[HISTORY: Adopted by the Annual Town Meeting of the Town of Eastham 5-1-1995 by Art. 30. Amendments noted where applicable.]
Property owners wishing the Town to accept their private way as a public way must submit their request by petition to the Selectmen and shall comply with all requirements listed below before said petition can be acted upon at any Annual Town Meeting, which may accept or reject said petition by a majority vote:
A. 
A plan of the way (a minimum of six copies), drawn by a registered engineer or land surveyor at the petitioner's expense, shall accompany the petition. The plan shall include the following information:
(1) 
Name of the road.
(2) 
Areas to be accepted.
(3) 
Names, addresses and lot numbers (either on a separate plan or legend on a subdivision plan) of all owners and abutters.
(4) 
Complete construction details including: locations and dimensions of drainage basins and leaching tanks, and typical cross-sectional drawing of road width showing thickness and types of subbase, base course, top course, width of paved surface, berms and right-of-way.
(5) 
Drainage, easements and catchment areas if any.
(6) 
Dates of start and finish of road construction and name of contractor.
(7) 
Any other details necessary to fully describe the road.
B. 
If a subdivision plan, approved by the Planning Board and recorded with the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds or the Land Court, is on file with the Assessor's office, and if said plan shows all information requested in Subsection A above, an as-built plan, revised to the date of petition, may be submitted in lieu of a plan drawn expressly for submission with the petition.
Any private way submitted by petition for acceptance by the Town as a public way shall intersect or connect with an existing public way.
A. 
Based on Assessor's records, a minimum of 51% of the lots fronting on the private way shall contain completed dwellings with a certificate of occupancy.
B. 
All dwellings shall be affixed with street numbers as assigned by the Town. Said numbers are to be affixed to or displayed in a prominent position on the street side of buildings.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 37, Buildings, Numbering of.
A. 
Following the submission of an acceptable plan of the way, and the determination by the Selectmen that the minimum occupancy and suitable access requirements have been met, they shall direct that inspections of the way shall be made to determine if the road is acceptable under the design standards contained in the Planning Board's rules and regulations in effect at the time the petition is made for roadway acceptance. Inspections shall be made by the following parties:
(1) 
Planning Board members;
(2) 
The Supervisor of the Public Works Department; and
(3) 
The Board of Highway Surveyors.
B. 
The petitioners shall ensure that all catch basins are cleaned prior to inspections by the Town between March 1 and March 15. A certificate from the cleaning contractor shall be required indicating the date of the cleaning and the number of basins cleaned.
C. 
The road shall pass all inspections before it can be accepted by the Town as a public way.
A. 
One hundred percent of the road ownership shall agree with the Assessor's records.
B. 
No road still under covenant or security to the Planning Board shall be accepted as a public way.
C. 
If the fee in the way is held by the petitioners, all deeds must be assembled and converted to a single deed. Title reference from each owner abutting the road shall be filed with the petition and plan together with a statement that the list of abutting owners has been verified from the most recent Assessor's atlas.
D. 
A fee covering the cost of recording the deed at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds or the Land Court shall accompany the deed.
E. 
The owners of at least 80% percent of the abutting lots shall agree, by signature on the petition, to the road acceptance petition prior to submission to the Board of Selectmen. Furthermore, proof must be furnished that all abutters have been notified by mail of plans to change the status of the road.
[Added 5-3-2010 ATM by Art. 28]
A. 
A suitable plan together with a request for the required inspection shall be submitted to the Board of Selectmen no later than November 1 of the year prior to the Annual Town Meeting to which the petition shall be presented.
B. 
All inspections shall be completed no later than March 15.
C. 
If the road passes inspections, all deeds and documents, together with the required fee for the recording of the deed and the formal petition to accept the way, shall be submitted to the Board of Selectmen no later than the closing of the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting (date will be published.)
D. 
If all of the above conditions are met, the Selectmen shall include the petition in the warrant.
E. 
All changes in ownership must be included on the final deed and/or documents to correspond to the respective order of taking. If Town Meeting action is favorable, these documents will be recorded at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds of Land Court by the Eastham Town Clerk.
This road acceptance policy may be waived, in whole or in part, or modified by the Highway Surveyors as they deem appropriate or as the laws of the commonwealth require.