For the purpose of this chapter, certain words and terms used herein are as follows:
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, DEVELOPMENT PLAN, TOWN PLAN or MASTER PLAN
A composite of the mapped and written proposals recommending the physical development of the Town prepared by the Planning Board pursuant to § 272-a of the Town Law, which indicates the general location recommended for various public works and reservations and for the general physical development of the Town, and includes any part of such plan separately adopted and any amendment to such plan or parts thereof.
CUL-DE-SAC
A short street having but one end open to traffic and the other end being permanently by a vehicular turnaround.
DOUBLE-FRONTAGE LOT
An interior lot having frontage on two parallel or approximately parallel streets.
DRAINAGE RIGHT-OF-WAY
The lands required for the installation of stormwater sewers or drainage ditches or required along a natural stream or watercourse for preserving the channel and providing for the flow of water therein to safeguard the public against flood damage.
EASEMENT
The lands created through authorization by a property owner for the use by another and for a specified purpose of any designated part of his property.
ENGINEER
The duly designated engineer of the Town of Wales.
LOT
A piece, parcel or plot of land intended as a unit for transfer of ownership or for development.
OFFICIAL MAP
The map established by the Town Board under § 270 of the Town Law showing the streets, highways and parks heretofore laid out, adopted and established by law and any amendments thereto adopted by the Town Board or additions thereto resulting from the approval of subdivision plats by the Town Board and the subsequent filing of such approved plats.
OFFICIAL SUBMISSION DATE
The date when a subdivision plat shall be considered submitted to the Town Board as provided in § 276 of the Town Law, and is hereby defined to be the date of a meeting of the Town Board at which all required surveys, plans and data described in Article VI are submitted.
PERFORMANCE BOND or GUARANTY
Any security which may be accepted in lieu of a requirement that certain improvements be made before the Town Board approves a plat, including performance bonds, escrow agreements and other similar collateral or surety agreements.
PLANNING BOARD
The Town of Wales Planning Board as established pursuant to the provisions of Article 16 of the Town Law.
PRELIMINARY PLAT
The preliminary drawing or drawings indicating the proposed manner or layout of the subdivision to be submitted to the Town Board for its consideration and meeting the requirements of Article VI.
RESUBDIVISION
Revision of all or part of an existing filed plat, including consolidation of lots.
SOIL MAP
The appropriate part of the Soil Survey for Erie County, as prepared cooperatively by the United States Soil Conservation Service and the Cornell Experiment Station, dated 1970 or later.
STREET
Any street, avenue, boulevard, road, lane, parkway, alley or other way which is an existing state, county or Town roadway or way shown upon a plat therefore approved pursuant to law or approved by official action or a street or way on a plat duly filed and recorded in the office of the County Clerk of Erie County prior to the appointment of a Planning Board and the grant to such Board of the power to review plats, and includes the land between the street lines, whether improved or unimproved, and may comprise pavement, shoulders, gutters, sidewalks, parking area and other area within the street lines. For the purpose of this chapter, "streets" shall be classified as follows:
A. 
ARTERIAL STREETSThose which do or are intended to carry heavy traffic.
B. 
COLLECTOR STREETSThose which carry traffic from minor streets to the major system of arterial streets.
C. 
MINOR STREETS or LOCAL RESIDENTIAL STREETSThose which are used primarily for access to the abutting properties.
D. 
MARGINAL SERVICE STREETSStreets which are parallel to and adjacent to arterial streets and highways and which provide access to abutting properties and protection from through traffic.
E. 
ALLEYSMinor ways which are used primarily for vehicular service to the back or the side of properties otherwise abutting on a street.
STREET PAVEMENT
The wearing or exposed surface of the roadway used by vehicular traffic.
STREET RIGHT-OF-WAY
That line determining the limit of the highway rights of the public, either existing or contemplated.
STREET WIDTH
The distance between property lines or right-of-way lines.
SUBDIVIDER
Any person, firm, corporation, partnership or association which shall lay out, for the purpose of sale or development, any subdivision or part thereof as defined herein, either for himself or others.
SUBDIVISION
Any tract of land which is divided into five or more parcels, effective August 1, 1977, along any existing or proposed street(s), highway(s), easement(s) or right(s)-of-way for sale or for rent as residential lots or residential building plots, regardless of whether the lots or plots to be sold or offered for sale or lease for any period of time are described by metes or bounds or by reference to a man or survey of the property or by any other method of description and regardless of whether the lots or plots are contiguous. A tract of land shall constitute a "subdivision" upon sale, rental or offer for sale or lease of the fifth residential lot or residential building plot therefrom within any consecutive three-year period, including the first four parcels, regardless of whether said parcels have been sold, rented or offered for sale, either singly or collectively. The word "tract" shall mean any body of land, including contiguous parcels of land, under one ownership or under common control of any group of persons acting in concert as part of a common scheme or plan. "Residential building plot or lot" shall mean any parcel of land of five acres or less, any point on the boundary line of which is less than 1/2 mile from any point on the boundary line of another such lot in the same tract, unless any such lot may not legally be used for residential purpose. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the term "residential" shall include temporary, seasonal and permanent residential use. "Subdivision" does not include any parcel of land acquired as one parcel for the residential purposes as provided in the New York Public Health Law § 1115-a.
[Amended 5-11-1993 by L.L. No. 1-1993]
SUBDIVISION, EXEMPT
The division of any agricultural land transferred between farms for agricultural purposes shall not be considered a subdivision and is therefore exempt from these regulations.
SUBDIVISION PLAT or FINAL PLAT
A drawing or drawing, in final form, showing a proposed subdivision containing all information or detail required by law and by these regulations to be presented to the Town Board for approval and which, if approved, may be duly filed or recorded by the applicant in the office of the Erie County Clerk.
ZONING ORDINANCE
The officially adopted Zoning Ordinance of the Town of Wales, together with any and all amendments thereto.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See Ch. 200, Zoning.