14.33.030 Definitions.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply:
A. “Anadromous fish” means fish that spawn and rear in freshwater and mature in the marine environment.
B. “Applicant” means a person who files an application for approval under this chapter and who is either the owner of the land on which that proposed activity would be located, a contract vendee, a lessee of the land, the person who would actually control and direct the proposed activity, or the authorized agent of such a person.
C. “Bankfull width” means:
1. For streams--the measurement of the lateral extent of the water surface elevation perpendicular to the channel at bankfull depth. In cases where multiple channels exist, bankfull width is the sum of the individual channel widths along the cross section.
2. For lakes, ponds, and impoundments--line of mean high water.
3. For tidal water-line of mean high tide.
4. For periodically inundated areas of associated wetlands--line of periodic inundation, which will be found by examining the edge of inundation to ascertain where the presence and action of waters are so common and usual, and so long continued in all ordinary years, as to mark upon the soil a character distinct from that of the abutting upland.
D. “Best available science” means current scientific information used in the process to designate, protect, or restore critical areas, that is derived from a valid scientific process as defined by WAC 365-195-900 through 365-195-925.
E. “Best management practices” means conservation practices or systems of practices and management measures that:
1. Control soil loss and reduce water quality degradation caused by high concentrations of nutrients, animal waste, toxics, and sediment;
2. Minimize adverse impacts to surface water and ground water flow, circulation patterns, and to chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of wetlands;
3. Protect trees and vegetation designated to be retained during and following site construction; and
4. Provide standards for proper use of chemical herbicides within critical areas.
F. “Buffer or buffer zone” means an area contiguous to and that protects a critical area that is required for the continued maintenance, functioning, and/or structural stability of a critical area.
G. “Channel migration zone (CMZ)” means the lateral extent of likely movement along a stream or river during the next one hundred years as determined by evidence of active stream channel movement over the past one hundred years. Evidence of active movement over the one-hundred-year time frame can be inferred from aerial photos or from specific channel and valley bottom characteristics. The time span typically represents the time it takes to grow mature trees that can provide functional large woody debris to streams. A CMZ is not typically present if the valley width is less than two bankfull widths, is confined by terraces, no current or historical aerial photographic evidence exists of significant channel movement, and there is no field evidence of secondary channels with recent scour from stream flow or progressive bank erosion at meander bends. Areas separated from the active channel by legally existing artificial channel constraints that limit bank erosion and channel avulsion without hydraulic connections shall not be considered within the CMZ.
H. “Critical area tract” means land held in private ownership and retained in an open condition in perpetuity for the protection of critical areas.
I. “Exotic” means any species of plants or animals which are foreign to the planning area.
J. “Extraordinary hardship” means strict application of this chapter and/or programs adopted to implement this chapter by the city of Lacey that would prevent all reasonable economic use of the parcel.
K. “Fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas,” also referred to as “habitat conservation areas,” means areas that serve a critical role in sustaining needed habitats and species for the functional integrity of the ecosystem, and which, if altered, may reduce the likelihood that the species will persist over the long term. These areas shall be managed for maintaining species in suitable habitats within their natural geographic distribution so that isolated sub-populations are not created; and populations or habitats are not degraded or reduced so they are no longer viable over the long term. These areas include:
1. Areas with which state or federally designated endangered, threatened, and sensitive species have a primary association;
2. Habitats and species of local importance, including but not limited to areas designated as priority habitats or priority species by the Department of Fish and Wildlife;
3. Commercial and recreational shellfish areas;
4. Kelp and eelgrass beds, herring, smelt, and other forage fish spawning areas;
5. Naturally occurring ponds under twenty acres and their submerged aquatic beds that provide fish or wildlife habitat, including those artificial ponds intentionally created from dry areas in order to mitigate impacts to ponds, if permitted by a regulatory authority;
6. Waters of the state, including lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, inland waters, underground waters, salt waters and all other surface waters and watercourses within the jurisdiction of the state of Washington;
7. Lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers planted with game fish by a governmental or tribal entity;
8. State natural area preserves and natural resource conservation areas;
9. Land essential for preserving connections between habitat blocks and open spaces; and
10. Riparian ecosystems including salmonid habitat, which also includes marine nearshore areas.
Fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas do not include artificial features or constructs such as irrigation delivery systems, irrigation infrastructure, irrigation canals, or drainage ditches that lie within the boundaries of and are maintained by a port district or an irrigation district or company.
L. “Financial security” means a method of providing surety of financial performance and may include provision of a bond, assignment of savings, letter of credit or other financial guarantee approved by the city attorney.
M. “Functions and values” means the beneficial roles served by critical areas including, but not limited to, water quality protection and enhancement, fish and wildlife habitat, food chain support, flood storage, conveyance and attenuation, ground water recharge and discharge, erosion control, wave attenuation, protection from hazards, historical and archaeological and aesthetic value protection, and recreation. These beneficial roles are not listed in order of priority.
N. “In-kind compensation” means to replace critical areas with substitute areas whose characteristics and functions closely approximate those destroyed or degraded by a regulated activity. It does not mean replacement “in-category.”
O. “Mitigation” means avoiding, minimizing or compensating for adverse critical area impacts. Mitigation, in the following order of preference, is:
1. Avoiding the impact altogether by not taking a certain action or parts of an action;
2. Minimizing impacts by limiting the degree or magnitude of the action and its implementation, by using appropriate technology, or by taking affirmative steps, such as project redesign, relocation, or timing, to avoid or reduce impacts;
3. Rectifying the impact to habitat conservation areas by repairing, rehabilitating or restoring the affected environment to the conditions existing at the time of the initiation of the project;
4. Reducing or eliminating the impact over time by preservation and maintenance operations during the life of the action;
5. Compensating for the impact to habitat conservation areas by replacing, enhancing, or providing substitute resources or environments; and
6. Monitoring the required mitigation and taking remedial action when necessary.
Mitigation for individual actions may include a combination of the above measures.
P. “Monitoring” means evaluating the impacts of development proposals on the biological, hydrological, and geological elements of such systems, and assessing the performance of required mitigation measures through the collection and analysis of data by various methods for the purpose of understanding and documenting changes in natural ecosystems and features. Monitoring includes gathering baseline data.
Q. “Native vegetation” means plant species that are indigenous to the area in question.
R. “Primary association” means a primary habitat area used by federally or state listed endangered, threatened, candidate, sensitive, and priority wildlife or plant species which, if altered, may reduce the likelihood that the species will maintain and reproduce over the long term.
S. “Priority habitats” means a seasonal range or habitat element with which a given species has a primary association and which, if altered, may reduce the likelihood that the species will maintain and reproduce over the long term. These might include areas of high relative density or species richness, breeding habitat, winter range, and movement corridors. These might also include habitats that are of limited availability or high vulnerability to alteration.
T. “Priority species” means those species that are of concern due to their population status and their sensitivity to habitat manipulation. Priority species include those which are state listed endangered, threatened, and sensitive species, as well as other species of concern, and game species.
U. “Qualified professional” means a person with experience and training in the applicable critical area. A qualified professional for habitats must have obtained a Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts or equivalent degree in biology, and at least two years of work experience related to the subject species or habitat.
V. “Restoration” means measures taken to restore an altered or damaged natural feature including:
1. Active steps taken to restore damaged wetlands, streams, protected habitat, or their buffers to the functioning condition that existed prior to an unauthorized alteration; and
2. Actions performed to re-establish structural and functional characteristics of the critical area that have been lost by alteration, past management activities, or catastrophic events.
W. “Riparian habitat” means areas adjacent to aquatic systems with flowing water that contain elements of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems that mutually influence each other. The width of these areas extends to that portion of the terrestrial landscape that directly influences the aquatic ecosystem by providing shade, fine or large woody material, nutrients, organic and inorganic debris, terrestrial insects, or habitat for riparian-associated wildlife.
X. “Species” means any group of animals classified as a species or subspecies as commonly accepted by the scientific community.
Y. “Species, endangered” means any fish or wildlife species that is threatened with extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range and is listed by the state or federal government as an endangered species.
Z. “Species, threatened” means any fish or wildlife species that is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout a significant portion of its range without cooperative management or removal of threats, and is listed by the state or federal government as a threatened species.
AA. “Water typing system” means waters classified according to WAC 222-16-031 as follows:
1. Type S water--all waters, within their bankfull width, as inventoried as “shorelines of the state” under Chapter 90.58 RCW and the rule promulgated pursuant to Chapter 90.58 RCW, including periodically inundated areas of their associated wetlands.
2. Type F water--segments of natural waters other than Type S water and periodically inundated areas of their associated wetlands or within lakes, ponds, or impoundments having a surface area of one-half acre or greater at seasonal low water and which in any case contain fish habitat or are described by one of the following four categories:
a. Waters which are diverted for domestic use by more than ten residential or camping units or by a public accommodation facility licensed to serve more than ten persons, where such diversion is determined by the department to be a valid appropriation of water and the only practical water source for such users. Such waters shall be considered to be Type F water upstream from the point of such diversion for one thousand five hundred feet or until the drainage area is reduced by fifty percent, whichever is less;
b. Waters which are diverted for use by federal, state, tribal, or private fish hatcheries. Such waters shall be considered Type F water upstream from the point of diversion for one thousand five hundred feet, including tributaries if highly significant for protection of downstream water quality. The Department of Natural Resources may allow additional harvest beyond the requirements of Type F water designation provided the Department of Natural Resources determines after a landowner-requested on-site assessment by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Ecology, the affected tribes, and interested parties that:
(1) The management practices proposed by the landowner will adequately protect water quality for the fish hatchery; and
(2) Such additional harvest meets the requirements of the water type designation that would apply in the absence of the hatchery;
c. Waters which are within a federal, state, local, or private campground having more than ten camping units; provided, that the water shall not be considered to enter a campground unit it reaches the boundary of the park lands available for public use and comes within one hundred feet of a camping unit, trail or other park improvement;
d. Riverine ponds, wall-based channels, and other channel features that are used by fish for off-channel habitat. These areas are critical to the maintenance of optimum survival of fish. This habitat shall be identified based on the following criteria:
(1) The site must be connected to fish habitat stream and accessible during some period of the year; and
(2) The off-channel water must be accessible to fish.
3. Type Np water--segments of natural waters within the bankfull width of the defined channels that are perennial nonfish habitat streams. Perennial streams are flowing waters that do not go dry at any time of the year of normal rainfall and include the intermittent dry portions of the perennial channel below the uppermost point of perennial flow.
4. “Type Ns” means all segments of natural waters within the bankfull width of the defined channels that are not Type S, F, or Np waters. These are seasonal, nonfish habitat streams in which surface flow is not present for at least some portion of a year of normal rainfall and are not located downstream from any stream reach that is a Type Np water. Ns waters must be physically connected by an above-ground channel system to Type S, F, or Np waters. (Ord. 1505 §20, 2017; Ord. 1215 §1, 20, 2003; Ord. 935 §9 (part), 1992).