For purposes of this chapter:
(1) A “beach” is that area from the Delaware/Maryland line at Fenwick Island to the Old Marina Canal immediately north of Pickering Beach, which extends from the mean high water line of the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay landward 1,000 feet and seaward 2,500 feet, respectively.
(2) “Beach erosion” or “erosion” is the wearing away of a beach by water or the elements.
(3) “Beach preservation,” “beach erosion control” or “erosion control” is the protection and control of the beach by the conduct and regulation of work and activities likely to affect the physical condition of the beach or shore, and includes, but is not limited to, erosion control, hurricane protection, coastal flood control, shoreline and offshore rehabilitation.
(4) “Building line” means a line generally paralleling the coast, seaward of which construction of any kind shall be prohibited without a permit or letter of approval from the Department. The building line shall be set forth on maps prepared by the Department with reference to a vertical datum commonly used by land surveyors, the Delaware State Plane Coordinate System and topographical surveys. Within the corporate limits of Rehoboth Beach and Bethany Beach, in commercial areas containing boardwalks and where no natural dune exists, the building line shall be along the westerly edge of the boardwalk. In those cases where the mapped building line either transects or is landward of lots that, in turn, are landward of lots with existing habitable structures, the building line will not be used to modify either location or dimension of buildings on the more landward lot. On those ocean and Delaware Bay front lots, where existing buildings are either partially or completely seaward of the building line, the Department is directed to consider beach nourishment work that has enhanced the beach and dune when determining the location and size of reconstruction of those existing buildings if they are destroyed by acts of God or other accidental events. Furthermore, in any such case, property owners shall be permitted to rebuild in the same footprint where federal or state agencies have constructed and continue to maintain a beach and dune that conforms to coastal engineering standards of storm protection.
(5) “Construction” includes any work or activity which is likely to have a material physical effect on existing coastal conditions or natural shore and inlet processes.
(6) “Department” means the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
(7) “Emergency” means any unusual incident resulting from natural or unnatural causes which endangers the health, safety or resources of the general public, including damages or erosion of any shoreline resulting from a hurricane, storm or any such natural disturbance.
(8) “Person” means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, institution, cooperative enterprise, municipality, commission, political subdivision or duly established legal entity.
(9) “Private beach” means any beach which is not a public beach as defined in this chapter.
(10) “Public beach” means any beach owned in fee simple by the federal or state government or any county, city, town or municipality, or any beach for which the State has obtained an easement or agreement for public use.
(11) “Regulated area” is the specific area within the defined beach that the Department is directed to regulate construction to preserve dunes and to reduce property damage. The regulated area shall be from the seaward edge of the beach to the landward edge of the third buildable lot in from the mean high water line.
(12) “Substantial damage” means the damage or destruction of any structure by an act of God to the extent that, in the judgment of the Department, 75% or more of the original structure, or if a building, more than 50% of the original foundation pilings, are unsuitable for incorporation into reconstruction of the structure.