The purposes of the land use districts are as follows:
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RP
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Resource Protection District
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SP
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Shoreland and Slope District
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FEMA
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One-Hundred-Year Floodplain Zone
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LRS
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Limited Residential Shoreland District
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MFW
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Minor Freshwater Wetland District
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A.
Resource Protection District: to control the use of shoreland and
other areas to provide maximum protection to the land and water resources.
Such areas include but are not limited to wetlands, swamps, marshes,
bogs, poorly drained soils, one-hundred-year floodplains and significant
wildlife habitats.
B.
Shoreland and Slope District, and one-hundred-year Floodplain Zone.
(1)
To protect from activities or alterations that would unreasonably
cause or increase flooding of areas or adjacent properties.
(2)
To provide maximum protection to the land and water resources with
controls of use and development of undeveloped shoreland areas.
(3)
To minimize expenditures of public monies for flood control projects.
(4)
To minimize rescue and relief efforts undertaken at the expense of
the general public.
(5)
To minimize flood damage to public facilities, such as water mains,
sewer lines, streets, roads and bridges.
(6)
To protect the storage capacity of floodplains and ensure retention
of sufficient floodway area to convey flood flow which reasonably
can be expected to occur.
(7)
To encourage open space uses, such as agriculture and recreation.
C.
Limited Residential Shoreland District: to allow within Inland Wading
Waterfowl Habitat (IWWH) resource protection areas suitable for residential
and recreational development which are used less intensively than
those in the Business Districts and currently developed. This district
shall include areas as shown on the South Berwick Official Shoreland
Zoning Map and Table C, footnote (4).[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Table C is included at the end of this chapter.
D.
Minor Freshwater Wetland District: to further the maintenance of
safe and healthful conditions; to prevent and control water pollution;
to protect fish spawning grounds, aquatic life, bird and other wildlife
habitat; to protect buildings and lands from flooding and accelerated
erosion; to control building sites, placement of structures and land
uses and visual as well as actual points of access to inland and coastal
waters; to conserve natural beauty and open space; and to anticipate
and respond to the impacts of development in shoreland and adjacent
areas.
A.
Resource Protection District RP.
(1)
All land within 250 feet from the normal high-water line (as measured
from the edge of the associated wetland) of the following water bodies:
(a)
Round Pond.
(b)
Warren Pond.
(c)
Knights Pond and its outlet.
(d)
Ogunquit Brook.
(e)
Chicks Brook, upstream of Emery's Bridge Road.
(f)
White Marsh Brook.
(g)
Cox Pond and its outlet to White Marsh Brook.
(h)
Hooper's Swamp and Hooper's Brook upstream of Belle Marsh Road.
(i)
Leigh's Mill Pond.
(j)
Salmon Falls River/Piscataqua River to its tidal limits.
(2)
The Great Works River in the R3 and R4 Districts (as measured from
the edge of the river channel).
(3)
The following resources to their boundary limits:
(a)
Coastal wetlands.
(b)
All one hundred year floodplains.
(c)
Major freshwater wetlands.
(d)
Minor freshwater wetlands.
(e)
Areas of two or more contiguous acres with sustained slopes of 20% or greater when located within a Shoreland and Slope District (§ 110-18B).
(f)
Land areas along rivers subject to severe erosion, undercutting,
or riverbed movement and lands adjacent to tidal waters, which are
subject to severe erosion or mass movement, such as a coastal bluff.
(g)
For the purpose of this section, the Resource Protection District shall be a three-hundred-foot radius from the wellhead. However, the Protection District from the Junction Road wellhead shall be an area as described in the Caswell, Eichler, and Hill study "Hydro Geological Evaluation of Bedrock Well at Junction Road Site, South Berwick, Maine, September 1994." These zones will be established only after public notice and a public hearing in accordance with § 140-6 of the Zoning Ordinance. For all new wellhead protection areas, Resource Protection Zones will be based on hydro geological studies/recommendations and will be established according to Ch. 140, Zoning, § 140-6. Wells representing the location of a public water supply in South Berwick, and portion of Berwick, Maine, servicing the South Berwick Water District as recorded by the Maine Drinking Water Program, June 2003.
(h)
Vaughan Woods.
(i)
All areas mapped as very poorly drained soils on the medium
intensity soil survey of York County, Maine. In the event that a soil
classification boundary designating the limits of the Resource Protection
District is challenged by a landowner or abutters, the landowner or
abutters shall present evidence that the land in question does not
contain soils which are classified as being very poorly drained by
the United States Soil Conservation Service. A high-intensity soil
survey performed by a registered soil scientist, licensed in the state
of Maine, may constitute such evidence.
(5)
Areas within 250 feet, horizontal distance, of the upland edge of
freshwater wetlands, salt marshes and salt meadows, and wetlands associated
with great ponds and rivers, which are rated "moderate" or "high"
value as most recently mapped, or waterfowl and wading bird habitat,
including nesting and feeding areas, by the Maine Department of Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIF&W) that are depicted on a Geographic
Information System (GIS) data layer maintained by either MDIF&W
or the Department as of December 31, 2008. For the purposes of this
subsection, "wetlands associated with great ponds and rivers" shall
mean areas characterized by non-forested wetland vegetation and hydric
soils that are contiguous with a great pond or river, and have a surface
elevation at or below the water level of the great pond or river during
the period of normal high water. Wetlands associated with great ponds
or rivers are considered to be part of that great pond or river.
B.
Shoreland and Slope District - SP.
(1)
Unless previously classified as Resource Protection, all land within
250 feet horizontally of the normal high water line, as measured from
the edge of the stream channel, of the following water bodies:
(a)
Dennett Brook.
(b)
Boyd Brook.
(c)
Great Works River in the R1 and R2 Districts. (The high-water
line shall be measured from the edge of any associated wetland.)
(d)
Chicks Brook, downstream of Emery's Bridge Road.
(e)
Lover's Brook.
(f)
Shorey's Brook.
(g)
Quamphegan Brook.
(h)
Lord Brook.
(i)
Hooper's Brook.
(j)
Knights Brook.
(k)
Warren Brook, south of Bickel Mountain.
(l)
Hussey Brook, north of Great Hill.
(m)
Bennett Brook.
(n)
Hamilton Brook.
(o)
Driscoll Brook.
(p)
Salmon Falls River above Route 4. (The high-water line shall
be measured from the edge of any associated wetland.)
(q)
Unnamed Stream 1 as shown on Shoreland Map.
(r)
Unnamed Stream 2 as shown on Shoreland Map.
(s)
Hilton Brook.
(2)
Land within 250 feet of a major freshwater wetland boundary.
(3)
Land within 250 feet of a coastal wetland boundary.
(4)
Any other free flowing body of water, not listed above, which flows
from the outlet of a great pond or the confluence of two perennial
streams as depicted on the most recent edition of a United States
Geological Survey 7.5 minutes series topographic map, to the point
where the body of water becomes a river.
C.
One-hundred-year Floodplain Zone FEMA. Floodplains along rivers and
floodplains along artificially formed great ponds along rivers, defined
by the one-hundred-year floodplain as designated on the Federal Emergency
Management Agency's (FEMA's) Flood Insurance Rate Maps or Flood Hazard
Boundary Maps, or the flood of record, or in the absence of these,
by soil types identified as recent floodplain soils. This district
shall also include one-hundred-year floodplains adjacent to tidal
waters as shown on FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps or Flood Hazard
Boundary Maps.
D.
Minor Freshwater Wetland MFW. A wetland of two or more contiguous
acres, excluding major freshwater wetlands, or forested wetlands as
identified on the Federal National Wetlands Inventory.
