[Ord. 00030, 7/11/2005, § 101]
This chapter shall be known as the "Akron Borough Subdivision
and Land Development Ordinance."
[Ord. 00030, 7/11/2005, § 102; as amended by Ord.
00077, 4/14/2014, § 1]
1. These regulations are adopted for the following purposes:
A. To protect and provide for the public health, safety, and general
welfare of the Borough of Akron.
B. To guide the future growth and development of the Borough of Akron,
in accordance with the Comprehensive Plan of the Borough of Akron.
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 the character and social and economic stability of the
Borough of Akron and to encourage the orderly and beneficial development
of the Borough of Akron.
E. To protect and conserve the value of land throughout the Borough
of Akron, and the value of buildings and improvements upon the land
and to minimize the conflicts among the uses of land and buildings.
F. To guide public and private policy and action in order to provide
adequate and efficient transportation, water supply, sewerage, stormwater
management, schools, parks, playgrounds, recreation, and other public
requirements and facilities.
G. To provide the most beneficial relationship between the uses of land
and buildings and the circulation of traffic within the Borough of
Akron, 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.
H. To establish reasonable standards of design and procedures for subdivision
and resubdivisions, in order to further the orderly layout and use
of land; and to insure proper legal descriptions and monumenting of
subdivided land.
I. To insure that public facilities are available and will have a sufficient
capacity to serve the proposed subdivision.
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 wise use and management of natural resources in order
to preserve the community and value of the land.
K. To preserve the natural beauty and topography of the Borough of Akron
and to ensure appropriate development with regard to these natural
features.
L. To provide for open spaces through efficient design and layout of
the land.
M. To ensure that documents prepared as part of a land ownership transfer
fully and accurately describe the parcel of land being subdivided,
and the new parcels thus created.
N. To provide consistency between this chapter of the Akron Borough Code of Ordinances, the SWMO [Chapter
17] and the SALDO.
[Ord. 00030, 7/11/2005, § 103]
1. Authority of the Akron Borough Council. The Borough Council of Akron
is vested by law with the control of the subdivision of land and land
development within Akron Borough by 53 P.S. § 10101 et seq.,
the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code. The Akron Borough Council
shall retain the authority to take action on all subdivision plans
and land development plans as required herein.
2. Authority of the Akron Borough Planning Commission. The Akron Borough
Planning Commission is hereby designated by the Akron Borough Council
as an agency which shall review and make recommendations on preliminary
and final subdivision and land development plans as required herein,
prior to action by the Akron Borough Council, and when provided by
ordinance, make other recommendations.
[Ord. 00030, 7/11/2005, § 104]
Land Development and Subdivision Control. Land development,
as herein defined, must comply with the regulations contained herein.
Such compliance shall include, but not be limited to, the filing of
preliminary and final plats, the dedication and improvement of rights-of-way,
streets and roads, and the payment of fees and charges as established
by resolution of the Akron Borough Council. No subdivision, as herein
defined, of any lot, tract or parcel of land shall be effected and
no street, alley, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, water main or other
facilities in connection therewith, shall be laid out, constructed,
opened or dedicated for public use or travel, or for the common use
of occupants of buildings abutting or to abut thereon, except in strict
accordance with the provisions of this chapter. No lot in any subdivision
may be sold, and no permit to erect, alter or repair any building
upon land in a subdivision may be issued and no building may be erected
in a subdivision, unless and until a subdivision plan has been approved
and recorded and until the improvements required by the Akron Borough
Council in connection therewith have either been constructed or guaranteed
as herein provided in § 21-607.
[Ord. 00030, 7/11/2005, § 105]
1. Interpretation. In interpreting and applying the provisions of this
chapter, they shall be held to be the minimum requirements for the
promotion of public health, safety, comfort, convenience, and general
welfare.
2. Conflict with Public and Private Provisions.
A. Public Provisions. Where any provision of this chapter imposes restrictions
different from those imposed by any other provision of this chapter
or any other ordinance, rule, or regulation, or other provision of
law, whichever provisions are more restrictive or impose higher standards
shall be applied.
B. Private Provisions. This chapter is not intended to abrogate any
easement, covenant or any identified floodplain area or other private
or public agreement or restriction, provided that where the provisions
of this chapter are more restrictive or impose higher standards or
regulations than such easement, covenant, or other private or public
agreement or restriction, the requirements of this chapter shall govern.
Where the provisions of the easement, covenant or private or public
agreement or restriction impose duties and obligations more restrictive,
or higher standards than the requirements of these regulations, or
the determinations of the Akron Borough Council in approving a subdivision
or in enforcing this chapter or determinations thereunder, then such
private or public provisions shall be operative and supplemental to
these regulations and determinations made thereunder.
C. Municipal Liability. The grant of a permit or approval of a plan
for any proposed subdivision and/or land development to be located
within the Borough shall not constitute a representation, guarantee,
or warranty of any kind by the Akron Borough or by any official or
employee thereof of the practicability or safety of the proposed use,
and shall create no liability upon the Akron Borough, its officials
or employees.
[Ord. 00030, 7/11/2005, § 106; as amended by Ord.
00077, 4/14/2014, § 2]
1. Modifications shall be processed pursuant to the standards and procedures
of § 512.1 of the Municipalities Planning Code, 53 P.S.
§ 10512.1.
2. All requests for modification shall be in writing and shall accompany
and be part of the application for development. The request shall
state in full the grounds and facts of unreasonableness or hardship
on which the request is based, the provision or provisions of this
chapter involved and the minimum modification necessary. Review fees
and filing fees shall be paid, in advance, as are set from time to
time by resolution of Borough Council.
3. The request for modification shall be referred to the Akron Borough
Planning Commission for advisory comments.
4. The Akron Borough Council shall keep a written record of all action
on all requests for modifications and may impose conditions as part
of the approval.
5. Any modifications of stormwater management regulations shall be processed pursuant to the SWMO [Chapter
17] and applicable rules and regulations of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
[Ord. 00030, 7/11/2005, § 7]
1. In addition to other remedies, the Akron Borough may institute and
maintain appropriate actions by law or in equity to restrain, correct
or abate violations, to prevent unlawful construction, to 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.
2. The Borough of Akron 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
or land development of real property in violation of this chapter.
This authority to deny such a permit or approval shall apply to any
of the following applicants:
A. The owner of record at the time of such violation.
B. The vendee or lessee of the owner of record at the time of such violation
without regards as to whether such vendee or lessee had actual or
constructive knowledge of the violation.
C. The current owner of record who acquired the property subsequent
to the time of violation without regard as to whether such current
owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the violation.
3. As an additional condition for issuance of a permit or the granting
of an approval to any such owner, current owners, vendee or lessee
for the development of any such real property, the Borough of Akron
may require compliance with the conditions that would have been applicable
to the property at the time the applicant acquired an interest in
such real property.