§ 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 V.S.A. 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.)