§ 103. Definitions.
The following words and terms used in this ordinance shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
Accessory structure. Any structure located on a lot or parcel not identified as a principal structure as defined herein.
Agricultural lands. Those lands used for the planting and harvesting of crops or plant growth of any kind in the open, pasture, horticulture, dairy farming, floriculture, or the raising of poultry or livestock.
Applicant. Any person submitting any application required or permitted pursuant to any of the provisions of this ordinance, and any person on whose behalf such an application is submitted.
Best management practice. A practice, or a combination of practices, determined to be the most effective practicable means of preventing or reducing the amount of pollution generated by nonpoint sources to a level compatible with water quality goals.
Best management practice, structural. A best management practice that requires the design and certification of a licensed design professional.
Board. The Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Board.
Buffer area. An area of existing or established vegetation managed to protect other components of a Resource Protection Area and state waters from significant degradation due to land disturbances.
Caliper. The diameter of a tree measured six (6) inches above existing grade.
Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area. Any land designated as such on the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Map adopted by the City Council, subject to the determination of the City Manager on a site-specific basis. A Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area shall consist of a Resource Protection Area and a Resource Management Area.
Manager. The City Manager or such other person or persons as he may designate to perform the duties, or to exercise the authority, of the City Manager pursuant to the provisions of this ordinance.
Construction footprint. The area of all impervious surface created by development or redevelopment of land, including, but not limited to, buildings, roads, drives, parking areas and sidewalks, and any other land disturbed for the construction of such improvements.
Development. The construction or installation of any improvement upon a parcel of land, or any land disturbance associated therewith. For floodplain management purposes, development means any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not limited to, buildings or other structures, the placement of manufactured homes, streets, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations, storage of equipment or materials, or the subdivision of land.
Diameter at breast height. The diameter of a tree measured at a point four and one-half (4-1/2) feet above the existing grade.
Dripline. An imaginary perpendicular line extending downward from the outermost tips of the branches of a tree to the ground.
Highly erodible soils. Those soils on slopes seaward of the point at which the slope of the ground changes from less than six (6) percent to greater than six (6) percent and the toe of the slope is located within one hundred (100) feet of tidal wetlands, nontidal wetlands or tidal shores. The top of bank shall be the landward limit of highly erodible soils.
Impervious cover. A surface composed of any material which significantly impedes or prevents natural infiltration of water into the soil, including, but not limited to, buildings and other structures and the components thereof, concrete, asphalt, or compacted gravel surface.
Land disturbance. Any activity upon land which causes, contributes to, or results in the destruction, removal or covering of the vegetation upon such land, including, but not limited to, clearing, dredging, filling, grading or excavating. The term shall not include minor activities such as home gardening, individual home landscaping and home maintenance.
Nonpoint source pollution. Pollution consisting of constituents such as sediment, nutrients, and organic and toxic substances from diffuse sources, such as runoff from agriculture and urban land development and use.
Nontidal wetlands. Those wetlands other than tidal wetlands that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions identified or referred to in the City of Virginia Beach Soil Survey by soil names Backbay Mucky Peat; Duckston portion of Corolla-Duckston Fine Sand; Dorovan Mucky Peat; Duckston Fine Sand; Nawney Silt Loam; Pamlico Mucky Peat; Pamlico-Lakehurst Variant Complex; Pocaty Peat; or Rappahannock Mucky Peat, Strongly Saline; and any other lands which under normal conditions are saturated to the ground surface and connected by surface flow and contiguous to tidal wetlands or adjacent to waterbodies with perennial flow.
Noxious weeds. Plants such as Johnson grass, kudzu, and multiflora rose.
Person. An individual, fiduciary, corporation, firm, partnership, association, organization, or any other entity or combination thereof.
Principal structure. A structure that encloses or houses any principal use. For the purposes of this ordinance the term principal structure shall not include appurtenances including (i) a required parking area as set forth in Sections 203 (a) and (b) of the City Zoning Ordinance (Appendix A), (ii) a driveway connecting the required parking area to the public right-of-way, and (iii) a sidewalk connecting any outside entrance or exit of the principal structure to the required parking area.
Public road. A publicly owned road designed and constructed in accordance with water quality protection criteria at least as stringent as requirements applicable to the Virginia Department of Transportation, including regulations promulgated pursuant to (i) the Erosion and Sediment Control Law (Section 10.1-560 et seq. of the Code of Virginia), and (ii) the Virginia Stormwater Management Act (Section 10.1-603.1 et seq. of the Code of Virginia). This definition includes those roads where the Virginia Department of Transportation exercises direct supervision over the design or construction activities, or both, and cases where roads are constructed or maintained, or both, by the City in accordance with the Public Works Design Standards Manual.
Redevelopment. The construction, substantial alteration or installation of any improvement upon a lot or parcel of land, that is or has been previously developed.
Resource Management Area. That component of a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area not classified as a Resource Protection Area. Resource Management Areas include land types which, if improperly used or developed, have the potential for causing significant water quality degradation or for diminishing the functional value of a Resource Protection Area.
Resource Protection Area. That component of a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area comprised of lands adjacent to waterbodies with perennial flow which have an intrinsic water quality value due to the ecological and biological processes they perform or are sensitive to impacts which may result in significant degradation to the quality of state waters.
Silvicultural activities. Forest management activities, including but not limited to the harvesting of timber, the construction of roads and trails for forest management purposes, and the preparation of property for reforestation that are constructed in accordance with the silvicultural best management practices developed and enforced by the State Forester pursuant to Section 10.1-1105 of the Code of Virginia and are located on property defined as real estate devoted to forest use under Section 58.1-3230 of the Code of Virginia.
Subdivision. The division of any parcel of land into two (2) or more lots or parcels. The term shall include all changes in lot lines, the creation of new lots involving any division of an existing lot or lots and, if a new street is involved in such division, any division of a parcel of land. When appropriate to the context, the term shall also include the process of subdividing and the territory subdivided.
Substantial Alteration. The expansion or modification of a building or development that would result in a disturbance of land exceeding an area of two thousand five hundred (2,500) square feet in the Resource Management Protection Area only.
Tidal shore. The area between the mean low water and mean high water levels of tidal waters.
Tidal wetlands. Vegetated and nonvegetated wetlands as defined in Section 1401 of the City Zoning Ordinance (Appendix A).
Water-dependent facility. A development of land which cannot exist outside of a Resource Protection Area and which must be located on the shoreline by reason of the intrinsic nature of its operation. These facilities include, but are not limited to, ports, the intake and outfall structures of power plants, water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, storm sewers, marinas and other boat docking structures, beaches and other public water-oriented recreation areas, fisheries or other marine resources facilities, and shoreline protection measures as authorized under the provisions of Sections 1400—1418 of the City Zoning Ordinance (Appendix A).
(Ord. No. 2006, 11-6-90; Ord. No. 2086, 7-9-91; Ord. No. 2154, 6-23-92; Ord. No. 2190, 11-10-92; Ord. No. 2663, 10-23-01; Ord. No. 2790, 12-9-03; Ord. No. 2855, 12-7-04; Ord. No. 3030, 6-24-08; Ord. No. 3314, 11-26-13; Ord. No. 3623, 6-16-20)
(Ord. No. 2006, 11-6-90; Ord. No. 2086, 7-9-91; Ord. No. 2154, 6-23-92; Ord. No. 2190, 11-10-92; Ord. No. 2663, 10-23-01; Ord. No. 2790, 12-9-03; Ord. No. 2855, 12-7-04; Ord. No. 3030, 6-24-08; Ord. No. 3314, 11-26-13; Ord. No. 3623, 6-16-20)