This chapter shall be known and cited as the "Summit Hill Borough
Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance."
Summit Hill Borough 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 Summit Hill Borough Council shall retain and exercise
the authority for the approval or disapproval of all subdivisions
and land developments as set forth in this chapter. The Summit Hill
Borough Planning Commission shall act in an official advisory capacity
to the Borough Council for the review and recommendation of the approval
or disapproval of all subdivisions and land developments set forth
in this chapter.
Through the adoption, administration and enforcement of this
chapter, Summit Hill Borough proposes to create conditions favorable
to promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the Borough
with regulations aimed at achieving the following objectives:
A. To guide the future growth and development of the Borough in accordance
with the Comprehensive Plan.
B. To provide a standard set of minimum regulations to guide applicants
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 Borough
and the value of buildings and improvements upon the land, and to
minimize the conflicts about 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 land developments in order to further the orderly layout and use
of land and to ensure proper legal descriptions and monumentation
of proposed subdivisions and land developments.
G. To guide public and private policy and action in order to provide
adequate and efficient transportation, water, 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 Borough,
with 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 and preserving the density of land as established in Chapter
475, 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 Borough 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, an amendment to this chapter, Chapter
475, Zoning, or any other applicable ordinance shall not 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, Chapter
475, Zoning, and any other applicable ordinance and/or regulations.
A revision or resubdivision of a plan of record and/or lot 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 Summit Hill Borough 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 Borough
Council pursuant to public notice.
B. In the case of an amendment other than that prepared by the Planning
Commission, the Borough 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 Carbon County Planning
Commission not less 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 municipality where copies of the proposed amendment may be examined
without charge or obtained for a charge not greater that 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
of the amendment shall be placed on file in Carbon County.
F. Within 30 days following the adoption of an amendment to this chapter,
the Borough Council shall forward a certified copy of the amendment
to the Carbon County Planning Commission.
Decisions rendered by the Borough Council 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.