A. Policy Statement.
In filing an application for general development plan, preliminary major subdivision or preliminary major site plan, the Applicant shall comply with the following stormwater management requirements:
Flood control, groundwater recharge, and pollutant reduction through nonstructural or low impact techniques shall be explored before relying on structural Best Management Practices (BMPs). Structural BMPs should be integrated with nonstructural stormwater management strategies and proper maintenance plans. Nonstructural strategies include both environmentally sensitive site design and source controls that prevent pollutants from being placed on the site or from being exposed to stormwater. Source control plans should be developed based upon physical site conditions and the origin, nature, and the anticipated quantity or amount of potential pollutants. Multiple stormwater management BMPs may be necessary to achieve the established performance standards for water quality, quantity, and groundwater recharge.
B. Purpose.
To protect the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the Township of Roxbury and the surrounding communities by establishing minimum stormwater management requirements and controls for "major and minor developments," as defined in 13-8.401. These provisions are deemed necessary and essential in order to:
1. Maintain the adequacy of natural stream channels and prevent accelerated bank erosion by controlling the rate and velocity of runoff discharge to these watercourses.
2. Prevent disruption of the stream vegetation caused by excessive flushing and sedimentation.
3. Prevent degradation of stream water quality due to impairment of the stream's biological function.
4. Enhance the quality of non-point runoff by water detention and/or retention measures.
5. Preserve present adequacy of culverts and bridges by suppressing artificially induced flood peaks.
6. Reduce public expenditures for replacement or repair of public facilities resulting from artificially induced flood peaks.
7. Prevent damages to life and property from flooding resulting from excessive rates and velocities of runoff.
8. Prevent the degradation of property by enhancing the environmental character of the streams of the Township.
9. Provide a means to remove pollutants from stormwater runoff through filtration.
10. Preserve the existing groundwater recharge potential of a site.
C. Applicability.
1. This ordinance shall be applicable to all site plans and subdivisions for the following developments that require preliminary or final site plan or subdivision review:
a. Non-residential major developments; and
b. Non-residential minor developments; and
c. Aspects of residential major developments that are not pre-empted by the Residential Site Improvement Standards at N.J.A.C. 5:21.
2. This ordinance shall also be applicable to all major developments undertaken by the Township of Roxbury.
D. Compatibility with Other Permit and Ordinance Requirements.
Development approvals issued for subdivisions and site plans pursuant to this ordinance are to be considered an integral part of development approvals under the subdivision and site plan review process and do not relieve the Applicant of the responsibility to secure required permits or approvals for activities regulated by any other applicable code, rule, act, or ordinance. In their interpretation and application, the provisions of this ordinance shall be held to be the minimum requirements for the promotion of the public health, safety, and general welfare. This ordinance is not intended to interfere with, abrogate, or annul any other ordinances, rule or regulation, statute, or other provision of law except that, where any provision of this ordinance imposes restrictions different from those imposed by any other ordinance, rule or regulation, or other provision of law, the more restrictive provisions or higher standards shall control.
E. Review and Approval.
The Board's consideration of applications may be guided by, but not limited to, the following factors:
1. The suitability of the Applicant's proposed Stormwater Management measures, devices and planning techniques, whether involving on-site or off-site measures, or some combination thereof, in respect to the total surface runoff, velocities and rates of discharge which the Applicant's proposed construction or land disturbance may generate.
2. Existing topography, present vegetation and hydrologic soil factors, as shown on maps entitled "Hydrologic Soils, USDA Soil Conservation Service," subject to field verification.
3. Groundwater recharge and discharge areas and wet soils, subject to field verification.
4. Seasonal high groundwater table as determined by on-site soil evaluation and groundwater study.
5. The design storm.
6. Natural drainage flow and patterns throughout the sub watershed(s) affected by the plan.
7. Land uses in both the immediate vicinity and surrounding drainage region.
8. Any other applicable or relevant environmental and resource protection ordinance, statutes and regulations.
Unless specifically defined below, words or phrases used in this ordinance shall be interpreted so as to give them the meaning they have in common usage and to give this ordinance its most reasonable application. The definitions below are the same as or based on the corresponding definitions in the Stormwater Management Rules at N.J.A.C. 7:8-1.2.
" CHANNEL" shall mean a watercourse with a definite bed and banks, which confine and conduct continuously or intermittently flowing water.
" CONSERVATION EASEMENT " shall mean a recorded agreement or covenant running with the land which limits all land or vegetation disturbance in favor of a reservation for natural open space; each agreement to be entered into between the Applicant and the municipality.
" CORE " means a pedestrian-oriented area of commercial and civic uses serving the surrounding municipality, generally including housing and access to public transportation.
" COUNTY REVIEW AGENCY " means an agency designated by the County Board of Chosen Freeholders to review municipal stormwater management plans and implementing ordinance(s). The county review agency is the Morris County Division of Planning.
" DEPARTMENT " means the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
" DESIGNATED CENTER " means a State Development and Redevelopment Plan Center as designated by the State Planning Commission such as urban, regional, town, village, or hamlet.
" DESIGN ENGINEER " means a person professionally qualified and duly licensed in New Jersey to perform engineering services that may include, but not necessarily be limited to, development of project requirements, creation and development of project design and preparation of drawings and specifications.
" DEVELOPMENT " means the division of a parcel of land into two or more parcels, the construction, reconstruction, conversion, structural alteration, relocation or enlargement of any building or structure, any mining excavation or landfill, and any use or change in the use of any building or other structure, or land or extension of use of land, by any person, for which permission is required under the Municipal Land Use Law, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq. In the case of development of agricultural lands, development means: any activity that requires a State permit; any activity reviewed by the Country Agricultural Board (CAB) and the State Agricultural Development Committee (SADC), and municipal review of any activity not exempted by the Right to Farm Act, N.J.S.A. 4:1C-1 et seq.
" DRAINAGE AREA " means a geographic area within which stormwater, sediments, or dissolved materials drain to a particular receiving water body or to a particular point along a receiving water body.
" DRAINAGEWAY " means any watercourse, trench, ditch, depression or other hollow space in the ground, natural or artificial, which collects or disperses surface water from the land.
" ENVIRONMENTALLY CRITICAL AREAS " means an area or feature which is of significant environmental value, including but not limited to: stream corridors; natural heritage priority sites; habitat of endangered or threatened species; large areas of contiguous open space or upland forest; steep slopes; and well head protection and groundwater recharge areas. Habitats of endangered or threatened species are identified using the Department's Landscape Project as approved by the Department's Endangered and Nongame Species Program.
" EROSION " means the detachment and movement of soil or rock fragments by water, wind, ice or gravity.
" IMPERVIOUS SURFACE " means a surface that has been covered with a layer of material so that it is highly resistant to infiltration by water.
" INFILTRATION " is the process by which water seeps into the soil from precipitation.
" LAND DISTURBANCE " means any activity involving the clearing, grading, transporting, filling of land and any other activity, which alters land, topography or vegetative cover.
" MAJOR DEVELOPMENT " means any "development" that provides for ultimately disturbing one or more acres of land or provides for % acre or more of new impervious surface. Disturbance for the purpose of this rule is the placement of impervious surface or exposure and/or movement of soil or bedrock or clearing, cutting, or removing of vegetation.
" MINOR DEVELOPMENT " means any "development" that provides for ultimately disturbing more than 10,000 square feet of land but less than one acre of land and/or the creation of more than 5,000 square feet but less than %< acre of new impervious surface. Disturbance for the purpose of this rule is the placement of impervious surface or exposure and/or movement of soil or bedrock or clearing, cutting, or removing of vegetation.
" MUNICIPALITY " means the Township of Roxbury.
" NATURAL DRAINAGE FLOW " means the topographical pattern or system of drainage of surface water runoff from a particular site, including the various drainageways and watercourses, which carry surface water.
" NODE " means an area designated by the State Planning Commission concentrating facilities and activities, which are not organized in a compact form.
" NON-POINT RUNOFF " eans surface water entering a channel from no definable discharge source.
" NUTRIENT " means a chemical element or compound, such as nitrogen or phosphorus, which is essential to and promotes the development of organisms.
" PERSON " means any individual, corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, the Township of Roxbury, or political subdivision of this State subject to municipal jurisdiction pursuant to the Municipal Land Use Law, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.
" POLLUTANT " means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, refuse, oil, grease, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, medical wastes, radioactive substance (except those regulated under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.), thermal waste, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, industrial, municipal, agricultural, and construction waste or runoff, or other residue discharged directly or indirectly to the land, ground waters or surface waters of the State, or to a domestic treatment works. "Pollutant" includes both hazardous and nonhazardous pollutants.
" RECHARGE " means the amount of water from precipitation that infiltrates into the ground and is not evapotranspired.
" REVIEWING AGENCY " means the Township of Roxbury, Morris County, the NJDEP or any other entity that has jurisdiction over the project.
" SEDIMENT " means solid material, mineral or organic, that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by air, water or gravity as a product of erosion.
" SITE " means the lot or lots upon which a major development is to occur or has occurred.
" SOIL " means all unconsolidated mineral and organic material of any origin.
" SOLID AND FLOATABLE MATERIALS " means sediment, debris, trash, and other floating, suspended, or settleable solids.
" SOURCE MATERIAL " means any material(s) or machinery, located at an industrial facility that is directly or indirectly related to process, manufacturing or other industrial activities, which could be a source of pollutants in any industrial stormwater discharge to groundwater. Source materials include, but are not limited to, raw materials; intermediate products; final products; waste materials; by-products; industrial machinery and fuels, and lubricants, solvents, and detergents that are related to process, manufacturing, or other industrial activities that are exposed to stormwater.
" STATE DEVELOPMENT AND REDEVELOPMENT PLAN METROPOLITAN PLANNING AREA (PA1)" means an area delineated on the State Plan Policy Map and adopted by the State Planning Commission that is intended to be the focus for much of the state's future redevelopment and revitalization efforts.
" STATE PLAN POLICY MAP " is defined as the geographic application of the State Development and Redevelopment Plan's goals and statewide policies, and the official map of these goals and policies.
" STORMWATER " means water resulting from precipitation (including rain and snow) that runs off the land's surface, is transmitted to the subsurface, or is captured by separate storm sewers or other sewage or drainage facilities, or conveyed by snow removal equipment.
" STORMWATER RUNOFF " means water flow on the surface of the ground or in storm sewers, resulting from precipitation.
" STORMWATER MANAGEMENT BASIN " means an excavation or embankment and related areas designed to retain stormwater runoff. A stormwater management basin may either be normally dry (that is, a detention basin or infiltration basin), retain water in a permanent pool (a retention basin), or be planted mainly with wetland vegetation (most constructed stormwater wetlands).
" STORMWATER MANAGEMENT MEASURE " means any structural or nonstructural strategy, practice, technology, process, program, or other method intended to control or reduce stormwater runoff and associated pollutants, or to induce or control the infiltration or groundwater recharge of stormwater or to eliminate illicit or illegal non-stormwater discharges into stormwater conveyances.
" SURFACE WATER " shall mean all water produced by rain, flood, drainage, springs and seeps flowing over the land or contained within a natural or artificial watercourses.
" SURFACE WATER RUNOFF DAMAGE " means all damage or harm to property values, land, vegetation and water supplies, which results, or is likely to result when the dispersion of surface water, is increased in rate, velocity or quantity. Such damage or harm includes, but is not limited to, flooding, soil erosion, siltation and other pollution of watercourses, and diminished recharge of groundwater.
" WATERCOURSE " means all rivers, streams, brooks, waterways, lakes, ponds, marshes, swamps, bogs and other bodies of water natural or artificial, public or private which are contained within, flow through or border on the Township of Roxbury or any portion thereof. The term Watercourse is also synonymous with the term "Waters of the State" as defined below.
" WATERS OF THE STATE " means the ocean and its estuaries, all springs, streams, wetlands, and bodies of surface or ground water, whether natural or artificial, within the boundaries of the State of New Jersey or subject to its jurisdiction.
" WATERSHED " means an area of surface water runoff related to a particular point of concentration.
" WETLANDS" OR "WETLAND " means an area that is inundated or saturated by surface water or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions, commonly known as hydrophytic vegetation.
