[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Piermont
3-20-1990 by L.L. No. 2-1990. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Board of Trustees of the Village of Piermont finds that it is necessary
to prevent the indiscriminate disturbance and clearing of land so as to preserve
the physical and aesthetic character of the Village, to ensure erosion control,
to promote minimal adverse disturbance to existing vegetation, to minimize
the need for additional storm-drainage facilities, to retain trees and other
vegetation for wind protection, to reduce air pollution and to preserve and
to enhance wildlife and wildlife habitats. In order to achieve such objectives,
this chapter is adopted.
This chapter seeks to promote the public health, safety and general
welfare and to minimize public and private losses due to indiscriminate land
disturbance by the adoption of provisions designed to:
A.
Regulate activities which are dangerous to health, safety
and property due to water and erosion hazards and landslides resulting from
indiscriminate land disturbance.
B.
Control the alteration of natural stream channels and
natural protective barriers which are essential to the accommodation of stormwater
runoff.
C.
Control filling, grading, excavation operations and other
disturbances which may increase erosion.
D.
Regulate the construction of barriers which will unnaturally
divert water to other lands.
No land clearing, grading, filling, excavation or other operations resulting
in land disturbance shall be permitted in the Village of Piermont except upon
the issuance of a land-disturbance permit by the Planning Board. Additionally,
the use of motorized equipment to cut trees or to clear land or which disturbs
land shall require a land-disturbance permit from the Planning Board.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
Land shall be deemed to be in a disturbed state if it is moved, filled
or traveled over by construction equipment.
This chapter shall not prohibit the ordinary maintenance of property,
including the removal of dead or diseased trees, trimming, pruning of hedges,
shrubs and trees or the removal of healthy trees and vegetation in a manner
consistent with acceptable horticultural and forestry principles.
Any person who permits or causes land disturbance in violation of this
chapter shall be liable to restore the property so as to eliminate or mitigate
the adverse result of such land disturbance. Any person who permitted or caused
land disturbance during the moratorium adopted on February 20, 1990, or subsequent
to the adoption of this chapter shall be required to comply with the remediation
requirements and procedures of this chapter.
A.
When a violation of this chapter is reported to the Planning
Board, it shall schedule a public hearing, on 10 days' notice to the property
owner and abutting landowners, for the purpose of instituting a mandatory
SEQR proceeding and site plan review to assess the impact of the action taken
with respect to the premises which has been disturbed. As part of the SEQR
and site plan review, there shall be mandatory referrals for advisory opinions
to the Rockland County Cooperative Extension Department and Soil Conservation
Service. For purpose of the enforcement of this chapter, land disturbance
without a permit, whether committed subsequent to the enactment of this chapter
or during the moratorium, shall constitute, prima facie, an environmental
hazard, and the burden of proof shall be upon the property owner to demonstrate
that an environmental hazard does not exist.
B.
Other land disturbances which result in a hazardous condition
shall subject the property owner to the remediation provisions of this chapter.
The burden of proof shall be upon the Planning Board to ascertain that a hazardous
condition exists. In the event that a hazardous condition is found to exist,
the Planning Board, after a public hearing, shall impose appropriate conditions
upon the applicant to remedy the hazardous condition. All costs incurred by
the Planning Board, including but not limited to engineers', surveyors', attorneys'
fees and any other legal, billing and collection costs, shall be borne by
the property owner. If any of the remediations are performed by the Village
or its agents, all the costs it incurs in effecting such remediation and any
other costs, including but not limited to labor, equipment, materials, contractual
expenses and insurance or any other consequential costs incurred on or off
the owner's property, shall be borne by the property owner. If such owner
shall fail to pay the costs and expenses incurred by the Village within 10
days after being notified of the costs thereof by certified mail, the Village
Clerk shall file with the assessing authority of the Village, immediately
preceding the time for making the annual assessment roll, a certificate of
such actual cost and expenses with a statement as to the property upon which
such cost and expenses were incurred. The Assessor, in the preparation of
the next assessment roll of the general Village taxes, shall assess such amount
upon such property, and the same shall be levied, collected and enforced in
the same manner, by the same proceedings, at the same time, under the same
penalties and having the same lien upon the property assessed as the general
Village tax and as a part thereof. This section shall not bind any person
permitting or causing land disturbance prior to the adoption of this chapter,
if it is determined by the Planning Board that no environmental hazard exists.
