A.
Unless a contrary intention clearly appears, the following words
and phrases shall have, for the purpose of these regulations, the
meanings in the following clauses.
B.
For the purpose of these regulations, words and terms used herein
shall be interpreted as follows:
(1)
Words used in the present tense include the future.
(2)
The singular includes the plural.
(3)
The word "person" includes a corporation, institution, partnership,
and association as well as the individual.
(4)
The word "lot" includes the word "plot" or "parcel."
(5)
The word "Commission" and the words "Planning and Zoning Commission"
always mean the Chesapeake Beach Planning and Zoning Commission.
(6)
The word "Council" and the words "Town Council" shall always mean
the Chesapeake Beach Town Council.
(7)
The word "County" shall always mean Calvert County.
(8)
The word "Town" shall always mean the Town of Chesapeake Beach.
(9)
The word "Administrator" shall always mean the Public Works Administrator.
C.
Any word or term not defined herein shall be used with a meaning
of standard usage.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
A minor way which is used primarily for vehicular service
access to the back or the side of properties otherwise abutting a
street.
Any person who submits to the Town Council and the Planning
and Zoning Commission subdivision plans for the purpose of obtaining
approval thereof.
A structure having a roof, which is used or intended to be
used for the shelter or enclosure of persons, animals, or property.
The word "building" shall include any part thereof.
The rear line of the minimum required front yards. The building
setback line shall be measured from the future right-of-way line.
A grant of the use of a parcel of land to the use of the
public, a corporation, or person for a specific purpose, without including
title to the land.
Those physical additions, installations, and changes, such
as streets, curbs, sidewalks, water mains, sewers, drainage facilities,
public utilities, and other appropriate items required to render land
suitable for the use proposed.
A parcel of land used or set aside and available for use
as the site of one or more buildings and buildings accessory thereto
or for any other purpose, in one ownership and not divided by a street
nor including any land within the limits of a public or private street
right-of-way.
A strip of land occupied or intended to be occupied by a
street, alley, crosswalk, sanitary or storm sewer, drainage ditch,
or for another special use. The usage of the term "right-of-way" for
land plotting purposes in the Town shall mean that every right-of-way
hereafter established and shown on the final plan is to be separate
and distinct from lots or parcels adjoining such right-of-way, and
not included with the dimensions or areas of such lots or parcels.
A public or private way used or intended to be used for passage
or travel by automotive vehicles and pedestrians and to provide access
to abutting properties.
The dividing line between the street and the lot. The street
line shall be the same as the legal right-of-way line, provided that
where a future right-of-way width for a street has been officially
established, the street line shall be the side of the future right-of-way
so established.
The division of a single lot, tract, or parcel of land or part
thereof into two or more lots, tracts, or parcels of land for the
purpose, whether immediate or future, of transfer of ownership or
of building development.
The term "subdivision" includes resubdivision and, when appropriate
to the context, shall relate to the process of subdividing or to the
land subdivided.
The division of a single lot, tract or parcel of land into
four or fewer lots, tracts, or parcels of land for the purpose, whether
immediate or future, of transfer of ownership or of building development,
provided the proposed lots, tracts, or parcels of land thereby created
have frontage on an improved public street or streets, and provided
further that no new street or streets are created by the subdivision.
[Added 10-20-1988 by Ord. No. O-88-11]
Definitions applicable to terms not already contained herein
shall be the same as those contained in the Chesapeake Bay Critical
Area Criteria, COMAR Section 14.15.01.
The establishment of a tree crop on an area from which it
has always or very long been absent, or the planting of open areas
that are not presently in forest cover.
Fish that travel upstream (from their primary habitat in
the ocean) to freshwater in order to spawn.
Conservation practices or systems of practices and management
measures that control soil loss and reduce water quality degradation
caused by nutrients, animal waste, toxic substances, and sediment.
Agricultural BMPs include, but are not limited to, strip cropping,
terracing, contour stripping, grass waterways, animal waste structures,
ponds, minimal tillage, grass and naturally vegetated filter strips,
and proper nutrient application measures.
An existing, naturally vegetated area or an area established in vegetation and managed to protect aquatic, wetlands, shoreline and to terrestrial environments from man-made disturbances. In the Critical Area, the minimum Buffer is a continuous area located immediately landward of tidal waters (measured from the mean high water line), tributary streams in the Critical Area, and tidal wetlands and has a minimum width of 100 feet. The Buffer shall be expanded beyond the minimum width to include certain sensitive areas as per requirements established in Chapter 290, Zoning. The Buffer may also be expanded 10 feet beyond the minimum width in conjunction with all development activities to provide an additional building restriction line (which shall include any other building restriction setbacks), at the discretion of the reviewing authority, to provide pollution and sediment control, if necessary, and to prevent incidental grading in the Buffer. Whenever "Buffer" is referred to in this chapter, such Buffer shall not apply to any area that has been exempted pursuant to Section IV, Buffer Exemption, of the Chesapeake Beach Critical Area Protection Program for the Town of Chesapeake Beach, as shown on the Critical Area Overlay Zone Maps, as may be amended from time to time.
[Amended 12-21-1989 by Ord. No. O-89-17]
Boat docking facilities associated with subdivisions and
similar residential areas, and with condominium, apartment, and other
multiple-family dwelling units. Private individual piers are excluded
from this definition.
A nonpossessory interest in land that restricts the manner
in which the land may be developed in an effort to conserve natural
resources for future use.
All lands and waters defined in § 8-1807 of the
Natural Resources Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, including:
All waters of and lands under the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries
to the head of the tide as indicated on the state wetlands maps, and
all state and private wetlands designated under Title 9 of the Natural
Resources Article, Annotated Code of Maryland;[1]
All land and water areas within 1,000 feet of the landward boundaries
of state or private wetlands and the heads of tides designated under
Title 9 of the Natural Resources Article, Annotated Code of Maryland;[2] and
Modification to these areas through inclusions or exclusions
proposed by Chesapeake Beach and approved by the Critical Area Commission
as specified in § 8-1807 of the Natural Resources Article,
Annotated Code of Maryland.
The Maryland Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission.
The number of dwelling units per acre of gross area of a
development tract.
An area or areas one acre or more in size that predominantly
contain trees and natural vegetation and that also include residential,
commercial, or industrial structures and uses.
Any construction, modification, extension, or expansion of
buildings or structures; placement of fill or dumping; storage of
materials; land excavation; land clearing; land improvement; or any
combination thereof, including the subdivision of land.
The area of a lot, within a larger overall lot area, that
is devoted to structures and septic systems. In general, where a development
pad is prescribed, the remaining area of the lot must be maintained
in natural vegetation.
Minor watercourses that are defined either by soil type or
by the presence of intermittent or perennial streams of topography
that indicates a swale where surface sheet flows join, including the
land, except where areas are designated as floodplain, on either side
of and within 50 feet of the center line of any intermittent or perennial
stream shown on the U.S. Geological Service's 7.5 quadrangle sheets
covering the incorporated areas of Chesapeake Beach.
A comprehensive report that describes the natural features
and characteristics of a proposed development site, the changes that
will occur as the result of proposed development activities on the
site, the anticipated environmental impacts and consequences of the
proposed development, and mitigation measures to be taken to minimize
undesirable impacts to the environment.
An act of the Town Council approved by the Critical Area
Commission that excepts an area of Chesapeake Beach from the Zoning
Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations applicable only to the Critical
Area.
An act of the Town Council approved by the Critical Area
Commission that relieves an area of Chesapeake Beach from the Buffer
provisions of the Critical Area.
Commercial water-dependent fisheries facilities, including
structures for the packing, processing, canning, or freezing of finfish,
crustaceans, mollusks, and amphibians and reptiles and also including
related activities such as wholesale and retail sales, product storage
facilities, crab shedding, off-loading docks, shellfish culture operations,
and shore-based facilities necessary for aquaculture operations.
A biological community dominated by trees and other woody
plants covering a land area of one acre or more. This also includes
forests that have been cut but not cleared.
The protection, manipulation, and utilization of the forest
to provide multiple benefits, such as timber harvesting, wildlife
habitat, etc.
The alteration of the forest either through tree removal
or replacement in order to improve the timber, wildlife, recreational,
or water quality values.
Describes the status accorded certain properties and development
activities that are of record prior to the date of adoption of these
regulations.
An area of land calculated as 5% of the total resource conservation
area of Calvert County, including Chesapeake Beach (excluding tidal
wetlands and federally owned land), that the Town may convert to more
intense land use management classification to accommodate land development;
and
An act of the Town Council, approved by the Critical Area Commission,
and pursuant to agreement between Calvert County and the Town, that
provides for conversion of a property or properties located in Resource
Conservation Areas (RCAs) and/or Limited Development Areas (LDAs)
in the Critical Area District to another land use management classification
that allows an increase in the permitted density.
Soils with a slope greater than 15% or soils with a K value
greater than 0.35 and slopes greater than 5%.
Soils that are wet frequently enough to periodically produce
anaerobic conditions, thereby influencing the species composition
or growth, or both, of plants on those soils.
Any activity that removes the vegetative ground cover.
Any facility for the mooring, berthing, storing, or securing
of watercraft, but not including community piers, private or individual
piers, and other noncommercial boat docking and storage facilities.
The average level of high tides at a given location.
Components and processes present in or produced by nature,
including but not limited to soil types, geology, slopes, vegetation,
surface water, drainage patterns, aquifer, recharge areas, climate,
floodplains, aquatic life, and wildlife.
Plant communities that develop in the absence of human activities.
Refers to lands in the Critical Area (excluding tidal wetlands
regulated under Title 9 of the Natural Resources Article, Annotated
Code of Maryland[3]), farm ponds, and other man-made bodies of water whose
purpose is to impound water for agriculture, water supply, recreation,
or waterfowl habitat where the water table is usually at or near the
surface, or lands where the soil or substrate is covered by shallow
water at some time during the growing season, and that are usually
characterized by one or both of the following:
Structures or actions that compensate for undesirable impacts.
Land and water areas retained for use as active or passive
recreation areas in an essentially underdeveloped state.
Tidal waters of the state that do not contain tidal wetlands
and/or submerged aquatic vegetation.
The soils, topography, land slope and aspect, and local climate
that influence the form and species composition of plant communities.
The process of substantially altering previously developed
property by the improvement or alteration of the property in a manner
that increases the value of the property by more than 50% or that
increases the total impervious area of the property by more than 25%.
The establishment of a forest through artificial reproduction
or natural regeneration.
Any number of structural and nonstructural methods or techniques
for controlling the erosion of shoreline areas. More specifically
the term refers to:
Nonstructural: creation of an intertidal march fringe channelward
of the existing bank by one of the following methods:
Vegetation: planting an existing shore with a wide band of vegetation;
Bank sloping/vegetation: sloping and planting a nonwooded bank
to manage tidal water contact, using structures to contain sloped
materials if necessary; and
Contained beach: filling along shore with sandy materials, grading,
and containing the new beach to eliminate tidal water contact with
the bank.
Land use plans for farms that show farmers how to make the
best possible use of their soil and water resources while protecting
and conserving those resources for the future. A plan is a document
containing a map and related plans that indicate:
Slopes of 15% or greater incline.
State wetlands that are defined as any land under the navigable
waters of the state below the mean high water line, affected by the
regular rise and fall of tide, and private wetlands that are defined
as any land not considered "state wetlands" bordering or lying beneath
tidal waters, that are subject to regular or periodic tidal action
and support aquatic growth. Private wetlands includes wetlands transferred
by the state by a valid grant, lease, patent, or grant confirmed by
Article 5 of the Declaration of Rights of the Constitution to the
extent of the interest transferred. The term "regular or periodic
tidal action" means the rise and fall of the sea produced by the attraction
of the sun and moon, not influenced by the wind or any other circumstance.
The existing configuration of the earth's surface, including
the relative relief, elevations, and position of land features.
Perennial and intermittent streams in the Critical Area that
are so noted on the most recent U.S. Geological Survey 7.5 foot topographic
quadrangle maps (scale 1:24,000) or on more detailed maps or studies.
Structures or works associated with industrial, maritime,
recreational, educational, or fisheries activities that require location
at or near the shoreline within the Buffer.
A body of water, such as a pond or lake, confined by a dam,
dike, or floodgates or other man-made barrier that:
A strip of land having vegetation that provides habitat and
a safe passageway for wildlife.
[1]
Editor's Note: The subtitles of Title 9 of the Natural Resources
Article have either been transferred or repealed. See now Environment
Article Title 16, Wetlands and Riparian Rights.
[2]
Editor's Note: The subtitles of Title 9 of the Natural Resources
Article have either been transferred or repealed. See now Environment
Article Title 16, Wetlands and Riparian Rights.
[3]
Editor's Note: The subtitles of Title 9 of the Natural Resources
Article have either been transferred or repealed. See now Environment
Article Title 16, Wetlands and Riparian Rights.
