A.
The Planning Board of the City of Saratoga Springs has been established in accordance with Chapter 21 of the Consolidated Laws, Article 3, Laws of 1926, Chapter 690, amended by laws of 1929, Chapter 605; 1938, Chapter 205; 1944, Chapter 185.
B.
The City Council, by ordinance passed May 17, 1946, did delegate
to the Planning Board the authority to adopt rules and regulations
with respect to procedure before it.
C.
The City Council, in accord with Article 3, Section 32 of the New York State General City Law, authorizes and empowers the City of Saratoga Springs Planning Board to approve preliminary and final subdivision plats. Such authority includes administrative actions of the Planning Board and/or Planning Board Chairperson.
D.
Enforcement of this chapter shall lie with the same officer charged
with the duty of enforcing the City's Zoning Ordinance.
A.
This chapter is adopted for the following purposes:
(1)
To protect and provide for the public health, safety, and general
welfare of the residents of the City of Saratoga Springs, hereinafter
referred to as the "City".
(2)
To guide the future growth and development of the City of Saratoga
Springs in accordance with the City's Comprehensive Plan.
(3)
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.
(4)
To protect the character and the social and economic stability of
all parts of the City of Saratoga Springs and to encourage the orderly
and beneficial development of the community through appropriate growth
management techniques assuring the timing and sequencing of development,
promotion of infill development in existing neighborhoods and nonresidential
areas with adequate public facilities, to assure proper urban form
and open space separation of urban areas, to protect environmentally
critical areas and areas premature for urban development.
(5)
To protect and conserve the value of land throughout the City of
Saratoga Springs and the value of buildings and improvements upon
the land, and to minimize the conflicts among the uses of land and
buildings.
(6)
To guide public and private policy and action in order to provide
adequate and efficient transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks,
playgrounds, recreation, and other public requirements and facilities.
(7)
To provide the most beneficial relationship between the uses of land
and buildings and the circulation of traffic throughout the City of
Saratoga Springs, 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.
(8)
To establish reasonable standards of design and procedures for subdivisions
and re-subdivisions in order to further the orderly layout and use
of land, and to ensure proper legal descriptions and "monumenting"
of subdivided land.
(9)
To ensure that public services are available concurrent with development
and will have a sufficient capacity to serve the proposed subdivision
and that the City will be required to bear no more than its fair share
of the cost of providing the facilities and services through requiring
the developer to pay fees, furnish land, or establish mitigation measures
to ensure that the development provides its fair share of capital
facilities needs generated by the development.
(10)
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 wise use and management of natural resources
throughout the City of Saratoga Springs in order to preserve the integrity,
stability, and beauty of the City and the value of the land.
(11)
To preserve the natural beauty and topography of the City of
Saratoga Springs and to ensure appropriate development with regard
to these natural features.
(12)
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
development as established in the zoning ordinance of the City of
Saratoga Springs.
(13)
To ensure that land is subdivided only when subdivision is necessary
to provide for uses of land for which market demand exists and which
area in the public interest.
(14)
To remedy the problems associated with inappropriately subdivided
lands, including premature subdivision, excess subdivision, partial
or incomplete subdivision, scattered and low-grade subdivision.
B.
It is declared to be the policy of the City of Saratoga Springs to
consider land subdivision plats as part of a plan for the orderly,
efficient and economical development of the City. This shall be interpreted
to include the following objectives, which will guide the Planning
Board's decisions.
(1)
Land to be subdivided shall be of such character that it can be used
safely for building purposes without danger to health or peril from
fire, flood or other menace.
(2)
Proper provision shall be made for water supply, sewerage, drainage
and other needed public improvements and utilities.
(3)
Proposed streets shall compose a convenient system conforming to
the City's Comprehensive Plan, and/or Official Map as they may
be adopted.
(4)
Streets shall be of such width, grade and location as to accommodate
present and prospective traffic.
(5)
All development shall be so situated on the lot to assure that there
is provision for adequate light and air for occupants.
(6)
All development shall facilitate adequate fire protection and provide
access for firefighting equipment.
(7)
Open space for parks and playgrounds shall be shown on the subdivision
plat where appropriate.
(8)
In case any of this chapter shall conflict or be inconsistent with
any provision of the General City Law, the relevant provisions of
the General City Law shall apply.
This chapter shall be known and cited as "the Subdivision Regulations
of the City of Saratoga Springs, New York," or may be referred to
as "Saratoga Springs Subdivision Regulations."
For the purpose of this chapter, the following words and terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
A way or means to provide physical entrance to a property
or physical element of the landscape.
A service road with one-way or two-way traffic providing
a secondary means of public access to abutting property and not intended
for general traffic circulation.
The owner, or purchaser under contract, of land proposed
for subdivision or his representative. Consent shall be required from
the legal owner of the premises.
A professional licensed by the State of New York to perform
design of improvements and retained by the applicant.
The Planning Board of the City of Saratoga Springs as established
in accord with the codes of the City of Saratoga Springs or any person
authorized by the Planning Board to act as its representative.
An area of dimensional separation between land uses, buildings,
or structures, which is undeveloped, with installed screening and/or
undisturbed and left in a natural condition.
Means the City of Saratoga Springs, or other entity or person
authorized to act as the official representative by law for the function
referred to.
A licensed professional engineer, either employee or consultant,
who shall perform the duties of the City Engineer for purposes of
this chapter.
A development design technique that concentrates buildings
and structures on a limited area of a parcel to allow the remaining
parcel area to be permanently left as open space.
The presently elected Commissioner of Public Safety of the
City or his designee. The Commissioner heads the Department of Public
Safety.
The presently elected Commissioner of Public Works of the
City or his designee. The Commissioner heads the City's Department
of Public Works.
The document adopted by the City Council containing policies
for the general development of the City, which indicates the general
location for physical growth of the community, together with any and
all amendments thereto.
A perpetual restriction on the use of land, created in accordance
with the provisions of Article 49, Title 3 of the Environmental Conservation
Law or § 247 of the General Municipal Law, for the purposes
of conservation of open space, agricultural land, and natural, cultural,
historic, and scenic resources.
A pattern of development that places housing units on those
portions of a property most suitable for development, while leaving
substantial portions as undeveloped open space. Such subdivisions
may include a variety of lot sizes, ranging from large farms or estate
lots to lots similar in size to those found in hamlet or village settings.
As used in the conservation subdivisions, land classified
as wetlands, watercourses, one-hundred-year floodplains, and slopes
over 25% (2,000 square feet or more) of contiguous sloped area.
Refers to clearing, grading, paving, utility and miscellaneous
construction in public rights-of-way or easements as shown on the
subdivision plat plan and the commencement of excavation for or the
building of any structure, including accessory structures and subsurface
utility systems, or the commencement of moving or alteration of any
structure. This does not refer to privately owned construction covered
by building permits.
The drawings showing location, profile and size of sewers,
drains, water mains, roads and streets, and other details of construction.
The number of families, individuals, dwelling units, households,
or housing structures per unit of land.
An agreement between the City and the developer through which
the City agrees to vest development use or intensity or refrain from
interfering with subsequent phases or development through new legislation
in exchange for provision of public facilities or amenities by the
developer in excess of those required under current community regulations.
Such agreements shall include "inclusionary housing agreements," etc.
The construction, reconstruction, conversion, structural,
alteration, relocation, or enlargement of any structure; any land
disturbance; and any use or extension of the use of the land; the
division of a parcel of land into two or more lots.
Lots with more than one lot line abutting existing or proposed
streets.
A preliminary description for public review and comment and
prepared in accord with the NYS State Environmental Quality Review
Act (SEQRA) of the effect of a proposed action or development project
on the environment consisting of an inventory of existing environmental
conditions at the project site and what potential impacts may result.
Authorization by an owner for the use, by others for a specific
purpose, of a designated part of his property.
A collection of the responses made to comments received from
the public and involved agencies regarding the content of the DEIS
files in accord with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).
The final map upon which the owner's plan of subdivision
is presented to the Board for approval, and which, if approved shall
be submitted to the County Clerk for recording. The final plat is
submitted as part of the final submission.
The signing of the plat in final form by a duly authorized
officer of the Board pursuant to a Board decision granting final approval
to the plat, or after conditions specified in a decision granting
conditional approval of the plat are completed. Such final approval
qualifies the plat for recording in the Office of the Saratoga County
Clerk.
Refers to the complete process of reviewing a final submission
and issuing a final plat approval or disapproval by the Board.
Refers to the final plat and all other documents the subdivider
is required to submit for final review of a subdivision by the Board.
Monetary backing provided by the owner, from a bank or financial
institution, which guarantees the City that a specific amount of money
will be kept available for the completion of subdivision construction.
Said financial security is to be drawn on only by the City.
A lot with narrow frontage and narrow lot width at the front
portion of the lot and widening or wider lot width to the rear portion
of the lot.
Techniques utilized by the City to guide the rate, amount,
location, timing, and type of development.
Regulations in the zoning ordinance focused on the provision
of housing units affordable to individuals and families of specified
income ranges.
Construction activity including clearing, grading, excavating,
soil disturbance or placement of fill that results in land disturbance
of equal or greater than one acre, or activities disturbing less than
one acre of total land area that is part of a larger common plan of
development or sale, even though multiple separate and distinct land
development activities may take place at different times on different
schedules.
As it relates to subdivisions, a parcel or portion of land
separated from other parcel or portions by description on a subdivision
map, survey map or by metes and bounds, for purpose, whether immediate
or future, of sale, lease or separate use.
A properly surveyed and recorded line bounding a lot that
divides one lot from another lot or from a public or private street
or any other public or private parcel.
The resetting of lot line of a lot and not resulting in any
additional lots.
A method of describing the boundaries of land by directions
and distances from a known point of reference.
A nonsubstantive change to an approved plat that does not
result in nonconformities with the prior approval or zoning ordinance.
A dwelling unit used initially for display purposes, which
typifies the type of units that will be constructed in the subdivision.
Such dwelling units may be erected, at the discretion of the Board
as set forth in Appendix G, § 2S.
A boundary or survey marker.
An area of the City with characteristics that distinguish
it from other areas of the City. These include, but are not limited
to, distinct architectural characteristics, historical destinations,
unique features of physical design, schools or social clubs, or boundaries
as defined by built physical barriers such as roadways or natural
features such as waterways or unique concentrations of flora or fauna.
A subdivision whose intended use is other than residential,
such as commercial or industrial. Such subdivision shall comply with
the applicable provisions of this chapter.
A map established by the City Council of Saratoga Springs
under § 26 of the General City Law, showing the streets,
highways and parks theretofore laid out, adopted and established by
law and all changes or additions thereto made under the provisions
of the General City Law § 29.
Land subject to a one-percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year as specified in the City Code Chapter 120, Flood Damage Prevention.
A road that provides for the movement of vehicles in a single
direction.
A temporary storage area for a motor vehicle that is located
on a street and outside of the travel lane.
Any person, group of persons, firm or firms, corporation
or corporations, or any other legal entity having legal title to,
sufficient proprietary interest in, or under option to the land sought
to be subdivided under this chapter.
A tract of land, designated and used by the public for active
and/or passive recreation.
An obligation in writing, under seal, issued by a surety
company, satisfactory to the City, binding the obligator to pay a
sum of money to the City if the obligor fails to satisfactorily install
and/or maintain improvements as required under § 33 of the
General City Law, including escrow agreement and other similar collateral
or surety agreements.
Any construction begun prior to approval of a subdivision
or issuance of a building permit. Excavation for site investigations,
and customary agricultural activity are to be exempt.
The approval of the layout of a proposed subdivision as set
forth in a preliminary subdivision plat but subject to the approval
of the plat in a final form in accordance with the provisions set
forth in these subdivision regulations.
A drawing showing the salient features of a proposed subdivision
submitted to the Board for its consideration prior to submission of
the final plat. The preliminary plat is submitted as part of the preliminary
submission.
A function relating to the health, safety and welfare of
the general population.
A closely regulated private enterprise with an exclusive
franchise for providing a public service deemed necessary for the
public health, safety and welfare.
Telephone, electric and cable television lines, poles, equipment
and structures; water or gas pipes, mains, valves or structures; sewer
pipes, valves or structures; pumping stations; telephone exchanges
and repeater stations; and all other facilities, equipment and structures
necessary for conducting a service by a government or a public utility.
A strip of land acquired by reservation, dedication, forced
dedication, prescription or condemnation and intended to be occupied
by a road, crosswalk, railroad, electric transmission lines, oil or
gas pipeline, water line, sanitary sewer, storm sewer and other similar
uses.
See "street."
Refers to the portion of a street which is designated for
vehicle use.
A vehicular way that may be existing or shown on a plat that
may incorporate the elements of a street except for curbs, gutters
and sidewalks and exists within areas with a low intensity of development.
A method of visually shielding or obscuring one abutting
or nearby structure or use from another by fencing, walls, berms,
or densely planted vegetation.
The State Environmental Quality Review Act of New York State
as defined in 6 NYCRR 617.
A concept, informal map of a proposed subdivision or planned
unit development site plan of sufficient accuracy to be used for the
purpose of discussion and classification.
A vehicular way that may be existing or shown on a plat that
may incorporate the elements of a street except for curbs, gutters
and sidewalks and exists within areas with a low intensity of development
where natural features of the environment are highly prevalent or
designed in a manner to have minimal impact to the natural features
of the landscape and width of pavement is minimal.
A permit under the New York State Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (SPDES) issued to developers of construction activities to
regulate disturbance of one or more acres of land.
A watercourse having a source and a terminus, banks and channel
through which water flows at least periodically.
A way for vehicular traffic, whether designated as a street,
arterial, highway, thoroughfare, parkway, thruway, road, avenue, boulevard,
land, cul-de-sac, place or however otherwise designated, including
the entire area within the right-of-way, which is an existing maintained
state, county or City roadway, or a street or way shown upon a plat
heretofore approved by official action and includes the land between
the street lines whether improved or unimproved and may comprise pavements,
shoulders, gutters, curbs, sidewalks, parking areas and other areas
within the street lines. For purposes of this chapter, streets shall
be classified by the City's Engineering Standards and are described
in Appendix H.
The division of a lot, tract, or parcel of land into two
or more lots.
The process of precisely ascertaining the area dimensions
of a piece of land and conducted by an individual licensed by the
New York State Department of Education. This process may also involve
ascertaining the precise location of naturally occurring or built
features, and topography.
All land that is not constrained land.
A room or group of rooms providing complete housekeeping
facilities for one household.
A road that provides land access and traffic circulation
within residential neighborhoods. Urban local streets are typically
narrow in width when compared to an urban street with parking on one
side. Urban local streets also carry traffic to urban streets and
have lower traffic volumes.
A road that provides land access and traffic circulation
within residential neighborhoods and commercial and industrial areas.
Urban streets are wider in width with parking on two sides. Urban
streets also carry traffic from local streets to the arterial system.
Urban streets generally carry more than 1,000 vehicle trips per day.
Class A Type refers to developable land generally devoid
of wetlands, drainage courses, steep slopes, etc. Class B Type refers
to land not suitable generally for development except for passive
open space.
Any stream, pond, lake, drainage channel, or other area of
land that is normally filled with water. Boundaries of a watercourse
shall be measured at the high-water mark.
An area of land that is characterized by hydrophytic vegetation,
saturated soils, or periodic inundation, which is classified as a
wetland or by either the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Board established in accord with the codes of the City
of Saratoga Springs.
The adopted current law of the City, together with any and
all amendments thereto that provides a delineation of districts and
the establishment of regulations governing the use, placement, spacing;
and size of lots, structures, and buildings.[2]
