The regulation of land subdivision for residential
and other uses is widely accepted as a function of municipal and county
government in the United States. It has become widely recognized as
a method of ensuring sound community growth and the safeguarding of
the interests of the homeowner, the subdivider, and the local government.
The business of building a community, and this includes its environs,
requires the safeguarding of these interests and the assurance that
residential land subdivision will provide permanent assets to the
locality. A large part of land subdivision and development continues
to occur in unincorporated areas, and so the regulation of land subdivision
is of as great a concern to unincorporated areas as it is to incorporated
areas. Subdivision regulations aim to prevent excessive governmental
operating costs. At the same time, they aim to assure to the maximum
degree possible the means whereby land can be developed for the highest
possible use with all of the necessary protections against deterioration
and obsolescence.
The purpose of these regulations is to promote
the public health, safety and general welfare of the community, and
these regulations are designed to lessen congestion in the streets
and highways; to further the orderly layout and use of land; to secure
safety from fire, panic and other dangers; to provide adequate light
and air; to prevent the overcrowding of land; to avoid undue concentration
of population; to facilitate adequate provision for transportation,
water, sewerage, schools, parks, playgrounds and other public requirements;
and to facilitate the further resubdivision of larger tracts into
smaller parcels of land. These regulations are intended to conserve
the value of the buildings placed on land, to provide the best possible
environment for human habitation, and to encourage the most appropriate
use of land throughout the County.
The increase in population, leisure time and
family income throughout the County coupled with the proximity of
Grant County to urban metropolitan areas, its unique beauty and its
abundant recreational and scenic resources have recently resulted
in a rapid increase in the construction of rural residential and vacation
homes and rural businesses and industries, and certain problems in
addition to those usually concerned in subdivision regulations which
are unique to Grant County have developed as a result thereof, among
these unique problems being the layout of lots unsuitable for development
due to terrain or soil conditions, the concentration of development
along highways with resulting traffic congestion and hazards, the
installation of septic tanks on soil types unable to absorb their
effluent or on lots so small as to create health hazards, the construction
of buildings and improvements in floodplains and floodways where they
are periodically endangered or damaged by floods, the lowering of
the water table, the destruction of unique and irreplaceable areas
of scenic beauty and the construction of buildings of types that cannot
be adequately protected from fire in their location.
This chapter shall be known as the "Grant County
Subdivision Regulation Ordinance." This chapter has full force and
effect in the unincorporated areas of Grant County on and after the
date of publication.
