Vocabulary

Question 1

What does the ordinance regulate?

Answer 1

Location, size, use and height of buildings; arrangement of buildings on lots, and density of population.

Question 2

Accessory Building/Structure

Answer 2

A subordinate building or a portion of a principal building which is located on the same lot and the use of which is clearly incidental to use of the principal building.

Question 3

Accessory Use

Answer 3

Use on the same lot with, and of a nature customarily incidental and subordinate to, the principal use or structure.

Question 4

Aggregated Project (WECS)

Answer 4

Are developed and operated in coordinated fashion, but which have multiple entities separately owning one or more of the individual WECS within the larger project; such as power lines and transformers.

Question 5

Animal Feedlot

Answer 5

A lot or building or combination of lots and buildings intended for the confined feeding, breeding, raising or holding of animals and specifically designed a sa total or partial confinement area in which manure may accumulate, of where the concentration of animals is such that a vegetative cover cannot be maintained within the enclosure.

Question 6

Aquifer Recharge Area

Answer 6

That area from which water is added to the saturated zone by natural processes such as infiltration of precipitation.

Question 7

Berm

Answer 7

A sloped wall or embankment providing protection from weather or acting as a landscaping screen (typically constructed of earthen material) used to prevent inflow or outflow of material into/from an area.

Question 8

Best Management Practices (BMP)

Answer 8

Practices proven to be effective and practical that protect and minimize the impacts of various land uses and land use activities on water and land resources.

Question 9

BMPs include…

Answer 9

Avoidance of impacts, construction-phasing, minimizing the length of time soil areas are exposed, prohibitions, etc

Question 10

Bluff Impact Zone

Answer 10

A bluff and land located within 20 feet from the top of a bluff.

Question 11

Board of Adjustment

Answer 11

A board established by county ordinance with the authority to order the issuance of variances, hear and decide appeals from a member of the affected public and review any order, requirement, decision, or determination made by any administrative official charged with enforcing any ordinance adopted pursuant to the provision of MN Statutes, order the issuance of permits for buildings in areas designated for future public use on an official map and perform such other duties as required by the official controls.

Question 12

Building Line

Answer 12

A line parallel to a lot line or the ordinary high water level at the required setback beyond which a structure may not extend.

Question 13

Calcareous Fen

Answer 13

Rare and distinctive wetlands, characterized by a substrate of non-acidic peat and dependent on a constant supply of cold, oxygen-poor ground water rich in calcium and magnesium bicarbonates.

Question 14

Class V Injection Well

Answer 14

A shallow well used to place a variety of fluids directly below the land surface, which includes a domestic SSTS serving more than 20 people. Must meet certain requirements and do not endanger underground sources of drinking water.

Question 15

Conditional Use

Answer 15

A land use or development as defined by the ordinance that would not be appropriate generally, but may be allowed with appropriate restrictions as provided by official controls.

Question 16

Design Flow (SSTS)

Answer 16

The daily volume of wastewater for which an SSTS is designed to treat and discharge.

Question 17

Drainageway

Answer 17

Any natural or artificial water course, including but not limited to, streams, rivers, creeks, ditches, channels, canals, conduits, culverts, waterways, gullies, ravines, or washes, in which waters flow in a definite direction or course, either continually or intermittently; and including any area adjacent thereto which is subject to inundation by reason of overflow or floodwater.

Question 18

Dredging

Answer 18

The process by which soil materials are mechanically transported by water from a body of water in order to increase the body of water depth.

Question 19

Dredge Spoils

Answer 19

The sediment material dredged from the bottom of a body of water.

Question 20

Ecosystem Services

Answer 20

The conditions and processes through which natural systems sustain and fulfill human life. This includes water regulation and supply, soil formation, nutrient cycling, flood and storm protection, raw materials such as timber, air quality and carbon sequestration, and biological and genetic resources.

Question 21

Equal Degree of Encroachment

Answer 21

A method of determining the location of floodway boundaries so that floodplain lands on both sides of a stream are capable of conveying a proportionate share of flood flows.

Question 22

Flood Frequency

Answer 22

The frequency for which it is expected that a specific flood stage or discharge may be equaled or exceeded.

Question 23

Flood Fringe

Answer 23

The portion of the floodplain outside of the floodway.

Question 24

Floodplain

Answer 24

The beds proper and the areas adjoining a wetland, lake or watercourse which have been or hereafter may be covered by the regional flood.

Question 25

Floodway

Answer 25

The bed of a wetland or lake and the channel of a watercourse and those portions of the adjoining floodplain which are reasonably required to carry or store the regional flood discharge.

Question 26

General Development Lake

Answer 26

These lakes are generally large, deep lakes or lakes of varying sized and depths with high levels and mixes of existing development at the time of the original classification. Often extensively used for recreation.

Question 27

Impervious Surface

Answer 27

A constructed hard surface that either prevents or retards the entry of water into the soil and causes water to run off the surface in greater quantities and at an increased rate of flow than prior to development. Examples include rooftops, sidewalks, driveways, parking lots.

Question 28

Karst

Answer 28

The type of geologic terrain underlain by carbonate rocks where significant solution of the rock has occurred due to flowing ground water.

Question 29

Management Plan (SSTS)

Answer 29

A plan that describes necessary and recommended routine operational and maintenance requirements, periodic examination, adjustment, and testing, and the frequency of each to ensure system performance meets the treatment expectations.

Question 30

Micro WECS

Answer 30

A WECS of 5 kW nameplate generating capacity or less and total height of 45 feet or less.

Question 31

Non-Commercial WECS

Answer 31

A WECS between 5 and 99 kW in total name plate generating capacity and a total height between 46 and 199 feet.

Question 32

Official Controls

Answer 32

Legislatively defined and enacted policies, standards, precise detailed maps and other criteria, all of which control the physical development of the County and are the means of translating into ordinances all or any part of the general objectives of the comprehensive plan.

Question 33

Ordinary High Water Mark (OHWM)

Answer 33

The boundary of public waters and wetlands, and shall be an elevation delineation the highest water level which has been maintained for a sufficient period of time to leave evidence upon the landscape, commonly that point where the natural vegetation changes from predominantly aquatic to predominantly terrestrial.
For watercourses, OHW level is the elevation of the top of the bank of the channel. For reservoirs and flowages, OHW level is operating elevation of the normal summer pool.

Question 34

Pervious Surface

Answer 34

A surface which allows the penetration of water into the ground.

Question 35

Practical Difficulty

Answer 35

Used in connection with granting a variance, means that the property owner proposes to use the property in a reasonable manner not permitted by an official control. The plight is due to circumstances unique to the property.

Question 36

Process Wastewaters

Answer 36

Waters and/or precipitation, including rain or snow, which comes into contact with manure, litter, bedding, or other raw material or intermediate or final material or product used in or resulting from the production of animals.

Question 37

Reach

Answer 37

A hydraulic engineering term used to describe longitudinal segments of a stream or river influenced by a natural or man-made obstruction, such as the segment of a river between two bridge crossings.

Question 38

Regulatory Flood Protection Elevation

Answer 38

An elevation no lower than 1 foot above the elevation of the regional flood, plus any increases in flood elevation caused by encroachments on the floodplain that result from designation of a floodway.

Question 39

Riparian

Answer 39

Adjacent to or living on the shore of a water body.

Question 40

Sediment Control

Answer 40

Methods employed to prevent sediment from leaving the site; including silt fences, sediment traps, earth dikes, drainage swales, check dams, subsurface drains, pipe slope drains, storm drain inlet protection.

Question 41

Sensitive Land

Answer 41

Land area that may include bodies of water, sites of biodiversity, bluffs, or geological sensitive areas.

Question 42

Shore Impact Zone

Answer 42

Land located between the ordinary high water level of a public water and a line parallel to it at a setback of fifty (50) percent of the structure setback.

Question 43

SSTS

Answer 43

Subsurface Sewage Treatment System. Includes ISTS or MSTS.

Question 44

Variance

Answer 44

Any modification or variation of official controls where it is determined that, by reason of exceptional circumstances, the strict enforcement of the official controls would cause unnecessary practical difficulties.

Question 45

Environmental Assessment Worksheets (EAW)

Answer 45

Rapidly assess whether or not a proposed action has the potential for significant environmental effects.

Question 46

Environmental Impact Statements (EIS)

Answer 46

Provide information for governmental units, the proposer of the project and other persons to evaluate proposed projects which have the potential for significant environmental effects, to consider alternatives to the proposed projects and to explore methods for reducing adverse environmental effects.