
B. Routine maintenance activities that disturb fewer than
five acres and are performed to maintain the original line and grade, hydraulic
capacity or original purpose of a facility.
C. Repairs to any stormwater management practice or facility
deemed necessary by the Stormwater Management Officer.
D. Any part of a subdivision if a plat for the subdivision
has been approved by the approving authority on or before the effective date
of this chapter.
E. Land development activities for which a building permit
has been approved on or before the effective date of this chapter.
F. Installation of fence, sign, telephone, and electric
poles and other kinds of posts or poles.
G. Emergency activity immediately necessary to protect life,
property or natural resources.
H. Activities of an individual engaging in home gardening
by growing flowers, vegetable and other plants primarily for use by that person
and his or her family.
I. Landscaping and horticultural activities in connection
with an existing structure.
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:
(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").
(3) Best management practices if established by resolution
of the Town Board, which may be updated from time to time.
B. Water quality standards. No land development activity
shall cause an increase in turbidity that will result in visible contrast
to natural conditions in surface waters of the State of New York.
Measures for the control of erosion and sedimentation shall be undertaken
consistent with the most current version of the Westchester County Soil and
Water Conservation District's Best Management Practices Manual for Erosion
and Sediment Control and New York State Guidelines for Urban Erosion and Sediment
Control, as amended, or their equivalents satisfactory to the approval authority.