This chapter shall be known and cited as the "City of Nanticoke
Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance."
The City of Nanticoke is empowered to regulate subdivisions
and land developments within its municipal limits as provided for
under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act 247, as amended.
The Planning Commission is hereby designated by the City Council to
exercise the authority for the approval or disapproval of all subdivision
and land development as set forth in this chapter, as provided for
under § 501 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning
Code, Act 247, as amended.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 10501.
Through the adoption, administration and enforcement of this
chapter, the City of Nanticoke proposes to create conditions favorable
to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the City with
regulations aimed at achieving the following objectives:
A.
To guide the future growth and development of the City in accordance
with the Comprehensive Plan.
B.
To provide a standard set of minimum regulations to guide subdividers,
developers, architects, landscape architects, land planners, surveyors
and engineers in the design and development of subdivisions and land
developments.
C.
To provide for adequate light, air and privacy, to secure safety
from fire, flood and other danger, and to prevent overcrowding of
the land and undue congestion of population.
D.
To protect and conserve the value of land throughout the City and
the value of buildings and improvements upon the land, and to minimize
the conflicts among the uses of land and buildings.
E.
To ensure that public facilities are available and will have a sufficient
capacity to serve a proposed subdivision or land development.
F.
To establish reasonable standards of design and procedures for subdivisions
and resubdivision in order to further the orderly layout and use of
land and to ensure proper legal descriptions and monumentation of
proposed subdivisions.
G.
To guide public and private policy and action in order to provide
adequate and efficient transportation, water, electrical service and
other utilities, sewage, schools, parks, playgrounds, recreation and
other public requirements and facilities.
H.
To provide the most beneficial relationship between the uses of land
and buildings and the circulation of traffic throughout the City having
particular regard to the avoidance of congestion in the streets and
highways and the pedestrian traffic movements appropriate to the various
uses of land and buildings, and to provide for the proper location
and width of streets and building lines.
I.
To provide for open spaces through the most efficient design and layout of the land, including the use of average density in providing for minimum width and area of lots, while preserving the density of land as established in Chapter 500, Zoning.
J.
To prevent the pollution of air, streams and ponds; to assure the
adequacy of drainage facilities; to safeguard the water table; and
to encourage the prudent use and management of natural resources throughout
the City in order to preserve the integrity and stability of the community
and the natural environmental characteristic of the land.
K.
To protect and regulate land in critical areas which may be unsuitable
for development.
A.
No subdivision or land development of any lot, tract or parcel of
land shall be made, and no street, sanitary sewer, water main, gas,
oil or electric transmission line, or other facilities 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 regulations adopted
herein.
B.
No lot in a proposed subdivision or land development may be sold
and no zoning permit to erect any building upon land in a subdivision
or land development may be issued unless and until the following conditions
are met:
(1)
The plans and application have been granted final approval by the
Planning Commission.
(2)
The final plan, as approved, is filed with the Luzerne County Recorder
of Deeds.
(3)
All required improvements as set forth in the grant of approval have
been constructed or until the applicant posts a form of financial
security, acceptable to the Planning Commission, which guarantees
that all required improvements shall be subsequently constructed within
a defined period of time.
From the time an application for approval of a subdivision or land development, whether preliminary or final, is duly filed in accordance with the provisions of this chapter and while such application is pending approval or disapproval, no amendment to this chapter, to Chapter 500, Zoning, or any other applicable ordinance, shall affect the decision on such application adversely to the applicant, and the applicant shall be entitled to a decision in accordance with the provisions of all applicable ordinances as they stood at the time the application was duly filed. When an application is, however, properly and finally denied, any subsequent application shall be subject to any amendments to this chapter, to Chapter 500, Zoning, and any other applicable ordinance and/or regulations.
A.
When an application for approval of a subdivision or land development, whether preliminary or final, has been approved, no subsequent amendment to this chapter, to Chapter 500, Zoning, or any other applicable ordinance shall be applied to adversely affect the right of the applicant to commence and to complete any aspect of the approved development in accordance with the terms of such approval within five years from such approval. If final approval is preceded by preliminary approval, the five-year period shall be counted from the date of the preliminary approval. In the case of any doubt as to the terms of a preliminary approval, the terms shall be construed in the light of the provisions of the governing ordinances or plans as they stood at the time when the application for such approval was duly filed.
B.
Where the applicant has substantially completed the required improvements
as depicted upon the final plat within the aforesaid five-year limit,
or any extension thereof as may be granted by the Planning Commission,
no change of municipal ordinance or plan enacted subsequent to the
date of filing of the preliminary plat shall modify or revoke any
aspect of the approved final plat pertaining to zoning classification
or density, lot, building, street or utility location.
A.
In the case of a preliminary plat calling for the installation of
improvements beyond the five-year period, a schedule shall be filed
by the landowner with the preliminary plat delineating all proposed
sections as well as deadlines within which applications for final
plat approval of each section are intended to be filed. Such schedule
shall be updated annually by the applicant on or before the anniversary
of the preliminary plat approval until final plat approval of the
final section has been granted, and any modification in the aforesaid
schedule shall be subject to approval of the Planning Commission in
its discretion.
B.
Each section in any residential subdivision or land development, except for the last section, shall contain a minimum of 25% of the total number of dwelling units as depicted on the preliminary plan, unless a lesser percentage is approved by the Planning Commission in its discretion. Provided that the landowner has not defaulted with regard to or violated any of the conditions of the preliminary plat approval, including compliance with the landowner's aforesaid schedule of submission of final plats for the various sections, then the protections afforded by substantially completing the improvements depicted upon the final plat within five years, as contained in this § 455-7, shall apply, and for any section or sections beyond the initial section in which the required improvements have not been substantially completed within said five-year period, the aforesaid protections shall apply for an additional term or terms of three years from the date of final plat approval for each section.
C.
Failure of landowner to adhere to the aforesaid schedule of final
plats for the various sections shall subject any such section to any
and all changes in zoning, subdivision and other governing ordinance
enacted by the City subsequent to the date of the initial preliminary
plan submission.
A revision or resubdivision of a plan of record shall be considered
as a new subdivision and shall come under the jurisdiction of this
chapter.
A.
In the interpretation and application, the provisions of this chapter
shall be held to be the minimum requirements for the promotion of
the public health, safety and general welfare. When provisions, standards
and specifications of this chapter differ from those of any other
ordinance, statute or regulation, the more restrictive or higher standards
shall apply.
B.
The provisions of this chapter are not intended to abrogate any private
easement, covenant or any other restriction of record, provided that,
where the provisions of this chapter are more restrictive or impose
higher standards or regulations than such easement, covenant or other
restriction, the applicable provisions of this chapter shall govern.
A.
If any provision of this chapter is shown by the applicant or his
engineer or land surveyor to be unreasonable of application due to
exceptional topographic or other physical conditions or where strict
compliance with any requirement of this chapter would cause practical
difficulty or exceptional or undue hardship not of his making or when
an alternative standard can be demonstrated to provide equal or better
results, the Planning Commission may grant a modification to the literal
requirements of such provision, provided that such modification is
the minimum modification required to grant relief. Granting such modification
shall not be contrary to the public interest, and the intent of this
chapter shall be observed.
B.
Any request for a modification shall be submitted in writing and
shall accompany and be deemed part of the plan, preliminary or final,
as the case may be. Such request shall state in full the circumstances
and facts of unreasonableness and hardship on which the request is
based, the provisions or requirements of this chapter in question,
and the exact modifications requested.
C.
All proposals for modification of provisions or requirements of this
chapter shall require approval by the Planning Commission.
D.
Upon rendering a final decision for any proposed modification, the
Planning Commission shall provide a record of its action within the
minutes of its meeting.
A.
Municipal fees. The City Council shall establish, by resolution,
a fee schedule for subdivision and land development applications.
B.
County fees. The applicant shall also be required to submit all required
fees for review and comment by the Luzerne County Planning Commission.
C.
Filing date and payment of fees. A completed application and plans
for any proposed subdivision or land development shall not be considered
as filed until all fees are paid and all applications are properly
signed.
A.
Any person, partnership or corporation who or which has violated
the provisions of this chapter shall, upon being found liable therefor
under civil enforcement proceedings commenced by the City, pay a judgment
of not more than $500 plus all court costs, including reasonable attorney's
fees incurred by the City as a result of such proceedings. No judgment
shall be commenced or be imposed, levied or payable until the date
of the determination of a violation by the Magisterial District Judge.
If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the
City may enforce the judgment pursuant to the applicable rules of
civil procedure. Each day that a violation continues shall constitute
a separate violation, unless the Magisterial District Judge determining
that there has been a violation further determines that there was
a good faith basis for the person, partnership or corporation violating
this chapter to have believed that there was no such violation. Under
such circumstances, there shall be deemed to have been only one such
violation until the fifth day following the date of the termination
of a violation by the Magisterial District Judge, and thereafter each
day that a violation continues shall constitute a separate violation.
B.
The Court of Common Pleas, upon petition, may grant an order of stay,
upon cause shown, tolling the per-diem judgment pending a final adjudication
of the violation and judgment. Nothing contained within this section
shall be construed or interpreted to grant any person or entity other
than the City the right to commence action for enforcement pursuant
to this section.
C.
In addition to other remedies, the City may institute and maintain
appropriate actions by law or equity to restrain, correct or abate
violations, to prevent unlawful construction, to recover damages and
to prevent illegal occupancy of a building, structure or premises.
The description by metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer
or other documents used in the process of selling or transferring
shall not exempt the seller or transferor from such penalties or from
the remedies herein provided.
D.
The City may refuse to issue any permit or grant any approval necessary
to further improve or develop any real property which has been developed
or which has resulted from a subdivision of real property in violation
of this chapter. The authority to deny such a permit or approval shall
apply to any of the following applicants:
(1)
The owner of record at the time of such violation.
(2)
The vendee or lessee of the owner of record at the time of such violation
without regard as to whether such vendee or lessee had actual or constructive
knowledge of the violation.
(3)
The current owner of record who acquired the property subsequent
to the time of violation without regard as to whether the current
owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the violation.
(4)
The vendee or lessee of the current owner of record who acquired
the property subsequent to the time of violation without regard as
to whether such vendee or lessee had actual or constructive knowledge
of the violation.
The regulations set forth in this chapter may, from time to
time, be amended by the City Council. The following requirements shall
be observed prior to enacting any amendments to this chapter:
A.
A public hearing on the proposed amendment shall be held by the City
Council pursuant to public notice.
B.
In the case of an amendment other than that prepared by the Planning
Commission, the City Council shall submit such amendment to the Planning
Commission not less than 30 days prior to the public hearing.
C.
The proposed amendment shall be submitted to the Luzerne County Planning
Commission not less than 30 days prior to the public hearing.
D.
The proposed amendment shall not be enacted unless public notice
is given which shall include the time and place of the meeting at
which passage will be considered and a reference to a place within
the City where copies of the proposed amendment may be examined without
charge or obtained for a charge not greater than the cost of reproduction.
E.
Public notice of the proposed amendment shall include the full text
thereof or the title and a brief summary, prepared by the Municipal
Solicitor, setting forth all the provisions in reasonable detail.
If the full text is not provided, a copy shall be supplied to the
newspaper in which the public notice is placed and an attested copy
shall be placed on file at the Luzerne County Law Library.
F.
Within 30 days following the adoption of an amendment to this chapter,
the City Council shall forward a certified copy of the amendment to
the Luzerne County Planning Commission.
Decisions rendered by the Planning Commission may be appealed
to a court of proper jurisdiction in accordance with the procedures,
provisions and time limitations as contained in Article X-A of the
Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act 247, as amended.
