As used in this Chapter, the following words shall have these definitions:
(1) Approving Agent: means the City Department of Public Works.
(2) Basin: an area which, by virtue of a dam, berm, or excavation is capable of temporarily and/or permanently holding stormwater and/or sediment carried by stormwater runoff.
(3) Channel: a natural stream that conveys water; a ditch or channel excavated for the flow of water.
(4) Clearing: the clearing, grubbing, scalping, removal of trees and stumps, and removing the disposing of all vegetation and debris within the site, and shall include the conditions resulting therefrom.
(5) Construction: the erection, alteration, repair, renovation, demolition or removal of any building or structure; and the clearing, stripping, excavating, filling, grading, and regulation of sites with connection therewith.
(6) Cut: an excavation. The difference between a point on the original ground and a designated point of lower elevation on the final grade. Also, the material removed in excavation.
(7) Debris: loose refuse or earth material not suitable for use as presently situated or constituted as determined by the Approving Agent.
(8) Developer: any individual, subdivider, firm, association, syndicate, partnership, corporation trust, or any other legal entity commencing proceedings under this chapter to effect the development of land for himself or for another.
(9) Development: any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including, but not limited to, buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations.
(10) Development Area: any contiguous area owned by one person or developed as a single phase or multiple phases (unit) included within the scope of these regulations, upon which earth-disturbing activities are planned or underway.
(11) Ditch: an open channel with intermittent flow, either dug or natural, for the purpose of drainage or irrigation. (See stream, drainageway, and grassed waterway).
(12) Drainageway: an area of concentrated stormwater (water) flow, other than those defined as a river, stream, ditch or grassed waterway.
(13) Dry Detention: the capture and subsequent slow release of stormwater runoff. Capture facilities drain completely between storms.
(14) Dumping: the grading, pushing, piling, throwing, unloading, or placing of earth material.
(15) Earth-Disturbing Activity: any grading, excavation, filling, or other alteration of the earth’s surface where natural or man-made ground cover is destroyed and which may result in or contribute to erosion and sediment pollution.
(16) Earth Material: soil, sediment, rock, sand, gravel, and organic material or residue associated with or attached to the soil.
(17) Engineer: a Professional Engineer registered in the State of Ohio.
(18) Erosion: the wearing away of the land surface by running water, wind, ice or other geological agents, including such processes as gravitational creep; detachment and movement of soil or rock fragments by wind, water, ice or gravity.
A. Accelerated Erosion: erosion much more rapid than normal, natural or geologic erosion, primarily as a result of the influence of the activities of man.
B. Gully Erosion: a type of erosion caused by water accumulating in narrow channels and over short period during and immediately after rainfall or snow or ice melt activity which removes soil such that channels become considerably deeper than what would otherwise result by normal smoothing or tilling operations.
C. Natural Erosion (Geological Erosion): the wearing away of the earth’s surface by water, ice, or other natural agents under natural environmental conditions or climate, vegetation, etc., undisturbed by man.
D. Normal Erosion: the gradual erosion of land used by man which does not greatly exceed natural erosion.
E. Rill Erosion: an erosion process in which numerous small channels only several inches deep are formed; occurs mainly on recently disturbed soils.
F. Sheet Erosion: the removal of a fairly uniform layer of soil from the land surface by wind or runoff water.
G. Stream Bank Erosion: the erosion of the stream bank and channel bottom due to high velocity of the flow within the stream.
(19) Excavation: any act by which earth, sand, gravel, rock or any other similar material is being dug into, cut, quarried, uncovered, removed, displaced, relocated, or bulldozed and shall include the conditions resulting therefrom.
(20) Fill:
A. Any act by which earth, sand, gravel, rock or any other material is placed, pushed, dumped, pulled, transported or moved to a new location above the natural surface of the ground or on top of the stripped surface and shall include the conditions resulting therefrom;
B. The difference in elevation between a point on the original ground and a designated point of higher elevation on the final grade;
C. The material used to make a fill.
(21) Finished Grade: the final grade or elevation of the ground surface conforming to the approved grading plan.
(22) Floodplain Scour: the abrading and wearing away of the nearly level land situated on either side of a channel due to overflow flooding.
(23) Grading: the stripping, cutting, filling, stockpiling, or any combination thereof of earth disturbing activity, including land in its cut or filled conditions.
(24) Grassed Waterway: a broad and shallow natural course or constructed channel with erosion resistant grasses or similar herbaceous cover which is used to conduct surface water drainage runoff at non-erosive velocities.
(25) Hazard: any danger to public health, welfare and safety including exposure to risk or damage to property or liability for personal injury; or risk of harm to land, air or water resulting in environmental degradation. Hazards can include flooding and ponding, compaction and settling, landslides, earthquakes, toxic chemicals, radiation, fire and disease.
(26) Mulching: the application of suitable materials on the soil surface to conserve moisture, hold soil in place, and aid in establishing plant cover.
(27) Natural Vegetation: any ground cover in its original state before commencement of earth disturbing activities.
(28) Nuisance: a public nuisance as known by common law or in equity jurisprudence.
(29) One Hundred-Year Floodplain: Any land which is subject to one percent (1%) or greater chance of flooding in any given year, whether or not such land is designated as a flood hazard area by the Federal Insurance Administration or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
(30) Permanent Vegetation: producing long-term vegetative cover, e.g., bluegrass, tail fescue, crown vetch, etc.
(31) Permittee: any person to whom approval of a site plan according and pursuant to this standard is granted, or who is subject to inspection under it.
(32) Person: any individual, corporation, partnership, joint venture, agency, unincorporated association, municipal corporation, county, or state agency within Ohio, the federal government, or any combination thereof.
(33) Plan: as used in this (standard) chapter, “Plan” shall mean the Runoff Control and Sediment Abatement Plan.
(34) Plans: profiles, typical cross-sections, working drawings and supplemental drawings of site, grading, drainage, and runoff and sedimentation control plans, vicinity map, soil map, and other plan as approved, or exact reproductions thereof, which show the location, character, dimensions, and details of the work.
(35) Pollution: the man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of air and water resources.
(36) Public Waters: those waters within lakes (except private ponds and lakes on single properties), rivers, streams, ditches, and/or waters leaving property on which surface water originates.
(37) Retention: the collection and storage of stormwater runoff without subsequent discharge other than through infiltration into the ground, or evapotranspiration.
(38) Runoff: the portion of rainfall, melted snow or irrigation water that flows across the ground surface and eventually is returned to streams.
A. Accelerated Runoff: increased rate and volume of runoff due to less permeable surface of reduced time of concentration primarily caused by urbanization.
B. Peak Rate of Runoff: the maximum rate of runoff for any 24-hour storm of a given frequency.
(39) Sediment: solid material, both mineral and organic, that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved from its site or origin by air, water, gravity, or ice, and has come to rest on the earth’s surface either above or below water.
(40) Sediment Basin: a facility such as a barrier, dam, or other suitable detention facility built across an area of waterflow to settle and retain sediment carried by surface drainage runoff water.
(41) Sediment Pollution: failure to use approved management or conservation practices to abate wind or water erosion of the soil or to abate the degradation of waters by soil sediment in conjunction with land grading, excavating, filling, or other soil disturbing activities.
(42) Site: any lot or parcel of land or a series of lots or parcels of land adjoining or contiguous or joined together under one ownership where clearing, stripping, grading or excavating is performed.
(43) Slope: (the face of an embankment or cut section; any ground whose surface makes an) rate at which the elevation of the ground changes expressed as the angle the ground makes with the plane of the horizon. Slopes are usually expressed in a percentage based upon vertical difference in feet per 100 feet of horizontal distance.
(44) Sloughing: a downward movement of an extended layer of soil over a slope frequently resulting from the undermining action of surface water runoff or the earth-disturbing activity of man.
(45) Soil: all earth material of whatever origin that overlies bedrock, and may include the decomposed zone of bedrock, which can be readily excavated by mechanical equipment.
(46) Soil Loss: soil moved from a given site by the forces of erosion, and redeposited at another location.
(47) Steer, Slope: a slope over fifteen percent (15%) grade, which is characterized by increase run-off, erosion and sediment hazards.
(48) Storm (Frequency) Return Interval: the average period of time in years within a storm of a given duration and intensity can be expected to be equaled or exceeded.
(49) Stream: a body of water running or flowing on the earth’s surface or channel in which such flow occurs. Flow is continuous or seasonally intermittent.
(50) Stripping: any activity which removes or significantly disturbs the vegetative surface cover.
(51) Subdivision:
A. The division of any parcel of land shown as a unit or any contiguous units on the last preceding tax roll, into two or more parcels, sites or lots, any one of which is less than five acres for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of transfer of ownership provided; however, that the division or partition of land into parcels of more than five acres not involving any new streets or easements of access, and the sale or exchange of parcels between adjoining lot owners, where such sale or exchange does not create additional building sites, shall be excepted; or
B. The improvement of one or more parcels of land for residential, commercial or industrial structures or groups of structures involving the division or allocation of land for the opening, widening or extension of any street or streets, except private streets serving industrial structures; the division or allocation of land as open spaces for the common use by owners, occupants or lease holders or as easements for the extension and maintenance of public sewer, water, storm drainage, or other public facilities.
(52) Subsoil: that part of the soil below the surface soil or plow layers.
(53) Surface Soil: the uppermost part (5 to 8 inches) of the soil commonly stirred by tillage implements, or its equivalent in uncultivated soils.
(54) Swale: a (low lying stretch of vegetated land) mildly sloped channel or ditch with side slopes less than 4 to 1 which gathers and carries surface water runoff at a reduced rate of flow and conveys it downstream at less erosive velocities.
(55) Temporary Vegetation: short-term vegetative cover used to stabilize the soil surface until final grading and installation of permanent vegetation (i.e., oats, rye, or wheat).
(56) Topsoil: surface and upper surface soil which presumably is of darker colored, fertile soil materials, ordinarily rich in organic matter or humus debris.
(57) Watercourse: any natural or artificial waterway including but not limited to streams, rivers, creeks, ditches, channels, canals, conduits, culverts, drains, drainageways, waterways, gullies, definite direction or course, either continuously or intermittently; and including any area adjacent thereto which is subject to inundation by reason of overflow of flood water.
(58) Wet Detention: The capture and subsequent slow release of stormwater runoff. The capture facility has a permanent pool of water in the facility.
(Ord. 26-03. Passed 11-17-03.)