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.
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.
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 revision or resubdivision of a plan of record shall be considered
as a new subdivision and shall come under the jurisdiction of this
chapter.
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.