CHAPTER 9
GLOSSARY of TERMS
Aquifer - A water-bearing layer of permeable rock, sand, or gravel.
Best management practices - A physical, structural, or managerial practice that has gained general acceptance for its ability to prevent or reduce environmental impacts.
Bicycle lane - A clearly marked land of travel for bicycles on the side of a street or roadway, separated from the automobile lanes by painted stripes, curbs, or buttons.
CAO - Critical Areas Ordinance
Capacity - The ability to contain, absorb or receive, and hold employment, residential development, vehicles, sewage, etc.
Critical aquifer recharge areas (CARA) - Areas that are susceptible to contamination to a current or future potable water supply aquifer (Chapter 19.600, KCC).
Critical areas - Areas such as wetlands, aquifer recharge areas, fish and wildlife habitat, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, and rare or endangered plant habitat.
Density - The number of families, persons, or housing units per unit of land, usually expressed as "per acre." There are several ways of measuring density including:
Net density - units per net residential, commercial, or industrial development site area; and,
Gross density - units per gross site area before dedication, covenants, or designation of a portion of the site as unbuildable or open space.
Easement - A right or privilege that a person may have on anotherŐs land, such as a right-of-way.
Ecology - The Washington Department of Ecology
Environmental Impact Statement - A document detailing the expected environmental impacts of a proposed action.
Environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) - Those areas designated, mapped, and regulated by environmentally sensitive area regulations. These areas have existing site conditions that require development standards to minimize specific on-site and off-site adverse environmental impacts including stream siltation, hill slides, and reduction of wildlife habitat. ESAs include wetlands, riparian corridors, steep slopes, slide-prone areas, areas subject to liquefaction during seismic events, hazardous waste sites, floodplains, and wildlife habitat areas.
Erosion hazard areas - Areas that because of natural characteristics, including vegetative cover, soil texture, slope gradient, and rainfall patterns, or human-induced changes to such characteristics, are vulnerable to erosion.
Growth Management Act (GMA) - Washington State House Bill 2929, adopted in 1990, and set forth in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) at Chapter 36.70A. The GMA established statewide planning requirements relating to, among other topics, comprehensive plans, urban growth areas (UGAs), and environmentally sensitive areas or "critical areas."
Habitat - The place or type of site where a plant or animal naturally or normally lives and grows.
Infill development - Development consisting of either construction on one or more lots in an area that is mostly developed or new construction between two existing structures.
KCC - Kitsap County Code
Level of Service (LOS) - An established minimum capacity of public facilities or services that must be provided to meet current or projected demand; a qualitative measure describing the operational conditions within the traffic stream and their perception by motorists and passengers.
Mitigation - The process of avoiding, reducing, or compensating for the environmental impact(s) of a proposal (see WAC 197-11-768).
Mixed-use - The presence of more than one category of use in a structure; for example, a mixture of residential units and offices in the same building.
Mode - Types of transportation available for use, such as a bicycle, an automobile, or a bus.
Multi-modal - Referring to accessibility by a variety of travel modes, typically pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and automobile modes, but may also include water and air transport modes.
Non-motorized mode - Any mode of transport that utilizes a power source other than a motor. Primary non-motorized modes include walking and bicycling.
On-street parking - Parking spaces located in the public right-of-way.
Open space - Land or water area with its surface open to the sky or predominantly undeveloped, which is set aside to serve the purposes of providing park and recreation opportunities, conserving valuable resources, and structuring urban development and form.
Overlay zone - A zoning district that encompasses one or more underlying zones and that imposes additional requirements above that required by the underling zone (e.g., a special height limitation applied to a portion of a view protection overlay zone).
Park-and-ride lot - A parking lot where transit riders can leave their vehicles and ride a bus or other mode of public transport to another location.
Policy - An agreed course of action adopted and pursued by decision-makers to achieve one or several goals and objectives and which is used as a guide for formulating programs.
Public facilities - Any use of land, whether publicly or privately owned, for transportation, utilities, or communication, or for the benefit of the general public, including streets, schools, libraries, fire and police stations, municipal and county buildings, powerhouses, recreational centers, parks and cemeteries.
RCW - Revised Code of Washington
Right-of-way - Land in which the state, county, or a city owns the fee simple title or has an easement dedicated or required for a transportation or utility use. The right-of-way is the right to pass over the property of another. It refers to a strip of land legally established for the use of pedestrians, vehicles, or utilities.
Riparian areas - Lands situated along the banks of streams, rivers, and lakes.
Runoff - Water from rain, snowmelt, or irrigation that flows over the ground surface and returns to streams.
Sediment - The fine grained material deposited by water or wind.
Seismic hazard areas - Areas subject to severe risk of damage as a result of earthquake induced ground shaking, slope failure, settlement, or soil liquefaction.
State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) - Enacted in 1971, and codified in Chapter 43.21C RCW, SEPA provides the framework for agencies to consider the environmental consequences of a proposal before taking action. It also gives agencies the ability to condition or deny a proposal due to identified likely significant adverse impacts. The Act is implemented through the SEPA Rules, Chapter 197-11 WAC (Washington Administrative Code).
Sub-Area Plan - A coordinated policy statement governing a portion of a county or city that is adopted under the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA). A document or series of documents prepared by a professional planning staff and planning commission that sets forth guidelines and policies for the future development of a community. Such a plan should be the result of considerable public input, study, and analysis of existing physical, economic, environmental, and social conditions, and a projection of likely future conditions.
Surface water - Streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, or other waters designated as "waters of the state" by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (WAC 222-16-030).
Urban Growth Area (UGA) - An area where urban growth will be encouraged. Counties establish UGAs under the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA). Consistent with the GMA, all growth outside of UGAs must be rural in nature.
WAC - Washington Administrative Code
Watershed - The region drained by or contributing water to a stream, lake, or other body of water.
Wetland or wetlands - Areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and under normal circumstances to support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. Wetlands do not include artificial wetlands intentionally created from non-wetland sites, including, but not limited to, irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales, canals, detention facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, farm ponds, and landscape amenities. Wetlands may include artificial wetlands intentionally created from non-wetland areas created to mitigate conversion of wetlands, if permitted by the county or city (RCW 36.70A.030).
WSDOT - Washington State Department of Transportation
Zoning - The process by which a county or municipality legally controls the use of property and physical configuration of development upon tracts of land within its jurisdiction.
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