“Adjacent” means areas adjacent to critical areas must be considered to be within the jurisdiction of these requirements and regulations to support the intent of this title and ensure protection of the functions and values of critical areas. “Adjacent” must include lands within a distance equal to the required buffer for the critical area as determined by the provisions of this chapter.

“Anadromous fish” means fish that spawn and rear in freshwater and mature in the marine environment. While Pacific salmon die after their first spawning, adult char (bull trout) can live for many years, moving in and out of saltwater and spawning each year. The life history of Pacific salmon and char contains critical periods of time when these fish are more susceptible to environmental and physical damage than at other times. The life history of salmon, for example, contains the following stages: upstream migration of adults, spawning, inter-gravel incubation, rearing, smoltification (the time period needed for juveniles to adjust their body functions to live in the marine environment), downstream migration, and ocean rearing to adults.

“Aquifer” means a body of soil or rock that contains sufficient saturated material to conduct groundwater and yield usable quantities of groundwater to wells or springs.

“Averaging” means establishing the required buffer setback from a critical area, within the permitted parcel of land only, so that areas within the parcel determined to be more environmentally sensitive than others will have a larger buffer than the less sensitive areas. For every increase in setback for one area of the parcel, there will be an equal corresponding decrease in another area of the parcel. The total land area within the buffer must remain the same as if the buffer were a uniform width.

“Base flood” means a flood having a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year, often referred to as the “100-year flood.”

“Base flood elevation” means the water surface elevation of the base flood in relation to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988. The Anacortes FIRMs still make reference to the 1929 National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD). While using NAVD is acceptable, please recognize that surveyors and designers will need to convert the datum when preparing plans. FEMA elevation certificates require the use of the datum utilized on the FIRMs.

“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. Sources of best available science are included in “Citations of Recommended Sources of Best Available Science for Designating and Protecting Critical Areas” published by the Washington State Department of Commerce.

“Best management practices (BMPs), critical areas” means physical or structural tools and/or management practices which, when used singularly or in combination, prevent or reduce adverse impacts to critical areas or their buffers.

“Buffer” is an area contiguous to a critical area that is required to protect the critical area and provide for the continued maintenance, functioning, and/or structural stability of a critical area.

“Critical aquifer recharge areas” are areas with a critical recharging effect on aquifers used for potable water, including areas where an aquifer that is a source of drinking water is vulnerable to contamination that would affect the potability of the water, or is susceptible to reduced recharge.

“Critical areas” means critical aquifer recharge areas, fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas, frequently flooded areas, geologically hazardous areas, streams, and wetlands, as defined in this chapter.

“Development” means any human-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not limited to buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials.

“Ditches” are artificial drainage features created through purposeful human action, such as irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales, and canals. Purposeful creation from uplands must be demonstrated through documentation, photographs, statements, and/or other evidence in order to be unregulated by this chapter.

“Enhancement” means an action which increases the functions and values of a stream, wetland, or other critical area or buffer.

“Erosion” means the process by which soil particles are mobilized and transported by natural agents such as wind, rain-splash, frost action or surface water flow.

“Erosion hazard areas” are those areas containing soils which, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Survey Program, may experience significant erosion. “Erosion hazard areas” also include coastal erosion-prone areas and channel migration zones.

“Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) floodway” means the channel of the stream and that portion of the adjoining floodplain which is necessary to contain and discharge the base flood flow without increasing the base flood elevation more than one foot.

“Fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas” are 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. As defined in AMC 19.70.310.

“Floodplain” means the total area subject to inundation by the base flood.

“Floodway, zero rise” means the channel of a stream and that portion of the adjoining floodplain which is necessary to contain and discharge the base flood flow without any measurable increase in flood height. A measurable increase in base flood height means a calculated upward rise in the base flood elevation, equal to or greater than 0.01 foot, resulting from a comparison of existing conditions and changed conditions directly attributable to development in the floodplain. This definition is broader than that of the FEMA floodway, but always includes the FEMA floodway. The boundaries of the 100-year floodplain, as shown on the current flood insurance study for the city of Anacortes, are considered the boundaries of the zero rise floodway unless otherwise delineated by a critical area study.

“Frequently flooded areas” are lands in the floodplain subject to at least a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year, or within areas subject to flooding due to high groundwater, high tides, with strong winds, sea level rise, and extreme weather events resulting from global climate change. These areas include but are not limited to streams, rivers, lakes, coastal areas, wetlands, and areas where high groundwater forms ponds on the ground surface.

“Functions and values” means the beneficial services provided by critical areas to society, including, but not limited to, improving and maintaining water quality, providing fish and wildlife habitat, supporting terrestrial and aquatic food chains, reducing flooding and erosive flows, wave attenuation, historical or archaeological importance, educational opportunities, and recreation. These beneficial roles are not listed in order of priority.

“Geologically hazardous areas” means areas that because of their susceptibility to erosion, sliding, earthquake, or other geological events, are not suited to the siting of commercial, residential, or industrial development consistent with public health or safety concerns.

“Groundwater” means water in a saturated zone or stratum beneath the surface of the land or below a surface water body.

“Habitats of local importance” designated as fish and wildlife habitat conservation areas include those areas found to be locally important by the city of Anacortes.

“Hazard tree” means any tree determined by an International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) certified arborist to be a hazard to people or property as a result of a risk assessment conducted according to ISA guiding principles.

“In-lieu-fee program” means an agreement between a regulatory agency (state, federal or local) and a single sponsor, generally a public natural resource agency or nonprofit organization. Under an in-lieu-fee agreement, the mitigation sponsor collects funds from an individual or a number of individuals who are required to conduct compensatory mitigation required under a wetland regulatory program. The sponsor may use the funds pooled from multiple permittees to create one or a number of sites under the authority of the agreement to satisfy the permittees’ required mitigation.

“Landslide” means an episodic downslope movement of a mass including, but not limited to, soil, rock or snow.

“Landslide hazard areas” are areas at risk of mass movement due to a combination of geologic, topographic, and hydrologic factors.

“Mine hazard areas” are those areas directly underlain by, adjacent to, or affected by mine workings such as adits, tunnels, drifts, or airshafts, and those areas probable to sink holes, gas releases, or subsidence due to mine workings.

“Mitigation” means avoiding, minimizing, or compensating for adverse critical areas impacts, using the sequential order of preference listed in AMC 19.70.125, Mitigation requirements.

“Monitoring” means evaluating the impacts of development proposals on biologic, hydrologic and geologic systems and assessing the performance of required mitigation through the collection and analysis of data for the purpose of understanding and documenting changes in natural ecosystems, functions and features including, but not limited to, gathering baseline data.

“Native growth protection area/easement” (NGPA/E) means an easement granted for the protection of native vegetation within a sensitive area or its associated buffer. The easement should be recorded on the appropriate documents of title and filed with the county records division.

“Native vegetation” means plant species that occur naturally in a particular region or environment and were present before European colonization.

“Normal appurtenances” means those structures secondary to a primary use that are common to and do not constitute a special privilege. Examples for residential uses include garages, decks, driveways, utilities, and fences.

“Noxious weed” means any plant which is highly destructive, competitive, or difficult to control by cultural or chemical practices, limited to those plants on the state noxious weed list contained in Chapter 16-750 WAC and those regulated by Skagit County.

“Primary association” means the fundamental link between a species and land or aquatic area where anadromous fish, endangered, threatened or sensitive species breed or feed.

“Repair” or “maintenance” means an activity that restores the character, scope, size, and design of a serviceable area, structure, or land use to its previously authorized and undamaged condition. Activities that change the character, size, or scope of a project beyond the original design and drain, dredge, fill, flood, or otherwise alter critical areas are not included in this definition.

“Riparian management zone” means the area that has the potential to provide full riparian functions. This area occurs within one 200-year site potential tree height measured from the edge of the stream channel. In situations where a channel migration zone is present, the RMZ occurs within one SPTH₂₀₀ measured from the outer edge of the CMZ. In places where the SPTH₂₀₀ is less than 100 feet, the RMZ is set at 100 feet to provide for the pollution removal function.

“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 reestablish structural and functional characteristics of a critical area that have been lost by alteration, past management activities, or catastrophic events.

“Seismic hazard areas” are areas subject to severe risk of damage as a result of earthquake-induced ground shaking, slope failure, settlement, soil liquefaction, debris flows, lahars, or tsunamis.

“Shoreline jurisdiction” means all marine waters along Puget Sound, streams and rivers with an annual mean flow of more than 20 cubic feet per second, lakes greater than 20 acres in size, shorelands adjacent to these water bodies, and associated wetlands.

“Significant tree” means a deciduous or evergreen tree greater than six inches in diameter at five feet above grade.

“Site potential tree height” (SPTH₂₀₀) means the average maximum height of the tallest dominant trees at age 200 for a given place’s soils site class. WDFW provides SPTH₂₀₀ based on soil surveys at: https://gispublic.dfw.wa.gov/arcgis/rest/services/SPTH/SitePotentialTreeHeightPublic/MapServer.

“Slope” means an inclined ground surface, the inclination of which is expressed as a ratio or percentage of vertical distance to horizontal distance by the following formula: ((vertical distance / horizontal distance) x 100) = % slope.

“Special flood hazard area” means the land in the floodplain that is subject to a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year. Designation on maps always includes the letters A or V.

“Species of local importance” are those species that are of local concern designated by the city due to their population status or their sensitivity to habitat manipulation.

“Unavoidable impacts” means adverse impacts that remain after all appropriate and practicable avoidance and minimization have been achieved.

“Volcanic hazard areas” include areas subject to pyroclastic flows, lava flows, and inundation by debris flows, lahars, mudflows, or related flooding from volcanic activity.

“Watercourse” (or “river” or “stream”) means any portion of a stream or river channel, bed, bank, or bottom waterward of the ordinary high water line of waters of the state. “Watercourse” also means areas in which fish may spawn, reside, or pass, and tributary waters with defined bed or banks that influence the quality of habitat downstream. “Watercourse” also means waters that flow intermittently or that fluctuate in level during the year, and the term applies to the entire bed of such waters whether or not the water is at peak level. A watercourse includes all surface-water-connected wetlands that provide or maintain habitat that supports fish life. This definition does not include irrigation ditches, canals, stormwater treatment and conveyance systems, or other entirely artificial watercourses, except where they exist in a natural watercourse that has been altered by humans.

“Wetland” or “wetlands” means those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do 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 those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland sites, including, but not limited to, irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales, canals, detention facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, farm ponds, and landscape amenities, or those wetlands created after July 1, 1990, that were unintentionally created as a result of the construction of a road, street, or highway. “Wetlands” include those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland areas to mitigate conversion of wetlands.

“Wetland mitigation bank” means a site where wetlands are restored, created, enhanced, or, in exceptional circumstances, preserved, expressly for the purpose of providing compensatory mitigation in advance of unavoidable impacts to wetlands or other aquatic resources that typically are unknown at the time of certification to compensate for future, permitted impacts to similar resources.

“Wetland mosaic” means an area with a concentration of multiple small wetlands, in which each patch of wetland is less than one acre; on average, patches are less than 100 feet from each other; and areas delineated as vegetated wetland are more than 50 percent of the total area of the entire mosaic, including uplands and open water. (Ord. 4025 § 2 (Att. A), 2022)