As used in this chapter the following words shall have the meanings indicated:
The area lying outside the seventy-five-foot vegetative buffer but within the one-hundred-foot regulated area.
The cultivation and harvesting of native products, including fish, shellfish and vegetation, that are produced naturally in wetlands, and the installation of cribs, racks and other in-water structures for the cultivation of these products.
A walk, or a stairway down a bluff, constructed of planking, which can be at ground level or elevated over vegetation and which cannot be more than five feet wide.
The causeway footprint shall be calculated from the outermost projections of the building/structure using a direct overhead view and including conditioned and nonconditioned spaces.
[Added 12-2-2011 by L.L. No. 7-2011]
To fill, place, effect, indirectly discharge or dump any material.
Any disruption or displacement of wetlands, substrate or bottom sediments or contours. It also means the excavation or creation of a water body which is to be connected to the wetland. The excavation or removal of sediment, soil, mud, sand, gravel or other aggregate from any wetland or adjacent regulated area for the direct or indirect purpose of establishing or increasing water depth, increasing the surface or crosssectional area of a waterway or obtaining such sediment, soil, mud, sand, gravel, shells or other aggregate.
The construction of an addition to an existing structure.
The placement of material on, over or within the regulated area.
The outside perimeter of an existing foundation for a structure, including any covered porches attached to said structure but excluding patios, decks, stairways, steps, or balconies.
Soil, stones, sand, gravel, clay, bog, peat, mud, debris and refuse or any other organic or inorganic substance, whether liquid, solid or gaseous, or any combination thereof.
The erection of a structure in a location where no structure previously stood, whether freestanding or attached to an existing structure.
That form of town approval required by this chapter for conducting a regulated activity on, over or within the regulated area.
Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company, organization or legal entity of any kind, including municipal corporations, governmental agencies or subdivisions thereof.
The presence in the environment of conditions or contaminates in quantities or characteristics which are or may be injurious to human, plant, marine life, wildlife or other animal life or to property or which unreasonably interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of the benefits of such wetlands as may be affected thereby.
An alteration to any part of an existing structure which replaces 50% or more of the existing structure, including walls, roofs, floors, wiring, plumbing and insulation, as calculated by the Building Inspector pursuant to the Building Department policy.
[Amended 5-25-2007 by L.L. No. 5-2007]
Activities requiring a permit, including but not limited to:
Dredging, disturbing, excavating or mining, either directly or indirectly;
Dumping, filling, or depositing, either directly or indirectly;
Disturbing, clearing, cutting or removing vegetation;
Erecting or expanding any buildings or structures including docks, bulkhead, boardwalks, driveways, tennis courts, or pools;
Constructing or expanding roads;
Installing utilities, septic systems, sumps or catchment basins;
Driving pilings or placing any obstructions, whether or not changing the ebb and flow of the water;
Any form of pollution, including but not limited to installing an on-site sewage disposal system, running sewer outfall, discharging sewage treatment effluent, rainwater runoff, water discharge from a swimming pool, or other liquefied wastes into or so as to drain into a wetland and which occur within the regulated area;
Any other activity which impacts any of the functions or benefits of wetlands.
The area in, on or over a wetland and within 100 feet of the landward boundary of a tidal wetland or within 100 feet of the landward boundary of a freshwater wetland, as measured horizontally. It shall consist of the seventy-five-foot vegetative buffer plus the twenty-five-foot adjacent regulated area.
An alteration to any part of an existing structure which replaces less than 50% of the existing structure, including walls, roofs, floors, wiring, plumbing and insulation, as calculated by the Building Inspector pursuant to the Building Department policy.
[Amended 5-25-2007 by L.L. No. 5-2007]
State Environmental Quality Review Act.
The Town of Shelter Island.
The Town Board of the Town of Shelter Island.
The Town Clerk of the Town of Shelter Island.
All waters bordering on or within the boundaries of the Town of Shelter Island subject to fluctuation in depth from peak lunar, storm or normal tidal action, and including but not limited to all brackish and salt waters of streams, ponds, creeks, estuaries, bays and inlets.
Excepted activities which are not regulated by this chapter include but are not limited to repairs, normal beach grooming or cleanup, maintenance of preexisting nonconforming structures when normal and customary and/or in compliance with an approved maintenance program, maintaining native vegetation.
[Added 12-2-2011 by L.L. No. 7-2011]
There shall be a shoreline vegetative buffer which extends 75 feet landward from the most landward point of tidal or freshwater wetlands, as those terms are defined herein.
TIDAL WETLANDS:
Any persistent and/or intermittent water body or area characterized by the dominance of submerged and/or transitional wetland plant species as listed in the Environmental Conservation Law, Article 25-0103, or as may be amended.
All lands generally covered or intermittently covered with, or which border on or lie beneath tidal waters such as banks, beaches, bogs, salt marsh, swamps, meadows, flats, bars, shoals, littoral zones, high marsh and salt meadow or other low lands subject to tidal action, including those areas now or formerly connected to tidal waters and including waters immediately adjacent to bulkheads.
All banks, bogs, meadows, flats and tidal marsh subject to such tides, and upon which grow or may grow some or any of the following: salt hay (Spartina patens and Distichlis spicata), black grass (Juncus gerardi), saltworts (Salicornia ssp.), sea lavender (Limonium carolinianum), tall cordgrass, (Spartina pectinata and Spartina cynosuroides), hightide bush (Iva frutenscens), cattails (Typha angustifolia and Typha latifolia), groundsel (Baccharis halmilifolia), marsh mallow (Hybiscus palustris) and the intertidal zone, including low marsh cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora).
Lands and water substantially enclosed by aquatic or semiaquatic vegetation as set forth in this subsection, the regulation of which is necessary to protect and preserve the vegetation.
FRESHWATER WETLANDS:
Lands and submerged lands, commonly called "marshes," "ponds," "swamps," "sloughs," "bogs," "flats" and the like, regardless of the type or amount of vegetation growing thereon or the absence of same.
All such lands upon which grow any of the following plant species or vegetation:
Wet meadow consisting of such plants as sedges (Carex spp.), rushes (Juncus spp.), coarse grasses and sometimes cattails (Typha spp.).
Emergent marsh, including, among others, cattails (Typha spp.), purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), swamp loosestrife (Decodon verticillatus), arrowheads (Sagittaria spp.), reeds (Phragmites communis), bur-reeds (Sparganium spp.), pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata), wild rice (Zizania aquatica), water plantain (Alisma plantago-aquatica), bulrushes (Scirpus spp.) and arrow arum.
Deciduous swamp consisting of live deciduous trees over 15 feet in height such as American elm (Ulmus americana), red maple (Acer rubrum), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), red ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), black ash (Fraximus nigra), swamp white oak (Quercas bicolor) and willows (Salix spp.).
Coniferous swamp consisting of live coniferous trees over 15 feet in height, such as black spruce (Picca mariana), white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), red spruce (picea rubens), balsam fir (Abies balsamea), Northern white pine (Pinus strobus) and American larch (Larix laricina).
Shrub swamp consisting of vegetation less than 15 feet in height, such as alders (Alnus spp.), willows, leatherleaf, bog rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla), sweet gale, buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), highbush cranberry, red osier dogwood (Coitus spp.) and sphagnum moss (Sphagnum spp.) in bog mats.
Floating vegetation such as duckweed (Lemna spp.), watermeal (Wolffia spp.), waterlily (Nymphaea odorata), water shield (Brasneia schreberi) and spatterdock (Nuphar spp.).
Submergent vegetation such as pondweeds (Potamogeton spp.), naiads (Najas spp.), coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum), water milfoils (Nitella spp.), wild celery (Vallisneria americana), muskgrass, stonewort, water smartweed (Polygonum amphibium) and bladderworts (Ultricularia spp.).
Lands and water substantially enclosed by aquatic, semiaquatic or dead vegetation as set forth in this subsection, the regulation of which is necessary to protect and preserve the vegetation; or
The duly appointed Wetlands Officer of the Town of Shelter Island.