Town of Webster, NY Excavations and Topsoil Removal

The purpose of this chapter is to regulate the manner of construction on, removal of materials from, filling up, draining, cleaning, operating and using any lands or other premises for sand or gravel pits, stone quarries, stripping of topsoil or for other excavation purposes, and to prohibit the use of any lands or other premises for the aforesaid purposes which do not comply with such regulations.

§ 159-3 Compliance required; permits; safety precautions.

No excavation, except for the purposes stated in § 159-7 hereof, shall be commenced or carried on except in conformity with the provisions of this chapter.

Before any excavation is commenced and before any earth, sand, gravel, rock, topsoil or other substance is removed from the ground, the owner or tenant of the premises or their agent or the agent of either of them, provided that such agent is duly authorized in writing so to do, shall obtain a permit therefor and for that purpose shall file with the Town Clerk of said town an application for such permit in such form as the Town Board of said town shall prescribe. In any event, such application shall contain a detailed statement of the work contemplated and proposed and a detailed plan setting forth the nature and extent of the proposed excavation. Said statement and plan shall show in detail the conditions of the premises or land before and after the proposed excavation. Along with the application, the applicant must file a description of said premises on which said excavation is proposed. Said description shall be sufficient so that the premises and the whole thereof can be readily identified, and there shall be filed with such application the names and addresses of the owners of record of said premises. Upon said plan aforesaid, there shall be set forth the location of all buildings on said premises and their dimensions. Said plan shall also set forth all public and private streets and rights-of-way on or adjacent to said premises.

No such excavation shall be made within 10 feet of any street or right-of-way unless precautions approved by said Town Board are taken by the applicant to prevent material from falling upon any street or right-of-way or undermining the same or any of them.

Any permit issued pursuant to this chapter may require that upon the conclusion of such excavation and within a period to be specified therein, said premises shall be filled with clean, approved nonburnable fill containing no refuse, garbage, offal or other deleterious or unwholesome material and that dust preventative or similar material shall be used and applied to prevent dust and sand from flying or being carried from said premises during and on the completion of said excavation; that said premises shall be graded to a level not below that of the abutting highway or to a level which shall provide free runoff of surface water at all places; in the case of removal of topsoil, at least four inches of topsoil shall be left remaining or shall be replaced upon the premises from which topsoil is removed, and that upon the area from which topsoil is removed, there shall be a reseeding with a permanent pasture mixture or other fast-growing surface vegetation and that such reseeding shall continue until growth can be reestablished.

§ 159-4 Issuance of permit; conditions; bond.

The Town Clerk of the Town of Webster, upon the presentation of a proper application prepared in accordance with the requirements of § 159-3B hereof and after receiving a favorable report from the Building Inspector of said town and upon authorization therefor by resolution of the Town Board, shall issue a permit to said applicant upon the conditions herein prescribed and such further and additional conditions as may be imposed by the Town Board of said town, provided that any bond hereinafter required be filed with said Town Clerk.

§ 159-5 Expiration of permit.

Such permit issued shall expire three months from the date of its issue unless the date of expiration, on good cause shown, is extended by said Town Board.

§ 159-6 Bond may be required.

Before the issuance of any permit hereunder, the applicant and the owner of record of said premises may be required to execute and file with said Town Clerk of the Town of Webster a bond to be approved as to form, manner of execution and sufficiency of surety by said Town Board in a sum not less than $2,000 with a solvent surety corporation as surety, which said bond shall be conditioned for the faithful performance of the terms and conditions of this chapter and of the conditions of the permit to be issued hereunder and for the observance of all municipal ordinances, and further to indemnify and save harmless said Town of Webster, the Town Board of said town and the Superintendent of Highways of said town for any and all damage to property of said town, and shall further be conditioned for compliance with the terms and conditions of said permit which require the filling, leveling off and reseeding of said excavation and said premises. In the event of default upon the performance of said conditions or any of them, said bond shall be forfeited to the Town of Webster, which shall be entitled to maintain an action thereon. Said bond shall remain in full force and effect until a certificate of completion has been issued by the Building Inspector of said town certifying that all the provisions of this chapter and the conditions of any permit issued hereunder and of said bond have been punctually and fully complied with.

§ 159-7 Exceptions.

Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to forbid any person from removing soil from one part of his lands to another part of the same lands when said removal is necessary as an accessory use or is made for the purpose of improving said property, provided that the area from which said soil is removed is not thereby lowered below the grade of surrounding premises and a free runoff of surface waters at all places is provided.

Any excavation made for the purpose of constructing a building or part thereof, erecting a cellar wall, farm use, public or private utility or public use, sewage-disposal construction, groundwater drainage or digging of a well is expressly excepted from the provisions of this chapter.

§ 159-8 Penalties for offenses.

[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I)]

Any person, partnership or corporation who or which violates any provision of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of not less than $150 nor more than $300; and in addition, any and all persons, partnerships or corporations who or which violates any of the provisions of this chapter or omits or refuses to perform any and every act hereby required shall respectively forfeit and pay a penalty of $50 for each and every such violation and nonperformance. The imposition of any such penalty for a violation of this chapter shall not excuse such violation nor permit the continuance thereof. The application of the above penalty or penalties or the prosecution for a violation of the provisions hereof shall not be held to prevent the removal of conditions prohibited by this chapter by such legal means as may be proper.