[HISTORY: Adopted by the Common Council of
the City of Middletown 6-12-1997 by L.L. No. 3-1997 (Ch. 68 of the 1971
Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
There is hereby established a City Planning
Board pursuant to Article 3 of the General City Law of the State of
New York.
A.
The City Planning Board shall consist of seven members
and shall be appointed by the Mayor, with approval of the Common Council,
and the Mayor shall have the authority to remove any member of the
Board for cause and after public hearing.
B.
Not more than three members of the Board shall hold
any other public office or position in the City, and their terms shall
terminate with the term of the Mayor selecting them; however, members
of the Common Council are ineligible for appointment.
C.
The terms of the members of the Planning Board first
appointed shall be so fixed that the term of one member shall expire
at the end of the official year in which such members were initially
appointed. The terms of the remaining members first appointed shall
be so fixed that one term shall expire at the end of each official
year thereafter. At the expiration of the term of each member first
appointed, his or her successor shall be appointed for a term which
shall be equal in years to the number of members of the Board.
D.
If a vacancy shall occur otherwise than by expiration
of the term, it shall be filled by appointment of the Mayor for the
unexpired term, with approval of the Common Council.
E.
The members of the Planning Board shall receive no
compensation for their services as members of the Board. The City
officials or employees on such Board, if any, shall not, by reason
of membership thereon, forfeit their right to exercise the powers,
perform the duties or receive the compensation of the City office
or position held by them during such membership.
A.
The Mayor shall designate a member of said Planning
Board to act as Chairman thereof, or, on his failure so to do, the
Planning Board shall elect a Chairman from its own members.
B.
The Planning Board shall have the power and authority
to employ experts and a staff and to pay for their services and such
other expenses as may be necessary and proper, not exceeding, in all,
the appropriation that may be made for such Board, excepting and providing
that all salaries shall be fixed and determined by the Common Council.
C.
The Planning Board may adopt rules and regulations
in respect to procedure before it and in respect to any subject matter
over which it has jurisdiction, after public hearing by the Planning
Board and subject to the approval of the Common Council.
D.
Cost of
professional services required in special use permit, site plan and
subdivision review process.
[Added 7-13-2009]
(1)
On all
applications for special use permit approval or site plan approval
or subdivision review to the Planning Board, the applicant shall pay
the actual cost of engineering, planning or other professional services
which may be reasonably required by the Planning Board in the processing
of the application.
A.
The Planning Board may prepare and change a comprehensive
Master Plan for the development of the entire area of the City, which
Master Plan shall show existing and proposed streets, bridges and
tunnels and the approaches thereto, viaducts, parks, public reservations,
roadways in parks, sites for public buildings and structures, zoning
districts, pierhead and bulkhead lines, waterways and routes of public
utilities and such other features, existing and proposed, as will
provide for the improvement of the City and its future growth, protection
and development and will afford adequate facilities for the public
housing, transportation, distribution, comfort, convenience, public
health, safety and general welfare of its population.
B.
The Planning Board may advertise and hold public hearings
when it desires, notice of which hearings shall be advertised at least
once in an official newspaper or in a newspaper of general circulation
in said City at least five days before each such hearing.
C.
The Master Plan and all modifications thereof shall
be on file in the office of the Planning Board, and the Planning Board
shall file certified copies in the offices of the Commissioner of
Public Works and the City Clerk.
[Amended 1-7-2008]
D.
If the Common Council undertakes the preparation and
approval of a comprehensive Master Plan for the City, then the Planning
Board shall review such Master Plan prior to adoption by the Common
Council, and the Planning Board shall submit its report and recommendations
with respect to the Master Plan to the Common Council within such
period of time as determined by the Common Council.
The Common Council may, by resolution, provide
for the reference of any matter or class of matters to the Planning
Board before final action thereon by the Common Council and Mayor,
with or without the provision that final action thereon shall not
be taken until said Planning Board has submitted its report thereon
or has had a reasonable time, to be fixed in said resolution, to submit
its report.
The Planning Board shall have full power and
authority to make such investigations, maps and reports and recommendations
in connection therewith relating to the planning and development of
the City as to it seem desirable, provided that the total expenditures
of said Board shall not exceed the appropriation for its expenses.
A.
For the purpose of providing for the future growth
and development of the City and affording adequate facilities for
the housing, transportation, distribution, comfort, convenience, safety,
health and welfare of its population, the Common Council may, by ordinance
or resolution, authorize and empower the Planning Board to approve
plats showing new streets or highways. Before such approval is given,
a public hearing shall be held by the Planning Board, which hearing
shall be advertised at least once in an official paper or in a newspaper
of general circulation in said City at least five days before such
hearing. Such public hearing must be conducted within 62 days from
the day an application for approval is received. The Planning Board
may thereupon approve, modify and approve, or disapprove such plat.
The approval required by this section, or the refusal to approve,
shall take place within 62 days from and after the date of the public
hearing; otherwise such plat shall be deemed to have been approved,
and the certificate of the City as to the date of submission of the
plat for approval and the failure to take action thereon within such
time shall be issued on demand and shall be sufficient in lieu of
the written endorsement or other evidence of approval required. The
ground of refusal of any plat submitted shall be stated upon the records
of such Planning Board.
B.
The ordinance or resolution authorizing the Planning
Board to approve plats shall make it the duty of the City Clerk to
file with the County Clerk of Orange County a certificate showing
that said Planning Board has been so authorized, and said City Clerk
shall issue the certificate of failure to take action as aforesaid.
[Amended 1-7-2008]
C.
The approval by the Planning Board of a plat showing
one or more new streets or highways, or the certificate of the City
as to the date of the submission of such plat and the failure of the
Planning Board to hold a public hearing within 62 days of the date
the application was filed or to take action therein within 62 days
of the public hearing, shall expire 90 days from the date of such
approval or of such certificate, unless within such ninety-day period
such plat shall have been duly filed or recorded by the owner in the
office of the County Clerk of Orange County.
A.
If the Common Council has given the Planning Board
the authority to approve plats showing new streets or highways and
before the approval by the Planning Board of a plat showing a new
street or highway, such plat shall also show in proper cases and when
required by the Planning Board a park or parks suitably located for
playground or other recreation purposes.
B.
In approving such plats the Planning Board shall require
that:
(1)
The streets and highways shall be of sufficient width
and suitable grade and shall be suitably located to accommodate the
prospective traffic, to afford adequate light and air, to facilitate
fire protection and to provide access of fire-fighting equipment to
buildings and shall be coordinated so as to compose a convenient system
conforming to the Official Map and properly related to the proposals
shown by the Planning Board on the Master Plan;
(2)
The land shown on such plats shall be of such a character
that it can be used safely for building purposes without danger to
health or peril from fire, flood or other menace;
(3)
Suitable monuments have been placed at such block
corners and other necessary points as may be required by the Board,
and the location thereof is shown on the map of such plat;
(4)
The parks shall be of reasonable size for neighborhood
playgrounds or other recreation uses; and
(5)
All streets or other public places shown on such plats
shall be suitably graded and paved and that sidewalks, streetlighting
standards, curbs, gutters, street trees, water mains, sanitary sewers,
fire alarm cables and necessary ducts, fire signal boxes and storm
drains or combined sewers shall be installed all in accordance with
standards, specifications and procedure acceptable to the appropriate
City departments or, alternatively, that a performance bond sufficient
to cover the full cost of the same as estimated by the Planning Board
or other appropriate City departments designated by the Planning Board
shall be furnished to the City by the owner; provided, however, that
the Planning Board may waive, subject to appropriate conditions and
guaranties, for such period as it may determine, the provision of
any or all such improvements as in its judgment of the special circumstances
of a particular plat or plats are not requisite in the interests of
the public health, safety and general welfare.
C.
Such performance bond shall be issued by a bonding
or surety company approved by the Corporation Counsel of the City,
or by the owner with security acceptable to the legislative body,
and shall also be approved by such Corporation Counsel as to form,
sufficiency and manner of execution. Such performance bond shall run
for a term to be fixed by the Planning Board, but in no case for a
longer term than three years; provided, however, that the term of
such performance bond may be extended by the Planning Board with the
consent of the parties thereto.
(1)
If the Planning Board shall decide at any time during
the term of the performance bond that the extent of building development
that has taken place in the subdivision is not sufficient to warrant
all the improvements covered by such performance bond, or that required
improvements have been installed as provided in this section and by
the Planning Board in sufficient amount to warrant reduction in the
face amount of said bond, or that the character and extent of such
development require additional improvements previously waived for
a period stated at the time of fixing the original terms of such bond,
the Planning Board may modify its requirements for any or all such
improvements, and the face value of such performance bond shall thereupon
be reduced or increased by an appropriate amount so that the new face
value will cover the cost in full of the amended list of improvements
required by the Planning Board, and any security deposited with the
bond may be reduced or increased proportionately.
(2)
In the event that any required improvements have not
been installed as provided in this section within the term of such
performance bond, the legislative body may thereupon declare said
performance bond to be in default and collect the sum remaining payable
thereunder, and upon the receipt of the proceeds thereof the City
shall install such improvements as are covered by such performance
bond and are commensurate with the extent of building development
that has taken place in the subdivision, but not exceeding in cost
the amount of such proceeds.
D.
In making such determination regarding streets, highways,
parks and required improvements, the Planning Board shall take into
consideration the prospective character of the development, whether
dense residence, open residence, business or industrial.
A.
No plat of a subdivision of land showing a new street or highway shall be filed or recorded in the office of the County Clerk or Register until it has been approved by a Planning Board which has been empowered to approve such plats, and such approval be endorsed in writing on the plat in such manner as the Planning Board may designate. It shall be the duty of the County Clerk or Register to notify the Planning Board in writing within three days of the filing or recording of any plat approved by such Planning Board, identifying such plat by its title, date of filing or recording, and official file number. After such plat is approved and filed, subject, however, to review by court as provided by § 38 of the General City Law, the streets, highways and parks shown on such plat shall be and become a part of the Official Map or plan of the City. The owner of the land or his agent who files the plat may add as part of the plat a notation, if he so desires, to the effect that no offer of dedication of such streets, highways or parks or any of them is made to the public.
[Amended 4-23-2007 by L.L. No. 1-2007]
B.
Formal offers of cession to the public of all streets, highways or parks not marked with such notation on the plat shall be filed with the Planning Board prior to the approval of the plat by the Planning Board. In the event that the owner or his agent shall elect not to file his plat prior to the expiration date of the validity of such approval provided in § 97-6, then formal offers of cession shall be deemed to be invalid, void and of no effect on and after such expiration date.
C.
Every street shown on a plat that is hereafter filed
or recorded in the office of the County Clerk or Register as provided
in this section shall be deemed to be a private street until such
time as it has been formally offered for cession to the public and
formally accepted as a public street by ordinance of the Common Council
or, alternatively, until it has been condemned by the City for use
as a public street.
[Amended 4-23-2007 by L.L. No. 1-2007]
No public municipal street utility or improvement shall be constructed by the City in any street or highway until it has become a public street or highway and is duly placed on the Official Map or plan. No permit for the erection of any building shall be issued unless a street or highway giving access to such proposed structure has been duly placed on the Official Map or plan, which street or highway shall have been suitably improved to the satisfaction of the Planning Board in accordance with standards and specifications approved by the appropriate City departments as adequate in respect to the public health, safety and general welfare for the special circumstances of the particular street or highway or, alternately, a performance bond sufficient to cover the full cost of such improvement as estimated by such Board shall be furnished to the City by the owner. Such performance bond shall be issued by a bonding or surety company approved by the Corporation Counsel of the City, or by the owner with security acceptable to the legislative body, and shall also be approved by such Corporation Counsel as to form, sufficiency and manner of execution. The term, manner of modification and method of enforcement of such bond shall be determined by the Planning Board in substantial conformity with § 97-7 of this chapter. Where the enforcement of the provisions of this section would entail practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship, and where the circumstances of the case do not require the structure to be related to existing or proposed streets or highways, the applicant for such a permit may appeal from the decision of the administrative officer having charge of the issue of permits to the City Zoning Board of Appeals, and the same provisions are hereby applied to such appeals and to such Board as are provided in cases of appeals on zoning regulations. The Board may, in passing on such appeal, make any reasonable exception and issue the permit subject to conditions that will protect any future street or highway layout.
[Amended 4-23-2007 by L.L. No. 1-2007]
The Planning Board is authorized simultaneously with the approval of any such plat either to confirm the zoning regulations of the land so platted as shown on the Official Zoning Map of the City or to make any reasonable change therein, and such Board is hereby empowered to make such change with approval of the Common Council. The owner of the land shown on the plat may submit with the plat a proposed building plan indicating lots where group houses for residences or apartment houses or local stores and shops are proposed to be built. Such building plan shall indicate for each lot or proposed building unit the maximum density of population that may exist thereon and the minimum yard requirements. Such plan, if approved by the Planning Board and Common Council, shall modify, change or supplement the zoning regulations of the land shown on the plat within the limitations prescribed by such bodies in said ordinance or resolution, provided that for such land so shown there shall not be a greater average density of population or cover of the land with buildings than is permitted in the district wherein such land lies as shown on the Official Zoning Map. Such building plan shall not be approved by the Planning Board unless in its judgment the appropriate use of adjoining land is reasonably safeguarded and such plan is consistent with the public welfare. Before the Board and Common Council shall make any change in the zoning regulations, there shall be a public hearing preceded by the same notice as in the case of the approval of the plat itself. A written notice of any proposed change or amendment affecting property within the protectively zoned area of a housing project authorized under the Public Housing Law, as such area is shown on an approved Zoning Map filed with the officer charged with enforcement of zoning regulations, shall be given to the housing authority erecting or owning the project and to the government providing financial aid or assistance thereto at least 10 days prior to the date of such public hearing. On the filing of the plat in the office of the County Clerk or Register, such changes, subject, however, to review by court as provided by § 38 of the General City Law, shall be and become part of the zoning regulations of the City, shall take the place of any regulations established by the Board of Estimate or other legislative authority of the City, shall be enforced in the same manner and shall be similarly subject to change.
