38 §436-A. Definitions
Title 38: WATERS AND NAVIGATION
Chapter 3: PROTECTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF WATERS
Subchapter 1: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION BOARD
Article 2-B: MANDATORY SHORELAND ZONING HEADING: PL 1991, C. 346, §1 (RPR)
§436-A. Definitions
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings. [1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW).]
1. Coastal wetlands. "Coastal wetlands" means all tidal and subtidal lands; all lands with vegetation present that is tolerant of salt water and occurs primarily in a salt water or estuarine habitat; and any swamp, marsh, bog, beach, flat or other contiguous low land that is subject to tidal action during the highest tide level for the year in which an activity is proposed as identified in tide tables published by the National Ocean Service. Coastal wetlands may include portions of coastal sand dunes.
[ 2005, c. 330, §10 (AMD) .]
1-A. Basement. "Basement" means any portion of a structure with a floor-to-ceiling height of 6 feet or more and having more than 50% of its volume below the existing ground level.
[ 1997, c. 748, §2 (NEW) .]
2. Commercial fishing activities. "Commercial fishing activities" means activities directly related to commercial fishing and those commercial activities commonly associated with or supportive of commercial fishing, such as the manufacture or sale of ice, bait and nets, and the sale, manufacture, installation or repair of boats, engines and other equipment commonly used on boats.
[ 1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW) .]
3. Densely developed area. "Densely developed area" means any commercial, industrial or compact residential area of 10 or more acres with a density of at least one principal structure per 2 acres.
[ 1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW) .]
4. Floodway. "Floodway" means the channel of a river or other water course and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved to allow for the discharge of a 100-year flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation of the 100-year flood by more than one foot.
[ 1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW) .]
5. Freshwater wetlands. "Freshwater wetlands" means freshwater swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas, other than forested wetlands, which are:
A. Of 10 or more contiguous acres, or of less than 10 contiguous acres and adjacent to a surface water body, excluding any river, stream or brook, such that, in a natural state, the combined surface area is in excess of 10 acres; and [1989, c. 403, §4 (AMD).]
B. Inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and for a duration sufficient to support, and which under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of wetland vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soils. [1989, c. 403, §4 (AMD).]
Freshwater wetlands may contain small stream channels or inclusions of land that do not conform to the criteria of this subsection.
[ 1991, c. 346, §2 (AMD) .]
5-A. Forested wetland. "Forested wetland" means a freshwater wetland dominated by woody vegetation that is 6 meters tall or taller.
[ 1989, c. 838, §1 (NEW) .]
6. Functionally water-dependent uses. "Functionally water-dependent uses" means those uses that require, for their primary purpose, location on submerged lands or that require direct access to, or location in, coastal or inland waters and that can not be located away from these waters. These uses include commercial and recreational fishing and boating facilities, excluding recreational boat storage buildings, finfish and shellfish processing, fish storage and retail and wholesale marketing facilities, waterfront dock and port facilities, shipyards and boat building facilities, marinas, navigation aids, basins and channels, retaining walls, industrial uses dependent upon water-borne transportation or requiring large volumes of cooling or processing water that can not reasonably be located or operated at an inland site and uses that primarily provide general public access to coastal or inland waters.
[ 1997, c. 726, §1 (AMD) .]
7. Great pond. "Great pond" means any inland body of water which in a natural state has a surface area in excess of 10 acres and any inland body of water artificially formed or increased which has a surface area in excess of 30 acres except for the purposes of this article, where the artificially formed or increased inland body of water is completely surrounded by land held by a single owner.
[ 1989, c. 403, §4 (AMD) .]
8. Maritime activities. "Maritime activities" means the construction, repair, storage, loading and unloading of boats, chandlery and other commercial activities designed and intended to facilitate maritime trade.
[ 1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW) .]
9. Normal high-water line. "Normal high-water line" means that line which is apparent from visible markings, changes in the character of soils due to prolonged action of the water or changes in vegetation, and which distinguishes between predominantly aquatic and predominantly terrestrial land.
[ 1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW) .]
9-A. Outlet stream. "Outlet stream" means any perennial or intermittent stream, as shown on the most recent edition of a 7.5-minute series or, if not available, a 15-minute series topographic map produced by the United States Geological Survey, that flows from a freshwater wetland.
[ 1993, c. 196, §2 (NEW) .]
10. Principal structure. "Principal structure" means a building other than one which is used for purposes wholly incidental or accessory to the use of another building on the same premises.
[ 1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW) .]
11. River. "River" means a free-flowing body of water including its associated flood plain wetlands from that point at which it provides drainage for a watershed of 25 square miles to its mouth.
[ 1989, c. 403, §4 (AMD) .]
11-A. Stream. "Stream" means a free-flowing body of water from the outlet of a great pond or the point of confluence of 2 perennial streams as depicted by a solid blue line on the most recent edition of a United States Geological Survey 7.5-minute series topographic map or, if not available, a 15-minute series topographic map, to the point where the body of water becomes a river or flows to another water body or wetland within a shoreland area.
[ 1995, c. 92, §1 (AMD) .]
12. Structure. "Structure" means anything built for the support, shelter or enclosure of persons, animals, goods or property of any kind, together with anything constructed or erected with a fixed location on or in the ground, exclusive of fences.
[ 1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW) .]
13. Timber harvesting. "Timber harvesting" means the cutting and removal of trees from their growing site and the attendant operation of cutting and skidding machinery, but not the construction or creation of roads. Timber harvesting does not include the clearing of land for approved construction.
[ 1987, c. 815, §§3, 11 (NEW) .]
SECTION HISTORY
1987, c. 815, §§3,11 (NEW). 1989, c. 403, §§4,5 (AMD). 1989, c. 838, §1 (AMD). 1991, c. 346, §§2,3 (AMD). 1993, c. 196, §2 (AMD). 1995, c. 92, §1 (AMD). 1997, c. 726, §1 (AMD). 1997, c. 748, §2 (AMD). 2005, c. 330, §10 (AMD).