§ 1442. Definitions

As used in this chapter:

(1) “Agency” means the Agency of Natural Resources.

(2) “Best management practices” means approved activities, maintenance procedures, and other practices to prevent or reduce the effects of impervious surface or cleared area on water quality and natural resources.

(3) “Cleared area” means an area where existing vegetative cover, soil, tree canopy, or duff is permanently removed or altered. Cleared area shall not mean management of vegetative cover conducted according to the requirements of section 1447 of this title.

(4) “Duff” means leaf litter plus small fragments of plants and organic debris that provide a spongy substrate that absorbs the energy of falling water and allows runoff to infiltrate soil.

(5) “Expansion” means an increase or addition of impervious surface or cleared area.

(6) “Grass lawn” means land maintained in continuous plant coverage of grasses and similar plants that are closely and regularly mowed, including meadow or pasture on nonagricultural land. “Grass lawn” does not include pasture cropland, land used to grow sod, or similar land used for agricultural production.

(7) “Habitable structure” means a permanent assembly of materials built for the support, shelter, or enclosure of persons, animals, goods, or property, including a dwelling, a commercial or industrial building, and driveways, decks, and patios attached or appurtenant to a dwelling or commercial or industrial building. “Habitable structure” shall not mean a motor home, as that term is defined under 32 V.S.A. § 8902, tents, lean-tos, or other temporary structures.

(8) “Highway” shall have the same meaning as in 19 V.S.A. § 1(12).

(9) “Impervious surface” means those manmade surfaces, including paved and unpaved roads, parking areas, roofs, driveways, and walkways, from which precipitation runs off rather than infiltrates.

(10) “Lake” means a body of standing water, including a pond or a reservoir, which may have natural or artificial water level control. Private ponds shall not be considered lakes.

(11) “Management road” shall have the same meaning as in 19 V.S.A. § 1(13).

(12) “Mean water level” means the mean water level of a lake as defined in the Mean Water Level Rules of the Agency of Natural Resources adopted under 29 V.S.A. § 410.

(13) “Parcel” means a portion of land or a tract of land with defined boundaries created by dividing the land by sale, gift, lease, mortgage foreclosure, court-ordered partition or decree, or filing of a plat, plan, or deed in the records of the municipality where the act of division occurred.

(14) “Private pond” means a body of standing water that is a natural water body of not more than 20 acres located on property owned by a person or an artificial water body of any size located on property owned by one person. A “private pond” shall include a reservoir specifically constructed for one of the following purposes: snowmaking storage, golf course irrigation, stormwater management, or fire suppression.

(15) “Private road” means a road or street other than a highway, as that term is defined in 19 V.S.A. § 1(12), that is owned by one or more persons and that is used as a means of travel from a highway to more than one parcel of land.

(16) “Project” means an act or activity that results in cleared area or the creation of impervious surface in a protected shoreland area.

(17) “Protected shoreland area” means all land located within 250 feet of the mean water level of a lake that is greater than 10 acres in surface area.

(18) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Natural Resources or the Secretary’s duly authorized representative.

(19) “Slope” means the vertical rise divided by the horizontal run of a plane expressed as a percentage.

(20) “State forest highway” shall have the same meaning as in 19 V.S.A. § 1(19).

(21) “Stormwater runoff” means precipitation and snowmelt that does not infiltrate into the soil, including material dissolved or suspended in it, but does not include discharges from undisturbed natural terrain or wastes from combined sewer overflows.

(22) “Vegetative cover” means mixed vegetation within the protected shoreland area, consisting of trees, shrubs, groundcover, and duff. “Vegetative cover” shall not mean grass lawns, noxious weeds designated by the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets under 6 Vt. Stat. Ann. chapter 84, or nuisance plants, such as poison ivy and poison oak, designated by the Secretary of Natural Resources. (Added 2013, No. 172 (Adj. Sess.), § 2.)