To discharge the duties imposed by law, the Township has adopted
the following plan processing procedures which shall be followed by
all applicants for approval of a subdivision or land development plan:
B.
An applicant shall submit to the Township the required copies of
each plan, as is designated in the Township subdivision and land development
submissions and procedures for application.
C.
Amended preliminary or final plan. In the event that a preliminary
or final subdivision or land development plan is amended, changed,
revised, or altered in any respect after the original submission date,
the developer or subdivider may be asked to extend the time period
for consideration of the plan.
D.
When the decision results in a denial of a specific plan, then the
applicant, when and if he should reapply, shall do so in accordance
with the plan sequence as outlined in this chapter.
E.
Application for approval of a subdivision or land development plan
shall be received by the Township. Submittal and processing fees for
plans and specifications for such plans shall accompany the application.
When a preliminary plan is submitted which is not in conformance with
the Zoning Ordinance,[1] as last amended, any approval of such plan shall be, and
shall be presumed to be, conditioned upon obtaining any and all necessary
relief from such ordinance by the Zoning Hearing Board. Upon the grant
of such a preliminary plan approval conditioned upon the favorable
decision of the Zoning Hearing Board, the applicant shall submit an
application for such zoning relief. Upon the grant of a final unappealable
decision by the Zoning Hearing Board, the applicant shall provide
evidence thereof and shall so note same on the plan.
A.
Applications for subdivision or land development accompanied by the
required copies of the proposed plan and appropriate fees, as designated
in the Township subdivision and land development application, shall
be received by the appropriate Township official. Failure to submit
a completed application or appropriate fees shall result in the application
being returned as an incomplete application. Any incomplete application
shall not be considered a formal application.
B.
Towamencin Township application fees shall be fixed by the Board
of Supervisors by resolution from time to time. The appropriate fees
shall be received in accordance with the current fee schedules of
Towamencin Township, Upper Gwynedd-Towamencin Municipal Authority
and the Montgomery County Planning Commission. Applicants shall pay
for review of all applications and other matters pertaining to the
administration of this chapter.
C.
Applicants shall furnish an escrow fund sufficient to pay all fees
and costs required for the administration of this chapter. The escrow
fund shall be paid when preliminary plans (and/or final plans) are
submitted for review and approval. The escrow fund shall be sufficient
to guarantee the payment of:
(1)
The services of the Township engineers, Township consultants,
and Township Solicitor related to review and consideration of the
application, and all other costs for planning, engineering, traffic
surveys, and professional certification and administrative costs as
deemed necessary by the Board of Supervisors in reviewing plans;
(2)
The actual cost of all sanitary sewerage, drainage, water, and
materials tests.
D.
The date of official acceptance of the application shall be considered
to be the date of the first regular meeting of the Township Planning
Commission following the filing of the application, or 90 days after
final order of court remanding an application to the Township, as
the case may be. The ninety-day review period begins upon this date.
The applicant may agree, in writing, to waive the ninety-day review
period.
[Amended 5-23-2001 by Ord. No. 01-7]
E.
Upon submission, a cursory examination of the plan will be conducted
to ensure basic compliance with the plan submission requirements of
this article and the subdivision and land development submissions
and procedures for application.
F.
The Township may distribute copies of the plan to the following for
review:
(1)
Township Board of Supervisors.
(2)
Township Planning Commission.
(3)
Montgomery County Planning Commission, along with applicable
fee.
(4)
Township Engineer.
(5)
Township Traffic Engineer.
(6)
Township landscape architect/consultant.
(7)
Township Zoning Officer.
(8)
Township Fire Marshal.
(9)
Township Fire Chief.
(10)
Township Police Chief.
(11)
Upper Gwynedd-Towamencin Municipal Authority, along with applicable
fee.
(12)
Township record file.
(13)
Upon request, to an adjacent municipality (in which case, applicant
shall provide additional copies of all application documents for each
and every requesting adjacent municipality).
[Added 5-23-2001 by Ord. No. 01-7]
G.
It shall be the applicant's responsibility to obtain the following
permits or approvals, if applicable:
H.
The Board of Supervisors shall act on the plan within 90 days of
the date of official acceptance of the preliminary plan or prior to
the end of any extension of time agreed to by the applicant. The following
optional consequences shall result from action by the Board of Supervisors:
(1)
If the Board of Supervisors approves the preliminary plan without
conditions, the Township Manager will so certify and the applicant
will then submit final plans in accordance with this chapter and the
subdivision and land development submissions and procedures for application;
(2)
The Board of Supervisors may conditionally approve a preliminary
plan, in which case the applicant must agree, in writing, to accept
the conditions of the approval;
(3)
If the Board of Supervisors disapproves the preliminary plan,
the Township Manager will notify the applicant, in writing, and will
describe the requirements which have not been met and shall cite the
provisions of state law or Township ordinance relied upon.
I.
Approval of the preliminary plan by the Board of Supervisors will
be tentative only, shall confer no vested rights on the parties in
interest, and changes or modifications therein may subsequently be
required if the Board of Supervisors determines the same to be necessary.
J.
Any final plan for which the record plan is not recorded within five
years of the date of approval of the preliminary plan must be submitted
as an entirely new plan.
A.
Upon approval of a final plan of subdivision or land development,
the Township shall record such plan, at the applicant's expense,
in the office of Recorder of Deeds of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
The approved final plan shall bear the official signature and Seal
of Towamencin Township. The plan shall be recorded within 90 days
of the date of final approval or the date the approval of the governing
body is noted on the plan, whichever is later.
[Amended 5-23-2001 by Ord. No. 01-7]
B.
After a subdivision or land development plan shall have been officially
recorded, the streets, parks and public improvements shown thereon
shall be considered to be part of the Official Map summary of the
Township. Streets, parks, and other public improvements shown on a
subdivision or land development plan to be recorded may be offered
for dedication to the Township by formal notation thereof, or the
subdivider, developer or builder may note on such plan that such improvements
have not been offered for dedication to the Township. Every street,
park or other improvement shown on a subdivision or land development
plan that shall have been recorded as provided herein shall be deemed
to be a private street, park, or improvement until such time as the
same shall have been offered for dedication to the Township and accepted,
by ordinance or resolution, or until it shall have been condemned
for use as a public street, park, or other improvement.
Before the Board of Supervisors shall cause its approval to
be endorsed upon the final plans of any subdivisions or land development,
except in the case of subdivisions wherein the Board of Supervisors
imposes no condition or conditions for the approval of the plan as
a requirement for the approval thereof, the owners shall enter into
a written agreement with the Township in the manner and form set forth
by the Township Solicitor which shall include, but not be limited
to, the following:
A.
To construct or cause to be constructed, at the owner's expense,
all streets, curbs, sidewalks, fire hydrants, streetlights, drainage
facilities, water and sewer facilities, street name signs, stop signs,
other required highway signs, monuments, capped sewers, parks and
other improvements shown on said final plan when required to the standards
and specifications of the Township;
B.
To maintain, at the owner's cost, the streets, curbs, sidewalks,
drainage facilities, water and sewer facilities, street signs, parks,
monuments, fire hydrants, streetlighting, capped sewers and other
improvements, until the same are accepted or condemned by the Township
for public use, and for a period of 18 months thereafter to repair
or construct the same or any part of one of them when such repair
or reconstruction shall be specified by the Board of Supervisors as
necessary by reason of faulty construction, workmanship, or materials;
C.
To install, or cause to be installed, at the owner's expense
and without any cost to the Township for any part of such installation,
streetlighting facilities on all streets within and abutting the subdivision;
D.
To pay all costs, charges or rates of the utility furnishing electric
service for the lighting of the streets on or abutting said subdivision,
for the lights installed by the owner, until such time as streets
shown on the subdivision plans shall be accepted as public streets
of the Township by resolution, or by condemnation proceedings, and
to indemnify and hold harmless the Township from and against all suit,
actions, claims, and demands for electric service to the streets shown
on said plans, or any part thereof, to the time that said streets
shall be accepted as public streets of the Township in manner hereinabove
set forth;
E.
To pay the inspection fees required by the Township;
F.
To obtain the rights-of-way and/or easements and releases required
when any street, drainage facility or other improvement wherein a
subdivision abuts or traverses land of persons other than the person
holding legal title to the lands of the subdivision at his own cost,
and obtain from the owner of the land so abutted or traversed full
releases from all damages which may result from change in grade, construction,
or otherwise, of the street, drainage facility or other improvements
and such releases shall ensure to the benefit not only of the owner
of the subdivision, but to the Township as well;
G.
To promptly remove or cause to be removed snow from the streets as
may be required for safe traverse of the streets prior to dedication;
H.
To promptly reimburse to the Township attorney and engineer fees;
I.
Payment of all applicable fees;
J.
Such other provision(s) as deemed necessary or desired by the Board
of Supervisors or Township Solicitor.
K.
The applicant shall not be required to provide financial security
for the cost of any improvements for which financial security is required
by and provided to the Department of Transportation in connection
with the issuance of a highway occupancy permit pursuant to Section
420 of the Act of June 1, 1945 (P.L. 1242, No. 428), known as the
"State Highway Law."[1]
[Added 5-23-2001 by Ord. No. 01-7]
[1]
Editor's Note: See 36 P.S. § 670-101 et seq.
In order to assure the Township that the streets, drainage facilities,
water and sewer facilities, curbs, sidewalks, street signs, fire hydrants,
streetlighting facilities, monuments, parks, and capped sewers shown
on said final plans, and other improvements shown on said final plans,
which the Board of Supervisors shall require the owner to install,
at his own expense, shall be constructed and installed in strict accordance
with the plan, finally approved, and with the standards, regulations
and specifications of the Township, and shall be maintained until
accepted or condemned by the Township, the owner shall furnish to
the Township financial security or cash as the Board of Supervisors
shall approve and shall deposit with the Township an amount sufficient
to cover the cost of all improvements and of lighting the streets
until the same shall be accepted by the Township, as estimated by
the Township Engineer or Board of Supervisors plus an additional 10%.
In addition, the owner shall pay all legal expenses and engineering
fees incurred by the Township related to the project and shall pay
the Township for administrative costs in accordance with the Township's
fee schedule.
A.
In lieu of posting financial security or depositing securities as above provided, the owner may elect to deposit with the Township funds in an equivalent amount to be held in escrow per an agreement prepared by the Township Solicitor which shall be entered into by the owner, the Township and the escrow agent, if any. Such escrow agreement shall provide that, as the work of constructing the required public improvements progresses, the Township or escrow agent holding said funds will release and refund at the request of the owner, from the funds deposited, sums equivalent to the estimated value of work completed, less 10% retainage, upon delivery of a certificate of completion signed by the owner, the Township Engineer, the Township Manager and the Township Solicitor. Otherwise, said funds are to be held by the Township or escrow agent to the benefit and use of the Township in the event the owner fails or neglects to perform the terms provided for under § 136-403 hereof.
B.
After the owner shall have completed all of the improvements required by said escrow agreement and has received the final payment provided under the aforementioned escrow agreement, and has received the final payment provided under the aforementioned procedure, after the Board of Supervisors shall have accepted the streets, facilities and other improvements as public streets, public facilities, and public improvements in the manner provided, the remaining escrow shall be reduced to 15% of the fund and shall serve to guarantee the maintenance, repair or reconstruction of the said improvements by the owner, for a period of 18 months thereafter, required under the provisions of § 136-403 hereof, and said remaining fund will, upon faithful compliance with those provisions, be released and refunded to the owner upon the signatures of the Chairman and Secretary of the Board of Supervisors. Nothing herein contained shall prevent the owner from substituting a maintenance bond by a company satisfactory to the Board of Supervisors, and, in such case, the 15% remaining in the funds shall be released and refunded at the same time that the maintenance bond is accepted by the Township Board of Supervisors.
C.
The improvements guarantee, whether in the form of bond or deposit
agreement, shall be conditioned upon:
(1)
The owner constructing or installing, or causing to be constructed
or installed, the streets, drainage facilities, water and sewer facilities,
curbs, sidewalks, street signs, lighting facilities, capped sewers,
shown on said plans, as the Board of Supervisors may require the owner
to construct or install;
(2)
The owner maintaining, at his own cost, the streets, curbs,
drainage facilities, water and sewer facilities, sidewalks, street
signs, parks, monuments, capped sewers and other improvements, until
the same are accepted or condemned by the Township for public use
and for a period of 18 months thereafter repairing and reconstructing
the same or any part of the improvements when such repair or reconstruction
shall be specified as necessary, by reason of faulty construction,
by the Board of Supervisors;
(3)
The payment by the owner of the costs of lighting the streets
in the subdivision until such time as the streets are accepted by
resolution of the Board of Supervisors or by condemnation proceedings;
(4)
The payment of any and all fees and administrative costs required
by the Township;
(5)
The faithful performance by the owner of the contract provided
for in this chapter.
A.
Criteria. The subdivision by lease of land for agricultural purposes
into parcels of 10 acres (40,470 square meters) or more, not involving
any new street or easement of access or any residential dwelling unit,
shall be exempted from these subdivision regulations. To ensure compliance
with the criteria for exemption, no owner shall effect a subdivision
or a division of land, even for agricultural purposes in parcels of
more than 10 acres (40,470 square meters), unless the owner received
a certification of exemption from the Board of Supervisors based upon
the owner's proof that:
B.
Application. To apply for the certification, the owner shall submit
the required proofs in the form required by this chapter for minor
subdivision plans and, in addition to a notarized statement acknowledging
ownership, the following statement shall appear on the plan with the
signature of the owner:
|
"All lots shown hereon are at least 10 acres (40,470 square
meters) in area and are to be used exclusively for agricultural purposes
in accordance with the Towamencin Township Zoning Ordinance, as last
amended, and Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance, as last amended."
|
C.
Action. If the Board of Supervisors finds that all of the criteria
are met, the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors shall sign the plan.
If the Board of Supervisors finds that all of the criteria are not
met, the Board of Supervisors shall notify the owner that the proposed
subdivision is required to comply with all of the procedures and requirements
of these regulations.
