For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
BERM. A landscaped earthen embankment of at least four feet in height, designed to act as a visual and sound barrier, with a slope no steeper than one on two.
EARTH MATERIALS. Any soil, topsoil, subsoil, sand, gravel, rock, clay, peat or other similar material.
FENCE. A woven wire fence of at least four feet in height but in no instance shall a FENCE be of lesser quality than No. 11 farm fence.
GREENBELT or PLANTING. A dense evergreen, or similar plant material, designed to provide an obscuring buffer.
NUISANCE. Anything that annoys, injures or endangers the safety, health, comfort or repose of the public, interferes with or destroys or renders dangerous any public thoroughfare, allows accumulation of noxious matter on private or public property or in any way renders the public insecure.
PIT OPERATIONS. Any excavation where ponded water results or that lowers the surface to a point below the definition of a stripping operation.
PREMISES. A contiguous parcel of land in the same ownership.
RECLAMATION. The restoration of property in a fashion that makes its development by a use permitted in the zoning district possible.
STRIPPING OPERATIONS. Any one of the following types of excavations where no ponded water results.
(1) Any operation which results in the removal of all or part of a visible surface landform;
(2) Any operation which is limited to the removal of topsoil only and does not disturb the underlying subsoil, whether the subsoil is composed of sand, gravel, clay or other material; and
(3) Where there is no nearby street or road, an operation which removes the surface soils no lower than a point at least six inches above the mean elevation of the surrounding land within one-quarter mile, as shown on United States Geological Survey data.
(1979 Code, § 5.402) (Ord. 96, passed 5-5-1987)