Any person with an existing surface mining operation who obtained a vested right to conduct such activity prior to January 1, 1976, shall not be required to secure a permit to mine, so long as the vested right continues and as long as no substantial changes have occurred to the operation. Where a person with vested rights has continued surface mining in the same area after January 1, 1976, he or she shall obtain city approval of a reclamation plan covering any new mined lands disturbed since that date. In those cases where an overlap of the physical disturbance exists in the horizontal and/or vertical sense between pre- and post-Act mining, the reclamation plan shall call for reclamation proportional to the disturbance caused by mining after the effective date of the Act (January 1, 1976). All other requirements of state law and this chapter shall apply to vested surface mining operations. (Ord. 3943 § 5, 1999; prior code § 17.76.040)