[Amended 4-7-1975 by Ord. No. 837]
There is hereby established in and for the Borough a Planning
Commission. The Commission shall consist of seven members to be appointed
by and to serve at the pleasure of Council. Except for the initial
appointments, which shall be staggered, a member of the Commission
shall be appointed annually for a term of four years or until a successor
is appointed and qualified. An appointment to fill a vacancy shall
be only for the unexpired portion of the term. All members of the
Commission shall be residents of the Borough. Members of the Commission
shall only be removed for cause, by Council, upon written charges
and after a public hearing.
The Planning Commission is hereby authorized to make and alter
rules and regulations for its organization and procedure consistent
with the ordinances of the Borough and the laws of the commonwealth.
The members of the Planning Commission shall serve without compensation
and shall make an annual report to Council of their transactions.
The Planning Commission may employ engineers and other persons,
whose compensation and other necessary expenses of the Commission,
where approved by Council, shall be provided for through proper appropriations
by Council. The Commission may contract for professional planning
services, the costs and expenses of which, when approved by Council,
shall be provided for through proper appropriation by Council.
The Planning Commission shall be entitled to receive copies
of all proposed ordinances of the Borough relating to the location
of any public building in the Borough, to the location, extension,
widening, narrowing, enlargement and ornamentation of any street,
boulevard, parkway, park, playground or other public ground, and to
parking on the same, and to the relocation, vacation and curtailment
of the same, and to a change of use or any other alteration with relation
to any of the same. The Commission shall have the power to disapprove
any of such ordinances relating thereto, which disapproval, however,
must be communicated to Council in writing within 10 days from the
introduction of such ordinances, but such disapproval shall not operate
as a veto of the proposed ordinances.
The Planning Commission may make, or cause to be made, and lay
before Council maps of the Borough, or any portion thereof, showing
the streets and highways and other natural and artificial features,
and may also make or cause to be made, and lay before Council, proposals
by it for any changes toward the general improvement of the Borough
as it may deem advisable. In addition, it may make recommendations
to Council, private corporations and private individuals, from time
to time, concerning any such matter as aforesaid.
All plans, plots or replots of land laid out in building lots,
and all roads and streets or portions of the same located within the
Borough, intended to be dedicated for public use or for the use of
purchasers or owners of lots fronting thereon or adjacent thereto,
shall be submitted to the Planning Commission and approved by it before
they are recorded. No person shall receive or record such a plan in
any public office unless the same bears thereon, by endorsement or
otherwise, the approval of the Commission. The disapproval of any
such plan by the Commission shall be deemed a refusal of the proposed
dedication shown thereon. The approval of the Commission shall be
deemed an acceptance of the proposed dedication shown thereon, but
shall not impose any duty upon the Borough concerning the maintenance
or improvement of any such dedicated parts until the proper authorities
of the Borough have made actual appropriation of the same by entry,
use or improvement. No sewer, water or gas main or pipe or other improvement
shall be voted or made, within the area under the jurisdiction of
the Commission, for the use of such purchasers or owners, nor shall
any permit for connection with or use of any such improvement be given
to any such purchasers or owners, until such plan is so approved.
See Chapter
1, General Provisions, §
1-2, for the general penalty provisions of the Code.