This chapter shall be known and may be cited
as the "Lower Gwynedd Township Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance
of 1976," as amended.
These regulations are adopted to create conditions
favorable to the health, safety, convenience and general welfare of
the citizens of Lower Gwynedd Township:
(a)
To ensure that sites will be suitable for building
purposes and human habitation, commercial and industrial operations
and other uses for which land may be used.
(b)
To assist in the orderly, efficient, integrated and
harmonious development of land within the Township.
(c)
To provide for the coordination of existing streets
and public utilities with new facilities.
(d)
To ensure the conformance of subdivision and land
development plans with public improvements of the Township and coordination
of intermunicipal, county and commonwealth improvement plans and programs.
(e)
To provide for the efficient and orderly extension
of community services and facilities at minimum cost and maximum convenience.
(f)
To ensure conformance of land utilization with the
Lower Gwynedd Township Comprehensive Plan and the Lower Gwynedd Township
Zoning Ordinance, as amended.
(g)
To provide for adequate open space, road improvements,
recreation, light and air, proper distribution of population, new
streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, streetlights, easements, rights-of-way,
stormwater management facilities and those improvements deemed necessary
for present and prospective needs of the community.
(h)
To assure the equitable and just processing of subdivision
and land development plans by uniform procedures and standards for
the observance by both the applicant and the Township officials.
(i)
To encourage and promote flexibility, economy and
ingenuity in the layout and design of subdivisions and land developments,
including authority for the Board of Supervisors to alter site requirements
in order to encourage other practices which are in accordance with
modern and evolving principles of site planning and development.
The provisions of this chapter shall be held
to be the minimum requirements to meet the above stated purposes.
(a)
Where the provisions of this chapter impose greater
restrictions than those of any statute, other ordinance or regulation,
the provisions of this chapter shall prevail.
(b)
Where the provisions of any statute, other ordinance
or regulation impose greater restrictions than those of this chapter,
the provisions of such statute, ordinance or regulation shall prevail.
(c)
This chapter does not repeal, abrogate, annul or in
any way impair or interfere with existing provisions of other laws
or ordinances, except those specifically or impliedly repealed by
this chapter, or any private restriction placed upon property by covenant,
deed or other private agreement unless repugnant hereto.
(a)
From and after the effective date of this chapter,
any subdivision or land development shall be in conformity with this
chapter and all standards and specifications adopted as part of this
chapter.
(b)
No subdivision or land development of any lot, tract
or parcel of land shall be made, no street, sanitary sewer, storm
sewer, water main or other improvement in connection therewith shall
be laid out, constructed, opened or dedicated for public use or travel,
or for the common use of occupants of buildings abutting thereon,
except in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(c)
No lot in a subdivision or land development may be
sold, no permit to erect, alter or repair any building upon land in
a subdivision shall be issued and no building may be erected in a
subdivision or land development, unless and until a subdivision and/or
land development plan has been approved and recorded and until the
required improvements in connection therewith from the lot or building
to an existing improved street have either been constructed or the
Township has been assured by means of a proper completion guarantee
in the form of a bond, or the deposit of funds or securities in escrow
sufficient to cover the cost of the required improvements will subsequently
be installed. Where owing to special conditions, a literal enforcement
of this requirement would result in unnecessary hardship, such reasonable
exception thereto may be made as will not be contrary to the public
interest, and the sale of a lot, issuance of a permit or erection
of a building may be permitted subject to conditions necessary to
assure adequate streets and other improvements.
(d)
No subdivision or land development plan shall be recorded
in any public office unless the plan bears thereon by endorsement
or otherwise the approval of the Board of Supervisors.
(e)
The description of a lot or parcel by metes and bounds
in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process
of selling or transferring shall not exempt the transaction from such
penalties nor from the remedies herein provided.
(f)
After approval or endorsement by the Board of Supervisors,
the subdivision or land development plan shall be recorded in the
Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds Office in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
(g)
Any owner or agent of the owner of any land located
within a subdivision or land development who sells, transfers or agrees
to sell any land by reference to or exhibition of or by other use
of a plan of a subdivision or land development before the same has
been approved by the Lower Gwynedd Township Board of Supervisors shall
be subject to the penalties of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning
Code.[1] The Board of Supervisors may also enjoin such transfer
or sale or agreement by injunction in addition to the penalties herein
provided.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 10101
et seq.
