[Adopted as Ch. 6, Art. IV, Div. 2, of the 1990 Code; amended 12-2-2010 by Ord. No. 175]
No streets in a new development shall be approved by the Council as a public way unless the provisions of this Code relating to streets have been complied with and the street is in conformance with a subdivision plan approved by the Planning Board.
Applicants for the acceptance of new streets shall have their engineer locate the exact corners, angles and curves of such street on the ground and on a development plan provided for in this article. Grade and location stakes shall be left undisturbed during construction.
All streets shall be built to the furthest property line of abutting lots, or to the farthest point of a turnaround, or at least 100 feet along the frontage of abutting lots if such lots exceed 100 feet in width.
The development plan required by this article shall be furnished to the City Engineer for his approval before it is recorded and in adequate time for him to check the plan and the locations on the ground.
A. 
No street shall be approved until it has been graded by the developer to its full width and length for which acceptance is requested in conformance with the Subdivision Ordinance.
B. 
The entire area of every such street shall be cleaned of all stumps, roots, bushes, perishable materials and all trees not intended for preservation. All loam and loamy material and clay shall be removed from the limits of the street, inclusive of the sidewalks, to such depth as may be approved by the City Engineer.
C. 
The entire area of the street shall be subgraded by the developer to a subgrade as determined by the City Engineer. The plan and profile will show finish grade. Gravel-base thickness will be determined by the City Engineer, dependent upon ground and soil limitations. In no case will base gravel be less than 24 inches. The developer is to perform the rough grading to within one inch of subgrade. The developer shall also provide land, if necessary, for cut or fill slopes beyond the limits of the street right-of-way, and such cut and fill shall be rough graded by the developer before lay-out work by the City begins.
D. 
Any underground installation, including any sewer, drain or water line on such street, shall be constructed before any base gravel or pavement material is placed thereon. The developer shall make adequate provision for the disposal of surface water in the form of culverts, ditches and catch basins in any places where the grading of the street to subgrade may obstruct the natural drainage of the area. If unusual groundwater conditions or a high water table exists, underdrains may be required. Underdrains in a development, if deemed necessary by the City Engineer, will be installed by the developer to meet the specifications of the City Engineer. The Guideline of Good Practice for Utility Locations in Urban Public Ways, as revised, should be followed wherever feasible.
E. 
After the sewerage system has been installed by the Sanitary District and the water mains installed by the Water District, the roadway shall be fine graded by the developer to the grade shown on the plan. The roadway shall be graded with a gravel base of at least 21 inches and a surface cover of at least three inches of good binding gravel or crushed stone, exclusive of any gravel deposited by the developer for temporary use during construction in the development.
F. 
The sidewalks shall be graded with 24 inches of good binding gravel.
G. 
The developer shall be responsible for the entire cost of constructing and finishing the street. All construction shall be in accordance with specifications contained in this article, including the following:
(1) 
The developer shall submit to the City Engineer's office all grades for approval.
(2) 
The developer shall be responsible for establishing stakeout and grading control.
(3) 
The developer shall subgrade the proposed street to two feet below finish grade. If a groundwater problem is encountered, the City Engineer retains the right to require underdrain.
(4) 
The gravel shall be in accordance with the latest State Department of Transportation specifications for aggregate base and subbase.
(5) 
Gravel shall be placed by one of the following methods:
(a) 
Upon approval of subgrade, place 16 inches of six-inch minus gravel, and wait until the next construction season for natural compaction. Maintenance during this time, as required for traffic and erosion protection, shall be the developer's responsibility. Complete roadways, with adequate mechanical compaction of each lift.
(b) 
Upon approval of subgrade, place 16 inches of six-inch minus gravel and immediately compact with an adequate vibratory machine and complete roadway as in Subsection G(5)(a).
(6) 
The paving shall consist of an approved bituminous plant mix in two layers. The total thickness shall be three inches. The base course shall be two inches and the finish course shall be one inch. No paving will be permitted upon frozen surfaces or at temperatures less than 40° F.
(7) 
Curbing shall be a seven-inch bituminous curbing placed prior to the finish paving.
(8) 
Sidewalks, where required, shall be 2 1/2 inches thick, consisting of a two-inch base and one-half-inch wearing surface.
(9) 
The City Engineer shall be responsible for the inspection of all work.
H. 
All new City streets will be of bituminous concrete surface with a two-inch base course, a one-inch finish course, six-inch hot top asbestos asphalt concrete curbs, and a one- to one-and-one-half-inch sidewalk surface. The one-inch finish course will be placed at such time as mutually agreed by the developer and City Engineer dependent upon development construction and base condition. Liability for repairs to sidewalk or finished street damaged during construction shall be borne by the holder of the building permit.
I. 
All utility poles shall be located on the private property side of the sidewalk, and in the utility easement wherever one is available. Whenever feasible, utilities shall be placed underground.
A. 
Applicants for the acceptance of new streets must file a plan and profile of such street, showing the street lines and elevations of all existing buildings, the lots as laid out on the street, together with the names of all owners of abutting property. Such plan shall be filed with the City Engineer, who will set or approve the grade and designate or approve the design of such street. Copies of the plans shall be furnished to all utilities.
B. 
The application shall include an agreement in writing by the petitioners, who must include the owners of at least 2/3 of the frontage on both sides of the portion of the street sought to be accepted, to pay their proportional share of the cost of the street, in accordance with City ordinances.
Upon the receipt of plans for the development of new streets, together with a petition for their approval, accompanied by a satisfactory agreement executed by the petitioners to protect the City from all damages, including the cost of litigation which may be caused by changes in line or grade, the ordinary procedure for the acceptance of new streets as provided in this article will apply.
Generally, development plans of new streets will not be approved if the lots have a frontage of less than:
A. 
where there is public water and sewer: 100 feet and a depth of less than 100 feet.
B. 
where there is only public water or sewer: less than 100 feet of frontage and a depth of 200 feet.
C. 
where there is no public water or sewer: 125 feet of frontage and 240 feet of depth .
Prior to the acceptance of a new street, the right-of-way shall be approved by the City and a deed to the land shall be filed with the City Engineer. The requirements of the Subdivision Ordinance shall be followed. Presenting of and recording of a deed shall not constitute acceptance of a street or acceptance of dedication of a street.
A. 
After a street has been accepted by the City in accordance with the provisions of this article, anyone proposing to build on such street shall obtain the street line and grade from the City Engineer before starting construction; and if not built to conform with the grade of such street, he must sign a release relieving the City from all damages due to nonconformance. The building permit shall carry the grade of the house and the grade of the street.
B. 
On unaccepted streets, street line and proposed grades may be obtained from the City Engineer. Anyone failing to do so and who builds in such a way as will not conform with the approved line and grade of such street when accepted by the City will be unable to collect any damages from the City due to change of grade at time of acceptance or any time thereafter.
C. 
When a street is reconstructed, there shall be no City work grading onto private property, unless agreement is reached with the property owners.
In applying for the acceptance of a new street, the applicants shall agree in writing to furnish the City with solid, nondeformed steel rods of sufficient height and a diameter of five-eighths inch. The applicant shall, within 30 days after the street is finished, install the steel rods at all points of curvature and tangency, angle points and street intersections. The applicant shall also furnish the survey for locating the right-of-way monuments.
No person shall transfer, sell, agree to sell or negotiate for the sale of any land by reference to or exhibition of or by other use of a plot or subdivision of land into three or more lots until such plan has been approved by the Planning Board and recorded in the Kennebec Registry of Deeds, and no application of a developer for street, sidewalk or sewer construction shall be entertained until such approval and recording has been completed.
In a subdivision in which underground utilities are to be provided by the developer, prior to the acceptance of the street it will be necessary that easements with a right-of-way width to be determined by the City Engineer shall be provided, but in no case be more than 10 feet as required by the Subdivision Ordinance. It shall be the responsibility of the developer to provide and install poles for streetlights at each intersection and at intervals of not less than 300 feet; the type of pole shall be approved by the City Engineer. The poles shall become the property of the Central Maine Power Company.
A public notice shall be published in the Kennebec Journal for three days no more than seven days prior to the first reading of acceptance of a street. Cost of the notice shall be paid in advance by the developer.
A. 
From and after the effective date of the ordinance from which this section derives, the City Council shall no longer accept petitions for new streets except as set out in Subsection B of this section, and the obligations of the City with respect to economic participation in the development of new streets, as determined by this article, shall be suspended, with the same effect as if this article were repealed.
B. 
Developers of new streets may petition for new street construction during the effective period of this section; provided, however, that the developers' share of the cost of finishing the street as referred to in § 241-17G shall be determined by the City Council at the time of submission of the petition, and shall be equivalent to the City's actual total cost of finishing the street.
C. 
The rates shown on Diagram 1, Typical Street Cross Sections, Augusta, Maine, are specifically suspended during the effective period of this section.
D. 
This section shall not take effect as to any streets which are the subject of accepted street petitions, except that in those cases where payment of 1/2 of the developers' share has been deferred under § 241-17G, payment of the deferred portion must be made within one year of the date of payment of the first installment, and demand for such payment within such time period is hereby made in compliance with § 241-17G.
E. 
After the lapse of the one-year period referred to in Subsection D of this section, the rates shown in Diagram 1, Typical Street Cross Sections, Augusta, Maine, shall no longer apply to said streets and it shall thereafter be mandatory for the developer to pay for the full cost of completing the street surfacing at the actual cost as determined by the City Council.
F. 
This section is specifically intended to take precedence over any and all provisions of the Code of Ordinances that are inconsistent herewith and adopted prior hereto. All other provisions of the Code regarding procedures and requirements for laying out and developing streets in the City shall be unaffected hereby.
G. 
This section shall become null and void at such time as the petition drive, currently being undertaken pursuant to state law for the purpose of requiring a referendum to establish a mandatory limit on taxes and expenditures, fails to achieve the required signatures, or at such time as a referendum held pursuant to the petition drive results in a defeat of the amendment proposed pursuant to the referendum. At such time as this section becomes null and void, all of the provisions of the Code of Ordinances inconsistent herewith shall be reinstated with full force and effect.