[HISTORY: Adopted by the Planning Board of the Town of Northborough. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A. 
Following a public hearing and within 90 days (if a Form B was filed) or 135 days (if no Form B was filed) of the definitive plan submission, the Planning Board shall approve, modify and approve or disapprove the plan, unless an extension has been requested in writing by the applicant. Such extension of time, if granted, shall be filed by the Board with the Town Clerk.
B. 
Criteria for the Board’s determination shall be the following:
(1) 
Completeness and technical accuracy of all submissions.
(2) 
Determination that development at this location does not entail unwarranted hazard to safety, health and convenience of future residents of the development or of others because of possible natural disasters, traffic hazard or other environmental degradation.
(3) 
Conformity with the design and construction standards of these regulations.
(4) 
Determination, based upon the environmental analysis (where submitted), that the subdivision as designed will not cause substantial and irreversible damage to the environment, which damage could be avoided or ameliorated through an alternative development plan.
(5) 
Conformity with all applicable zoning lot area requirements.
(6) 
Consistency with the purposes of the Subdivision Control Law.
C. 
Approval of the Planning Board in respect to such subdivision plan shall be by majority vote of the Board. If the Board modifies or disapproves such plan, it shall state in its vote the reasons for its action.
D. 
Following such action, the Board will file a certificate of its action with the Town Clerk and will send notice of its action by registered or certified mail to the applicant. A copy of the certificate shall be transmitted by the Board to the Building Inspector.
E. 
Final Planning Board approval shall be endorsed on the original drawing of the definitive plan by the signatures of a majority of the Board, but not until the statutory twenty-day appeal period has elapsed following the filing of the certificate of the action of the Board with the Town Clerk, and said Clerk has notified the Board that no appeal has been filed.
F. 
Following plan approval, endorsement and recording, the applicant shall provide the Planning Board with one Mylar reproducible, five prints of the plans, one copy of final covenants and restrictions, if applicable, noting book, page number and date of recording for each, and one Mylar reproducible and five prints of the street profiles. One copy of the definitive plan shall be transmitted to the Building Inspector by the Board.
G. 
Failure of the subdivider to record the definitive plan within six months of its endorsement, or to comply fully with these regulations, shall constitute reason for the Board to consider rescission of such approval, in accordance with Chapter 10-44 of these rules and regulations.
H. 
Approval of the definitive plan does not constitute the laying out or acceptance by the town of the streets within a subdivision. Requests for street acceptance must be made through the Board of Selectmen and accepted by a majority vote by the Town Meeting.
A. 
Before endorsement of its approval of a definitive plan of a subdivision by the Planning Board, the subdivider shall agree to meet the conditions and to complete the required improvements specified in Chapter 10-40 for all lots in the subdivision within two years of the date of approval unless the subdivider has requested and been granted an extension by the Board.
B. 
Approval with bonds or surety. Before approval of a definitive plan of a subdivision, the subdivider shall either file a performance bond or deposit money or negotiable securities in an amount determined by the Board to be sufficient to cover the cost of all or any part of the improvements specified in Chapter 10-40 or follow the procedure outlined below. Such bond or security, if filed or deposited, shall be approved as to form and manner of execution by the Town Counsel and as to sureties by the Selectmen.
C. 
Approval with covenant. Alternately the subdivider may file a duly executed covenant in such form as the Planning Board requires, which provides that no lot may be built upon or sold until the ways and municipal services necessary to serve adequately such lot have been constructed and installed. Such covenant shall be approved as to form and manner of execution by Town Counsel, and shall be recorded in the Registry of Deeds by the owner of record and shall run with the land, whereby such ways and services as specified in Chapter 10-40 not covered by bond or deposit under Subsection B above shall be provided to any lot before such lot may be built upon or conveyed. Nothing stated herein shall be deemed to prohibit a conveyance by a single deed, subject to such covenant, of either the entire parcel of land shown on the subdivision plan or of all lots not previously released by the Board. A deed of any part of the subdivision in violation hereof shall be voidable by the grantee prior to the release of the covenant but not later than three years from the date of such deed. Any covenant so filed and any conditions required by the Board of Health shall be either inscribed on the plan or contained in a separate document referred to on the plan.
D. 
Approval with a mortgage agreement. Following the recording of a first mortgage covering the premises shown on the plan or a portion thereof given as a security for advances to be made to the subdivider by the lender, the Planning Board may, at its option, release lots from the operation of the covenant given pursuant to Subsection C above without receipt of a bond or deposit of money upon delivery to the Planning Board of an agreement with said Board, which shall be executed by the subdivider and the lender and shall provide for retention by the lender of sufficient funds otherwise due the subdivider to secure the construction of ways and the installation of municipal services. Said agreement shall also provide for a schedule of disbursements which may be made to the applicant upon completion of various steps of the work, and shall further provide that in the event the work is not completed within the time set forth by the subdivider, any funds remaining undisbursed shall be available for completion.
Any such bond may be enforced and any such deposit may be applied by the Board for the benefit of the town, as provided in the Subdivision Control Law, MGL C. 41, § 81Y, upon failure of the performance for which any such bond or deposit was given to the extent of the reasonable cost to the town of completing such construction and installation.