No owner of any land in the Township or any other person shall
subdivide any lot, tract or parcel of land, or lay out, construct,
open or dedicate for public use or travel, any street, sanitary sewer,
storm sewer, drainage facilities, or other facilities in connection
therewith, or for the common use of occupants of buildings within
the subdivision or land development, or proceed with land development
or sell lots unless and until final plans of such subdivision or development
have been prepared by a registered professional engineer, or registered
land surveyor (if no improvements are necessary), submitted to and
approved in writing thereon by the Board of Supervisors and recorded
in the office of the County Recorder of Deeds.
[Amended 8-16-1989 by Ord. No. 150]
A. Generally. The Board of Supervisors may from time to time set all
fees by resolution.
B. Engineering and consulting fees.
(1) The owner shall reimburse the Township for reasonable engineering
fees incurred by the Township for services of the Township Engineer
incidental to the examination and other work incidental to the approval
of each subdivision or development, or section thereof, and shall
also pay to the Township reasonable and necessary consultant fees
incurred by the Township for consulting services incidental to the
approval of such plans of each subdivision or development, or section
thereof.
(2) The Township's consultants shall include, but not limited to, the
Township Engineer, the Township Solicitor and any planners or other
consultants hired to review the plans such as traffic engineers, hydrogeologists,
etc.
(3) The engineering and consultant fees required to be reimbursed in Subsection
B(1) hereof shall be promptly reimbursed to the Township by the owner, upon the submission of bills therefor to the owner by the Township from time to time.
(4) To the engineering and consultant fees required to be paid to the
Township by this section, there shall be added the sum of 8%, which
the owner shall pay to the Township as reimbursement to the Township
for the costs incurred by the Township for the collection of such
fees and the disbursement of the same to the Township Engineer and/or
consultant(s).
(5) For the purpose of this section, a lot line change shall be considered
a subdivision and the owner shall be required to reimburse the Township
for the engineering, consulting and administrative fees incurred in
processing the lot line change as well as minor and major subdivisions.
(6) In the event the applicant disputes the amount of any such expense
in connection with the review of a plan, or the inspection of improvements,
the applicant shall, within 10 working days of the date of billing,
notify the Township that such expenses are disputed as unreasonable
or unnecessary. If notice is not received within 10 days, the applicant
shall be deemed to have approved the bills and shall have waived the
right to challenge the bills.
(7) If within 20 days from the date of billing, the Township and the
applicant cannot agree on the amount of expenses which are reasonable
and necessary, then the applicant and Township shall jointly, by mutual
agreement, appoint another professional engineer licensed as such
in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to review said expenses and to
make a determination as to the amount thereof which is reasonable
and necessary.
(8) The professional engineer so appointed shall hear such evidence and
review such documentation as the professional engineer, in his or
her sole opinion, deems necessary, and render a decision within 50
days of the date of billing. The applicant shall be required to pay
the entire amount determined in the decision immediately.
(9) In the event that the Township and the applicant cannot agree upon
the professional engineer to be appointed within 20 days of the date
of billing, then upon application of either party, the President Judge
of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County (or if at the time there
be no President Judge, then the senior active judge then sitting)
shall appoint such engineer; however, shall not appoint an engineer
who has been retained by, or who performed services for, the Township
or the applicant within the preceding five years.
(10)
The fee of the appointed professional engineer for determining
the reasonable and necessary expenses shall be paid by the applicant
if the amount of payment required in the decision is equal to or greater
than the original bill. If the amount of payment required in the decision
is less than the original bill by $1,000 or more, the Township shall
pay the fee of the professional engineer, but otherwise, the Township
and the applicant shall each pay 1/2 of the fee of the appointed professional
engineer.
C. Deposit required. An escrow deposit in an amount required by the
Board shall be required at the time of submission of a completed application
in order to cover engineering, consulting fees and other charges which
will be incurred during review and approval of subdivision and land
development plans. No application shall be deemed complete until the
required deposits are submitted to the Township. The Township shall
not review any application until such deposits are paid.
The number of sketch, preliminary, final, minor subdivision
or land development and lot line change plans, the number of applications,
and the number types of other required materials to be submitted to
the Township by the applicant and to be distributed by the Township
to state and county reviewing agencies may change from time to time
as the requirements of the reviewing agencies change.
[Added 8-16-1989 by Ord.
No. 150]
A. If any mandatory provisions of this chapter are shown by the applicant,
to the satisfaction of the Board of Supervisors, to be unreasonable,
to cause undue hardship, or that an alternate standard can provide
equal or better results, the Board of Supervisors may grant a modification
to that provision. A modification may be granted, provided it will
not be contrary to public interest and the purpose and intent of this
chapter is maintained.
B. All requests for modification shall be in writing and signed by the
applicant. The request shall state the reasons and grounds for why
the provision is unreasonable or the hardship imposed, and shall discuss
the minimum modification necessary.
C. It is not sufficient proof of hardship to show that greater profit
would result if the modification were granted. Furthermore, hardship
complained of cannot be claimed by one who purchases with or without
knowledge of restrictions; it must be from the application of this
chapter; it must be suffered directly by the property in question;
and evidence of a modification granted under similar circumstances
shall not be considered.
D. The Board of Supervisors shall request an advisory opinion on the
modification request from the Township's Planning Commission.
E. In granting modifications, the Board of Supervisors may impose such
conditions as will, in its judgment, secure substantially the objectives
of the standards or requirements so modified.
F. The Township shall keep a written record of all requests for modifications.
G. If a modification is granted, it shall be referenced in the conditions
of approval of the plan, and shall apply only to that plan.
[Added 3-7-1990 by Ord.
No. 152]
A. In addition to other remedies provided for herein, the Township may
institute and maintain appropriate actions at law or in equity to
restrain, correct or abate violations, to prevent unlawful construction,
recover damages and to prevent illegal occupancy of a building, structure
or premises. The description by metes and bounds in the instrument
of transfer or other documents used in the process of selling or transferring
shall not exempt the seller or transferor from such penalties or from
the remedies herein provided.
B. The Township, its Zoning Officer or other officers or officials,
may refuse to issue any permit or grant any approval necessary to
further improve or develop any real property which has been developed
or which has resulted from a subdivision of real property in violation
of any provision of this chapter. This authority to deny any such
permits or approvals shall apply to any of the following applicants:
(1) The owner of record at the time of such violation.
(2) The vendee or lessee of the owner of record at the time of such violation
without regard as to whether such vendee or lessee had actual or constructive
knowledge of the violation.
(3) The current owner of record who acquired title to the property subsequent
to the time of violation without regard as to whether such current
owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the violation.
(4) The vendee or lessee of the current owner of record who acquired
the property subsequent to the time of violation without regard as
to whether such vendee or lessee had actual or constructive knowledge
of the violation.
C. No permit shall be issued, nor shall any approval be granted to any applicant identified in Subsection
B, above, unless such applicant complies with the conditions which would have been applicable to the property at the time the applicant acquired an interest in such real property, unless the Township waives such condition or conditions.
[Added 3-7-1990 by Ord.
No. 152]
A. Any person, partnership or corporation who or which has violated
any of the provisions of this chapter, upon being found liable therefor
in a civil enforcement proceeding commenced by the Township, shall
pay a judgment of not more than $500, plus all court costs, plus reasonable
attorney's fees incurred by the Township as a result thereof. No judgment
shall commence or be imposed, levied or payable until the date of
the determination of a violation by the Magisterial District Judge.
If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the
Township may enforce the judgment pursuant to the applicable rules
of civil procedure. Each day that a violation continues shall constitute
a separate violation, unless the Magisterial District Judge, determining
that there has been a violation, further determines that there was
a good faith basis for the person, partnership or corporation violating
this chapter to have believed that there was no such violation, in
which event, there shall be deemed to have been only one such violation
until the fifth day following the date of the determination of a violation
by the Magisterial District Judge, and thereafter each day that the
violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.
B. The court of common pleas, upon petition of the defendant, may grant
an order of stay upon cause shown, tolling the per diem judgment pending
a final adjudication of the violation and judgment.
C. Nothing contained herein shall be construed or interpreted to grant
to any person or entity, other than the Township, the right to commence
any action for enforcement pursuant to this section.
[Added 9-15-1993 by Ord.
No. 172]
Any property located within Upper Makefield Township which is
designated as open space or is subject to a restriction against further
subdivision, whether by a notation on a subdivision plan and/or restriction
in a deed, shall not be further subdivided, regardless of an intervening
zoning change.