A.
General requirements.
(1)
The subdivision plat shall conform to the Master Plan or such part thereof as shall have been prepared and adopted by the Board. Particular attention shall be given, among other things, to major street locations and widths; to topography in the layout of local streets to facilitate access, surface drainage and sewage disposal; to lot sizes and arrangement; and to the specific requirements below.
(2)
In acting upon plats, the Board shall require other conditions in the public interest, that the tract shall be adequately drained and that the streets shall be of sufficient width and suitable grade and suitably located to accommodate the prospective traffic, to provide access for fire-fighting equipment to buildings and to be coordinated so as to compose a convenient system conforming to the Official Map and to the Master Plan.
(3)
The Board shall further require that all lots shown on the plats shall be adaptable for their intended purpose without danger to health or peril from flood, fire, erosion or other menace.
(4)
The Board shall further require that required improvements shall be adequate to handle all present and probable future development. In addition, the Board may also require that needed parks or playgrounds or other appropriate lands shall be shown on plats in locations and of sizes suitable to their intended uses.
(5)
The subdivider shall observe the following requirements and principles in the design of each subdivision or portion thereof.
B.
Streets.
(1)
All streets and roads which are designed to become part of the major street system of the Borough as shown on the Master Plan or Official Map shall be coterminous with adjoining links in said system and at the same or greater widths.
(2)
The arrangement of streets not shown on the Master Plan or Official Map shall be such as to provide for the appropriate extension of existing streets; provided, however, that minor residential streets shall be so designed as to discourage through traffic.
(3)
Generally, the width of streets, measured from property line to property line, shall be not less than the following: arterial streets, 80 feet; collector streets, 60 feet; minor streets, 50 feet; marginal service streets, 40 feet; and internal roads and alleys shall be of such widths as may be designated by the Board. Subdivisions that adjoin or include existing streets that do not conform to the foregoing widths shall dedicate additional width along either one or both sides of said road; if the subdivision is along one side only, 1/2 the required extra width shall be dedicated.
(4)
Dead-end or cul-de-sac streets shall not in general exceed 400 feet in length and shall be equipped at the closed end with a turnaround roadway with a minimum radius of 45 feet for the outside curb. If a dead-end street is of a temporary nature, a similar turnaround shall be provided and provisions made for future extension of the street and reversion of the excess right-of-way to adjoining properties.
[Amended 10-27-2015 by Ord. No. 2015-12]
(5)
Street intersections shall be as nearly at right angles as is possible and in no case less than 60°.
(6)
Street jogs with center-line offsets of less than 125 feet shall be prohibited.
(7)
A tangent at least 100 feet in length shall be introduced between reverse curves on all streets.
(8)
When connecting street lines deflect from each other at any one point by more than 10° and not more than 45°, they shall be connected by a curve with a radius of not less than 100 feet for minor streets and 300 feet for major streets.
(9)
On minor residential streets, clear visibility measured along the center line shall be provided for a distance of at least 100 feet and, on other streets, for such distances as may be stipulated by the Engineer.
(10)
Generally the grades of all streets shall conform to the terrain and shall be not less than 0.6%. On collector and minor streets, grades shall not exceed 8%; on arterial streets, grades shall not exceed 4%.
(11)
All changes in grades shall be connected by vertical curves of sufficient radius to provide a smooth transition and proper sight distance.
(12)
No street shall have a name which will duplicate or so nearly duplicate as to be confused with the names of existing streets. The continuation of an existing street shall have the same name.
C.
Blocks.
(1)
Block lengths generally shall be not less than 400 feet or more than 1,000 feet. If a block exceeds 700 feet in length, the Board may require that a public path at least 10 feet wide, paved with a walk at least four feet wide, shall be provided at a convenient place to extend across the width of the block.
(2)
Normally, no block shall be less than 250 feet in width, and each block shall be planned to provide two rows of lots and such utility easements as may be required, but irregularly shaped blocks indented by cul-de-sac streets will be acceptable when properly designed for access and drainage and when covered by agreements as to the maintenance of any interior open spaces intended for common use.
(3)
Generally, easements for utilities, if provided, shall have a minimum width of 15 feet.
D.
Lots.
(1)
Lot dimensions and area shall be not less than the requirements of this chapter.
(a)
No major subdivision showing lots smaller than 25,000 square feet shall be approved if not accessible to sanitary sewers, unless served with public water supply and the subdivider or his agents enter into agreement with the Mayor and Council to make the necessary sewer connection or to provide other sewage disposal facilities approved by the New Jersey Department of Health. Under no circumstances shall the Board approve a subdivision providing lots with less than the following:
[1]
For an industrial area or for an integrated retail shopping center, individual plots shall have a minimum frontage of 800 feet.
(b)
Residential lots shall be not less than the following minimum standards. Generally, the depth of residential lots shall be not less than one times nor more than 2.5 times the width of such lots.
(2)
Insofar as is practical, side lot lines shall be at right angles to straight streets and radial to curved streets.
(3)
Each lot must front upon an approved street at least 50 feet in width, except lots fronting on streets described in Subsection B(3) of this section.
(4)
Where extra width has been dedicated for widening of existing streets, lots shall begin at such extra width line, and all setbacks shall be measured from such line.
(5)
Care shall be exercised in the layout of lots at intersections, and corner lots shall be increased in size wherever necessary to ensure that any structure placed thereon can conform to the building lines of both streets.
(6)
Curb radii at street intersections shall be not less than 30 feet, and property line radii shall be not less than 20 feet. However, a diagonal cutoff may be substituted for a rounded property line, provided that visibility, sidewalk width and curb radii are not reduced thereby.
(7)
Double frontage and reverse frontage lots will not, in general, be approved.
(8)
Lot lines shall follow municipal boundary lines rather than cross them.
E.
Service areas and open space.
(1)
Subdivisions abutting arterial streets or state highways shall provide a marginal service road or reverse frontage with a buffer strip for planting, or such other means of separation of through and local traffic as the Board may deem appropriate.
(2)
No subdivision showing buffer strips or reverse strips controlling access to streets shall be approved unless such strips are dedicated or reserved for public use by deed covenants or agreements which subject their control to the Borough under conditions approved by the Board and the Borough Attorney.
(3)
Adequate off-street loading and parking space shall be provided, in accordance with Part 6, Zoning, in connection with all plots designed for business or industrial use. Access to and egress from such off-street loading and parking spaces shall be provided, when deemed necessary by the Board, by separate roadways, each paved to a width of not less than 20 feet. Such off-street loading and parking spaces and access roadways shall be dedicated or reserved for such uses by deed covenants or agreements which subject their control to the Borough under conditions approved by the Board and the Borough Attorney.
(4)
Whenever proposed business or industrial plots are adjacent to a residential area as shown on the Master Plan, buffer strips of land of the width specified in Part 6, Zoning, shall be provided on the business or industrial plot along the entire length of the plot adjoining such residential area. The Board may require that, in the public interest, such buffer strips shall be suitably planted and fenced.
(5)
Land subject to flooding and land deemed by the Board to be uninhabitable shall not be platted for residential occupancy or for such other uses as may increase danger to health, life or property or aggravate the flood hazard. But such land within the plat shall be set aside for such uses as will not be endangered by periodic or occasional inundation or as will not produce unsatisfactory living conditions. When a subdivision is traversed by a watercourse, drainageway, channel or stream, there shall be provided a stormwater easement or drainage right-of-way conforming substantially to the lines of such watercourse and such further width or construction, or both, as will be adequate for the purpose.
F.
Preservation of natural resources.
(1)
Topsoil stripping. Stripping of topsoil for sale or for use on other premises, except as may be incidental to a construction project, shall be prohibited in all districts. Topsoil removed incidental to construction shall be retained and redistributed after construction over the area not occupied by buildings, walks, parking spaces, driveways or other improvements.
(2)
Stream setback requirements. No use, other than an agricultural use of land, otherwise permitted by this chapter shall be established upon land or fill having an elevation lower than the highest elevation of any known floodplain which affects the property; and no building shall be constructed so as to have any floor level less than one foot above the highest elevation of any adjacent known floodplain. Additionally, in residential zones only, no private structure shall be constructed closer than 100 feet to the bank of any stream as determined at normal flow.
(3)
Retention of natural features. Existing natural features, such as trees, brooks, wetlands and wetland transition zones, drainage channels and views, shall be retained. Whenever such features conflict with the proposed use of such property, a retention of the maximum amount of such features consistent with the use of the property shall be required.