§ 18-342. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Applicant means any person who submits an application for a permit pursuant to this article.

City specifications means the city improvement standards, city standard construction specifications and other standards included in applicable city ordinances, regulations and manuals, as amended from time to time.

Civil engineer means a professional engineer in the branch of civil engineering holding a valid certificate of registration issued by the state.

Clearing and grubbing means moving or removing by manual or mechanical means trees, vegetation and/or the top four inches or greater of soil.

Compaction means the act of compacting or consolidating soil and rock material to a specified density, and the resulting compacted state of the material.

Construction site means any land area on which the activity of clearing and grubbing, grading, excavating, or filling is occurring.

Director means the director of the general services department or his or her designated representative.

Engineering geology means the application of geologic knowledge and principles in the investigation and evaluation of naturally occurring rock and soil for use in the design of civil works.

Environmental coordinator means the city planner responsible for preparing and processing environmental documents.

Erosion means the transport of the ground surface or soil as a result of the movement of wind or water.

Erosion control measures means seeding, mulching, vegetative buffer strips, sod, plastic covering, burlap covering, watering and other measures which control the movement of the ground surface or soil.

Grade means the elevation of the ground surface as measured from a known vertical control.

Grading includes the act or result of digging, excavating, transporting, spreading, depositing, filling, compacting, settling, or shaping of land surfaces and slopes, and other operations performed by or controlled by human activity involving the physical movement of rock or soil.

Hazardous substances means those materials listed in title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR 117 and/or 40 CFR 302).

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) means the national program for issuing, modifying, revoking and reissuing, terminating, monitoring and enforcing permits, and imposing and enforcing pretreatment requirements, under sections 307, 402, 318, and 405 of the Clean Water Act.

Permittee means the applicant in whose name a valid permit is issued pursuant to this article and the applicant's agents, employees and designated representatives.

Person means any individual, corporation, partnership, association of any type, public agency or any other legal entity.

Pollutants means as defined in 40 CFR 122.

Runoff means surface runoff and drainage related to storm events, snowmelt, street washwaters related to street cleaning or maintenance and other waters associated with the construction activity which are or may be introduced into the municipal separate storm sewer system.

Sediment means soil or earth material deposited by water.

Sediment control measures means dikes, sediment detention traps, sediment detention basins, filters, fences, barriers, swales, berms, drains, check dams, and other measures which control the deposit of soil or earth material.

Site means a parcel of real property owned by one or more persons on which activity regulated by this article is occurring or is proposed to occur.

Slope means an inclined ground surface, the inclination of which is expressed as a percent.

Structure means anything constructed or erected which requires location on the ground or attached to something having location on the ground.

Watercourse means a river, stream, creek, basin, lake, pond, waterway, or channel, natural or manmade, having a defined bed and banks. Whenever a watercourse consists of an ordinary channel and, in addition thereto, an overflow channel, the watercourse shall be deemed to include all property lying between the banks of the overflow channel.

Wetlands means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions, such as swamps, bogs and marshes.

(Ord. No. 99-11, § 3(16A.52.020), 6-16-1999)

Cross reference

Definitions generally, § 1-2.