For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms, phrases, words, and their derivatives shall have the meanings stated below. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future tense, words in the plural number include the singular number, and words in the singular number include the plural number. The word "shall" is always mandatory and not merely directive.
APPLICANT: Any person who wishes to obtain a building permit, grading permit, zoning or subdivision approval.
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs): The most effective and practicable means of erosion prevention and sediment control, and water quality management practices that are the most effective and practicable means to control, prevent, and minimize degradation of surface water, including avoidance of impacts, construction phasing, minimizing the length of time soil areas are exposed, prohibitions, pollution prevention through good housekeeping, and other management practices published by state or designated area wide planning agencies.
CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL OR BUILDING OFFICIAL: The building official designated by the city as the chief building official or a representative thereof.
CITY: The city of Rosemount.
CITY ENGINEER: The professional engineer designated by the city as city engineer or a representative thereof.
CLEARING: Any activity that removes the vegetative surface cover.
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY: A disturbance to the land that results in a change in the topography, existing soil cover (both vegetative and nonvegetative), or the existing soil topography that may result in accelerated stormwater runoff, leading to soil erosion and movement of sediment into surface waters or drainage systems. Examples of construction activity may include clearing, grading, filling and excavating.
CONTROL MEASURE: A practice or combination of practices to prevent erosion, capture sediment, control wastes, or otherwise prevent pollution.
CONTROL PLAN: A plan indicating the specific measures and sequencing to be used to control grading, sediment and erosion on a development site during and after construction.
DEVELOPER: Any person, group, firm, corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership, state agency, or political subdivision thereof engaged in a land disturbance activity.
DEVELOPMENT: Any land disturbance activity that changes the site's runoff characteristics in conjunction with residential, commercial, industrial or institutional construction or alteration.
DEWATERING: The removal of water for construction activity. It can be a discharge of appropriated surface water or ground water to dry and/or solidify a construction site. It may require Minnesota Department of Natural Resources permits to be appropriated and if contaminated may require other MPCA permits to be discharged.
DNR OR MNDNR: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
DRAINAGEWAY: Any channel that conveys surface runoff throughout the site.
EASEMENT: A legal land preservation agreement between a landowner and a municipality or a qualified land protection organization. The easement confers the transfer of usage rights from one party to another.
EROSION: Any process that wears away the surface of the land by the action of water or wind.
EROSION CONTROL: Refers to methods employed to prevent erosion. Examples include soil stabilization practices, horizontal slope grading, temporary or permanent cover, and construction phasing.
EROSION PREVENTION: Any measures employed to prevent erosion. Examples include, but are not limited to: soil stabilization practices, limited grading, mulch, temporary or permanent cover, and construction phasing.
EXPOSED SOIL OR EXPOSED SOIL AREAS: All areas of the construction site where the vegetation (trees, shrubs, brush, grasses, etc.) or impervious surface have been removed, thus rendering the soil more prone to erosion. This includes topsoil stockpile areas, borrow areas and disposal areas within the construction site.
FINAL GRADE: Excavation or fill of material to final smooth condition. Final grade completed as part of individual site development.
FINAL STABILIZATION: A. All soil disturbing activities at the site have been completed and a uniform (e.g., evenly distributed, without large bare areas) perennial vegetative cover with a density of seventy percent (70%) of the native background vegetative cover for the area has been established on all unpaved areas and areas not covered by permanent structures, or equivalent permanent stabilization measures (such as the use of riprap, gabions, or geotextiles) have been employed;
B. For individual lots in residential construction by either: 1) the homebuilder completing final stabilization as specified above, or 2) the homebuilder establishing temporary stabilization including perimeter controls for an individual lot prior to occupation of the home by the homeowner and informing the homeowner of the need for, and benefits of, final stabilization (Homeowners typically have an incentive to put in the landscaping functionally equivalent to final stabilization as quick as possible to keep mud out of their homes and off sidewalks and driveways.); or
C. For construction projects on land used for agricultural purposes (e.g., pipelines across crop or range land) final stabilization may be accomplished by returning the disturbed land to its preconstruction agricultural use. Areas disturbed that were not previously used for agricultural activities, such as buffer strips immediately adjacent to surface waters and drainage systems, and areas which are not being returned to their preconstruction agricultural use must meet the final stabilization criteria in subsection A or B of this definition.
FLOOD FRINGE: The portion of the floodplain outside of the floodway.
FLOODPLAIN: The areas adjoining a watercourse or water basin that have been or may be covered by a regional flood.
FLOODWAY: The channel of the watercourse, the bed of water basins, and those portions of the adjoining floodplains that are reasonably required to carry and discharge floodwater and provide water storage during a regional flood.
GRADING: Changing elevation or smoothing of the ground surfaces; excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions thereof.
GRADING, EROSION CONTROL AND SEDIMENT CONTROL PLANS: A set of plans prepared by or under the direction of a licensed professional engineer. Plans are required to meet the specifications as detailed in city of Rosemount regulations and standards, including those of the Rosemount Engineering Guidelines and Rosemount Comprehensive Surface Water Management Plan.
GROUNDWATER: Water contained below the surface of the earth in the saturated zone including, without limitation, all waters whether under confined, unconfined, or perched conditions, in near surface unconsolidated sediment or regolith, or in rock formations deeper underground.
HYDRIC SOILS: Soils that are saturated, flooded, or ponded long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part.
HYDROPHYTIC VEGETATION: Macrophytic plant life growing in water, soil or on a substrate that is at least periodically deficient in oxygen as a result of excessive water content.
IMPERVIOUS SURFACE: A constructed hard surface that either prevents or retards the entry of water into the soil and causes water to run off the surface in greater quantities and at an increased rate of flow than prior to development. Examples include rooftops, sidewalks, patios, driveways, parking lots, storage areas, and concrete, asphalt, or gravel roads.
LAND DISTURBING OR DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES: Any change of the land surface including removing vegetative cover, removing structures and exposing native soils underneath, excavating, filling, grading, and the construction of any structure.
MPCA: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
MS4 PERMIT: Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems NPDES Permit.
NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES): The program for issuing, modifying, revoking, reissuing, terminating, monitoring, and enforcing permits under the United States Clean Water Act , as amended. Applicable federal regulations include 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq. Section 1342 and 40 CFR parts 122, 123, 124 and 450. The NPDES Programs regulating discharges to Waters of the United States for construction stormwater, industrial stormwater, and municipal stormwater are administered by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) in the State of Minnesota.
PERIMETER CONTROL: A barrier that prevents sediment from leaving a site by filtering sediment laden runoff or diverting it to a sediment trap or basin. Examples include silt fence, woodchip logs, compost logs, and stabilized soil berms.
PERMANENT COVER: Final site stabilization. Examples include grass, gravel, asphalt, and concrete. See also the definition of Final Stabilization.
PERMITTEE: Any person who has received a building permit, grading permit, zoning approval or subdivision approval.
PERSON: Any individual, firm, organization, corporation, partnership, franchisee, association or governmental entity.
PHASING: Clearing a parcel of land in distinct phases, with the stabilization of each phase completed before the clearing of the next.
PUBLIC WATERS: Waters of the state as defined in Minnesota statutes, section 103G.005, subdivision 15.
ROUGH GRADE: Grading to a condition suitable for general maintenance.
SEDIMENT: The product of an erosion process; solid material both mineral and organic, that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved by water, wind, or ice, and has come to rest on the earth's surface either above or below water level.
SEDIMENT CONTROL: Measures and methods employed to prevent sediment from leaving the site. Sediment control practices include silt fences, sediment traps, earth dikes, drainage swales, check dams, subsurface drains, pipe slope drains, storm drain inlet protection, and temporary or permanent sedimentation basins.
SEDIMENTATION: The process or action of depositing sediment.
SITE: A parcel of land or a contiguous combination thereof, where grading work is performed as a single unified operation.
SITE DEVELOPMENT: Improvements and structures for the control of erosion, runoff, and grading.
SOIL: The unconsolidated mineral and organic material on the immediate surface of the earth. For the purposes of this chapter temporary stockpiles of clean sand, gravel, aggregate, concrete or bituminous materials (which have less stringent protection) are not considered "soil" stockpiles.
SPECS OR ENGINEERING GUIDELINES: Manuals detailing city specifications for all plan requirements.
STABILIZED: The exposed ground surface has been covered by appropriate materials such as mulch, staked sod, riprap, wood fiber blanket, or other material that prevents erosion from occurring. Grass seeding is not stabilization.
STANDARD PLATES: General drawings having or showing similar characteristics or qualities that are representative of a construction practice or activity.
START OF CONSTRUCTION: The first land disturbing activity associated with a development, including land preparation such as clearing, grading, and filling; installation of streets and walkways; excavation for basements, footings, piers, or foundations; erection of temporary forms; and installation of accessory buildings such as garages.
STORMWATER: Surface flows of water generated from precipitation events. Stormwater includes precipitation runoff, stormwater runoff, snowmelt runoff, and any other surface runoff and drainage.
STORMWATER POLLUTION PREVENTION PLAN (SWPPP): A plan for stormwater discharge that includes erosion prevention measures, sediment controls, waste controls, and pollution prevention measures that, when implemented, will decrease soil erosion on a parcel of land and decrease pollution in surface water and groundwater.
STRUCTURE: Anything manufactured, constructed or erected which is normally attached to or positioned on land, including portable structures, earthen structures, roads, parking lots, and paved storage areas.
SURFACE WATER: All streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, wetlands, reservoirs, springs, rivers, drainage systems, waterways, and watercourses, whether natural or artificial, public or private.
TEMPORARY EROSION PROTECTION OR TEMPORARY COVER: Methods employed to prevent erosion. Examples of temporary cover include disc anchored straw, wood fiber blanket, wood chips, and erosion netting.
WATERCOURSE: A channel in which a flow of water occurs either continuously or intermittently, whether natural or artificially constructed. Examples include, but are not limited to, streams, rivers, and ditches.
WATERWAY: A channel that directs surface runoff to a watercourse or to the public storm drain.
WETLAND OR WETLANDS: Defined in Minnesota rules 7050.0130, subp. F and includes those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. Constructed wetlands designed for wastewater treatment are not waters of the state. Wetlands must have the following attributes:
A. A predominance of hydric soils;
B. Inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence of hydrophytic vegetation typically adapted for life in a saturated soil condition; and
C. Under normal circumstances support a prevalence of such vegetation. (Ord. 2015-01, 2-17-2015; amd. Ord. 2015-05, 7-7-2015; Ord. 2023-05, 10-3-2023)