Administrative Approval: A zoning permit issued by the Zoning Administrator.

Agricultural Preserve Program: A program under the provisions of the California Land Conservation Act of 1965 (the Williamson Act) intended to discourage conversion of agricultural land to urban uses. Allows the County to collect property taxes based on the agricultural value of a parcel rather than on its market value.

Agricultural support services or Agri-service Establishments: Commercial processing services related directly to the support of farming operations.

Limited Agriculture: Applied around urban areas. Agricultural activities include field crops, vines, pasture grazing, farm related homes, farm related shops, and kennels, but exclude animal concentrations and agri-services. Minimum parcel size is ten acres.

General Agriculture: Applied throughout the county, outside urban areas. Same activities as Limited Agriculture, but also include animal concentrations and agri-services. Minimum parcel sizes range from 20 to 40 acres, as follows:

North County (north of Kansas Avenue): 20 acres

South County (south of Kansas Avenue): 40 acres

Exclusive Agriculture: Generally applied around Naval Air Station, Lemoore. Similar activities as General Agriculture. Minimum parcel size 40 acres, as follows:

NAS Lemoore area (3-mile band around the base): 40 acres

Alternate Modes: Transportation modes other than the private automobile.

Amplification of Shaking: The combined effect that location or distance and geologic substructure have on the amount of ground shaking during an earthquake.

Animal Concentrations: A collection of farm animals requiring concentrated feeding; includes, but is not limited to, dairies, stock feeding yards, and poultry operations.

Annexation: The addition of land to a city or special district.

Arterials: Roadways which move traffic through or between major traffic-generating land uses and sometimes act as neighborhood boundaries.

A-weighted Sound Level (dBA): Sound measured on an instrument containing an "A" filter.

Buffer Zone: An open area adjacent to developed areas.

CIP - Capital Improvement Program: A compilation of future capital improvements and their schedule of construction, their cost estimates, and the methods for their financing.

City/Urban Services: Public services such as police, fire control, streets, roads, sewer, water, storm drainage, and solid waste collection, etc.

City/Urban Development Standards: Development standards and codes or ordinances adopted by cities to regulate land uses, building construction, and site improvements.

CNEL - Community Noise Equivalent: A noise measurement obtained over a 24-hour period and computed on an annual average basis. Evening and nighttime measurements are weighted to penalize for the greater irritation caused by noise emitted during those periods. Used in the Noise Element to calculate noise at the Hanford, Corcoran, and Salyer airports.

Collectors: Roadways which carry traffic between high- and low-level circulation systems.

Conditional Use Permit: A zoning permit issued by the Planning Commission.

County Services: Services such as sheriff, fire, streets, roads, and land use controls.

County Development Standards: Development standards and codes adopted by Kings County to regulate land use, building construction, and site improvements.

Countywide Regional System: State and county rural roads that carry most of the traffic between Kings County and the surrounding counties, and a significant portion of intra-county traffic.

Critical Facility: A facility whose failure would present danger to a large number of people or severely impair a community's ability to respond to an emergency.

Day/Night Average Sound Level (Ldn): Almost identical to CNEL (Community Noise Equivalent Level) except that only nighttime measurements are penalized; used in the Noise Element to calculate traffic and train noise.

dBA: See A-weighted sound level

Decibel, dB: Noise level measured by a meter which perceives sound in a manner similar to the human ear.

Development: Any division of land or any use of land which requires zoning approval or similar processes.

Development/Improvement Standards: The physical improvements necessary for a particular development to operate in a safe, orderly, and healthful manner. These are listed in the County Improvement Standards.

Dial-a-Ride: A form of public transit in which riders telephone their requests for service to a central dispatcher.

Easement: A defined land area used for providing access or placement of public utilities.

Equivalent Sound Level (Leq): The average of several measurements of fluctuating sound, normally computed for a 1-hour sample period; not weighted for night or evening noise.

Expressway: Usually a divided highway which provides fast, safe movement of people and goods in and between urban areas.

Floodplain Overlay Zone: A limitation on land use and development imposed on areas subject to flooding.

Fringe Areas: Partially or sparsely developed land adjacent to a city or special district where a) urban services may be readily extended; or b) the area is a logical extension of the city or district.

Goal: A general ultimate purpose toward which effort is directed.

Highway Capacity: A measurement of the ability of a roadway to handle traffic at varying levels of ease.

Immediate Family Members: Parent(s), child(ren), grandparent(s), grandchild(ren), sibling(s), or spouse.

Implementation: The enactment of policies, usually through the use of zoning and land division ordinances.

Improvement Standards: See Development/Improvement Standards

Infill: A requirement that vacant areas surrounded by urban uses be developed before land at the outer edges of the urban area may be developed.

Infrastructure: Physical improvements such as city or district water and sewer systems, roads, and other types of public utilities.

Interstate and Other Highways/Freeways: Roadways which move large volumes of traffic and usually have their access restricted to interchanges.

LAFCO - Local Agency Formation Commission: A local commission that reviews and evaluates boundary changes of cities or special districts.

L(dn) - Day/night average noise level: The sound level in decibels during a 24-hour period.

Liquefaction: A sudden loss of strength in a soil caused by an earthquake resulting in temporary transformation of the soil into a fluid mass.

LOS - Level of Service: The amount of traffic a roadway or intersection can handle. Expressed in terms of Level of Service A, B, C, D, or E depending upon ease of flow, with A being the lightest level. These levels are determined by weighing factors such as speed, travel time, room to maneuver, traffic interruptions, convenience, and safety.

Microclimates: The climate of a specific place within an area, as contrasted with the climate of the area as a whole.

Minor Streets and Roads: Provide internal neighborhood circulation and connection to the higher levels of the circulation system.

Mitigation Measures: Actions designed to avoid or lessen the extent of an adverse impact of a project.

Multi-modal Transportation Facility: A transit station or depot serving users of trains, buses, taxis, and other transportation modes.

Natural Resource Conservation Zone District: A land use measure to preserve environmentally sensitive areas having existing natural watercourses, drainage basins, sloughs, or other natural water features.

Objective: The object of a course of action, midway in specificity between a goal, or general purpose, and a policy, or specific action statement.

On-site Improvements: Privately owned improvements such as landscaping, signs, parking areas, domestic water, and sanitary waste disposal systems.

Open Space: An area of land or water devoted to an open space use such as recreation, agriculture, and community separators.

Outdoor Recreation: Public park and recreation areas outside urban areas.

Paper Subdivisions: Usually refers to vacant land which has been legally subdivided in years past and has never been improved with either infrastructure or buildings.

Performance Standards: A term applied to a development that by policy will be approved if certain required standards can be met.

Policy: A specific action statement intended to guide future decisionmaking.

Preservation: Protection of areas or buildings having environmental, historic, or other cultural values.

Prezoning: A city legislative action to predetermine the zoning that will apply to properties outside its jurisdiction and become effective on the date of annexation.

Prime Agricultural Land: Land which qualifies for Class I or II rating in the Soil Conservation Service land use classification system.

Public Facility: Public grounds, buildings or facilities of an educational, administrative, recreational, public service, or cultural type.

Public Improvements: Publicly owned physical improvements such as sewer, water, storm drainage systems, street paving, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, street lights, fire hydrants, and other similar improvements.

Public Safety Overlay Zone: A land use designation applied to areas subject to natural or manmade hazards; usually featuring large parcel sizes and less intense development.

Public Transit: A form of transportation service delivered by means of a vehicle carrying multiple passengers; includes buses, taxis, and trains.

PUD: Planned Unit Development; or

PUD: Public Utilities District

Recreation ("O") District: A land use measure applied to areas for public recreational use, such as parks.

Regionally Significant Routes in Urban Areas: Roadways which originate within urban areas and lead to major destinations outside the cities.

Reversion to Acreage: The process applied to changing land which has previously been subdivided but remains undeveloped (as in a paper subdivision) back to unsubdivided land, i.e., the lot lines and all right of way lines are erased.

Right-of-way: A strip of land devoted to transportation and public use facilities such as roadways, railways, and public utility lines.

Right-of-way Improvements: Street paving, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, traffic signals, street lights, fire hydrants, sewer and water lines, drive approaches, tree wells, and other similar improvements.

Riparian Corridor: Generally, the area occupied by rivers or streams, together with their related plant and animal communities.

Rural Community: Unincorporated farm-service and residential communities such as Armona, Kettleman City, and Stratford.

Seiche: A wave that oscillates in lakes, bays, or gulfs from a few minutes to a few hours as a result of seismic or atmospheric disturbances.

Source Reduction: An activity to lower the generation and/or consumption of materials in order to reduce the waste stream.

Special Districts: Local units of government established to provide special services, such as water and sewer, street lighting, and other services.

Sphere of Influence: An area surrounding a city or special district that is designated by LAFCO to be ultimately served with public utilities and/or annexed by the surrounded entity.

Storm Drainage System: The series of pipes, culverts, and basins which are used to dispose of stormwater.

Subsidence: The gradual downward settling or sinking of the Earth's solid surface.

Urban: Residential, commercial, and industrial land uses which are served by public sewer and water. Includes public open space, streets and roads.

Urban Areas: Refers to the four cities and three rural communities of Kings County.

Urban Development: Development that requires city or district services; or agricultural development as set forth by Sections 402B, 403B, and 404B of the Kings County Zoning Ordinance.

Urban Expansion: Areas reserved for future urban growth.

Urban Fringe: The unincorporated area adjacent to a corporate city boundary.

Urban Prime: Land which is under agricultural preserve contract in accordance with the California Land Conservation Act of 1965 (Williamson Act) within 3 miles of a city boundary.

Urban Service Policies: Policies related to the requirement of services for land uses at the outer boundaries of urban and rural areas.

Urban Sprawl: Noncontiguous urban development in a common area.

Utility: A public service such as gas, electricity, water, or transportation.

Waste Disposal Facilities: Sewage treatment plants; waste disposal landfills; solid waste transfer, storage, and processing stations; and hazardous waste treatment, transfer, storage, and disposal facilities.

Wetlands: An area saturated with moisture, such as a marsh, which provides habitat for native plant and animal species.

Zoning: The regulation of land use by use classification, lot size, placement of buildings and improvements, and other factors.