In considering applications for subdivision of land, the Planning Board shall be guided by the standards set forth hereinafter. Said standards shall be considered to be minimum requirements and shall be waived by the Board only under circumstances set forth in Article V herein.
A.
Character of land. 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.
B.
Conformity to Comprehensive Plan and Official Map. Subdivisions
shall be in harmony with the Comprehensive Plan of the village and shall conform
to the Official Map, if such exists.
C.
Specifications for required improvements. All required
improvements shall be constructed or installed to conform to the village specifications,
which may be obtained from the Village Engineer.
Specific requirements in regards to street layout and design can be
found in the Village of Scotia street specifications. In addition, the following
standards shall also be required whenever new streets are being constructed
as part of a subdivision.
A.
Width, location and construction. Streets shall be of
sufficient width, suitably located and adequately constructed to conform with
the Comprehensive Plan, the street specifications and the Official Map, if
such exists, and to accommodate the prospective traffic and afford access
for fire-fighting, snow removal and other road maintenance equipment. The
arrangement of streets shall be such as to cause no undue hardship to adjoining
properties and shall be coordinated so as to compose a convenient system.
B.
Arrangement. The arrangement of streets in the subdivision
shall provide for the continuation of principal streets of adjoining subdivisions
and for proper projection of collector streets into adjoining properties which
are not yet subdivided, in order to make possible necessary fire protection,
movement of traffic and the construction or extension, presently or when later
required, of needed utilities and public services such as sewers, water and
drainage facilities. Where, in the opinion of the Planning Board, topographic
or other conditions make such continuance undesirable or impracticable, the
above conditions may be modified.
C.
Minor streets. Minor streets shall be so laid out that
their use by through traffic will be discouraged.
D.
Special treatment along major arterial streets. When
a subdivision abuts or contains an existing or proposed major arterial street,
the Board may require marginal access streets, reverse frontage with screen
planting contained in a nonaccess reservation along the rear property line,
deep lots with rear service alleys or such other treatment as may be necessary
for adequate protection of residential properties and to afford separation
of through and local traffic.
E.
Provision for future resubdivision. Where a tract is
subdivided into lots substantially larger than the minimum size required in
the zoning district in which a subdivision is located, the Board may require
that streets and lots be laid out so as to permit future resubdivision in
accordance with the requirements contained in this chapter.
F.
Intersections with collector or major arterial roads.
Minor or secondary street openings into such roads shall, in general, be at
least five hundred (500) feet apart.
G.
Street jogs. Street jogs with center-line offsets of
less than one hundred twenty-five (125) feet shall be avoided.
H.
Relation to topography. The street plan of a proposed
subdivision shall bear a logical relationship to the topography of the property,
and all streets shall be arranged so as to obtain as many of the building
sites as possible at or above the grade of the streets. Grades of streets
shall conform as closely as possible to the original topography.
I.
Fire hydrants. Installation of fire hydrants shall be
in conformity with all requirements of standard thread and nut as specified
by the New York Fire Insurance Rating Organization and the Division of Fire
Safety of the State of New York.
J.
Streetlighting facilities. Lighting facilities shall
be in conformance with the lighting system of the village. Such lighting standards
and fixtures shall be installed after approval by the appropriate power company
and the authorized village electrical inspector.
K.
Watercourses. Where a subdivision is traversed by a watercourse,
drainageway, channel or stream, there shall be provided a stormwater easement
or drainage right-of-way as required by the Village Engineer, and in no case
less than twenty (20) feet in width.
L.
Service streets or loading space in commercial development.
Paved rear service streets of not less than twenty (20) feet in width or,
in lieu thereof, adequate off-street loading space, suitably surfaced, shall
be provided in connection with lots designed for commercial use.
A.
Type of name. All street names shown on a preliminary
plat or subdivision plat shall be approved by the Planning Board. In general,
streets shall have names and not numbers or letters.
B.
Names to be substantially different. Proposed street
names shall be substantially different so as not to be confused in sound or
spelling with present names except that streets that join or are in alignment
with streets of an abutting or neighboring property shall bear the same name.
Generally, no street should change direction by more than ninety degrees (90°)
without a change in street name.
A.
Lots to be buildable. The lot arrangement shall be such that, in constructing a building in compliance with the Chapter 250, Zoning, there will be no foreseeable difficulties for reasons of topography or other natural conditions. Lots should not be of such depth as to encourage the later creation of a second building lot at the front or rear. Furthermore, any private streets to be used for access to buildable lots shall conform to the village street specifications.
B.
Side lines. All side lines of lots shall be at right
angles to straight street lines and radial to curved street lines, unless
a variance from this rule will give a better street or lot plan.
C.
Corner lots. In general, corner lots should be larger
than interior lots to provide for proper building setback from each street
and provide a desirable building site.
D.
Driveway access. Driveway grades between the street and
the setback line shall not exceed ten percent (10%).
E.
Access from private streets. Access from private streets
shall be deemed acceptable only if such streets are designed and improved
in accordance with this chapter.
F.
Monuments and lot corner markers. Permanent monuments
meeting specifications of the village street specifications as to size, type
and installation shall be set at such block corners, angle points, points
of curves in streets and other points as the Village Engineer may require,
and their location shall be shown on the subdivision plat.
A.
Stormwater runoff. Stormwater runoff must comply with
state and local stormwater management laws and regulations.[1]
[Amended 11-8-2006 by L.L. No. 8-2006]
B.
Removal of spring and surface water. The subdivider may
be required by the Planning Board to carry away by pipe or open ditch any
spring or surface water that may exist either previous to or as a result of
the subdivision. Such drainage facilities shall be located in the street right-of-way,
where feasible, or in perpetual unobstructed easements of appropriate width.
C.
Drainage structure to accommodate potential development upstream. A culvert or other drainage facility shall, in each case, be large enough to accommodate potential runoff from its entire upstream drainage area, whether inside or outside the subdivision. The Village Engineer shall approve the design and size of facility based on anticipated runoff from a ten-year storm under conditions of total potential development permitted by Chapter 250, Zoning, in the watershed.
D.
Responsibility from drainage downstream. The subdivider's
engineer shall also study the effect of each subdivision on the existing downstream
drainage facilities outside the area of the subdivision; this study shall
be reviewed by the Village Engineer. Where it is anticipated that the additional
runoff incident to the development of the subdivision will overload an existing
downstream drainage facility during a ten-year storm, the Planning Board shall
not approve the subdivision until provision has been made for the improvement
of said condition.
E.
Land subject to flooding. Land subject to flooding or
land deemed by the Planning Board to be uninhabitable shall not be platted
for residential occupancy, or for such other uses as may increase danger to
health, life or property, or aggravate the flood hazard, but such land within
the plat may be set aside for such uses as shall not be endangered by periodic
or occasional inundation or improved in a manner satisfactory to the Planning
Board to remedy said hazardous conditions.[2]
A.
Recreation areas shown on Comprehensive Plan or Official Map. Where a proposed park, playground or open space shown on the Comprehensive Plan or Official Map, if such exists, is located in whole or in part in a subdivision, the Planning Board shall require that such area or areas be shown on the plat in accordance with the requirements specified in Subsection B below. Such area or areas may be dedicated to the village by the subdivider if the Board of Trustees approves such dedication. Recreation land may also be dedicated to the county, provided that the County Legislature approves such dedication.
B.
Dedications of land for recreation or open space purposes.
(1)
The Planning Board may require that the plat show sites
of a character, extent and location suitable for the development of a park,
playground or other recreation purpose. The Board may require that the developer
satisfactorily grade any such recreation areas shown on the plat.
(2)
In those instances where the Planning Board mandates
the dedication of land for recreational purposes, the Board shall require
that not less than five-tenths (0.5) acre of recreation space be provided
per ten (10) dwelling units shown on the plat. However, in no case shall the
amount be more than ten percent (10%) of the total area of the subdivision.
Such area or areas may be dedicated to the village or county by the subdivider
if the Board of Trustees or County Legislature, respectively, approves such
dedication. Appropriate legal measures should be taken to assure that such
land can never be developed for other than recreational purposes.
C.
Corridor parks, linear parks and greenbelts. In instances
where the potential exists for linear or beltway-type parks along streams
and other natural features, the Planning Board may require land, or money
in lieu of land, for the development of parks, open space and/or easements
along such features. In this manner, there is a greater probability of interconnecting
parks, thereby allowing for a more comprehensive and accessible recreation
network.
D.
Information to be submitted. In the event that an area
to be used for a park or playground is required to be so shown, the subdivider
shall submit, prior to final approval, to the Planning Board three (3) prints
drawn in ink showing, at a scale of not less than thirty (30) feet to the
inch, such area and the following features thereof:
(1)
The boundaries of the said area, giving lengths and bearings
of all straight lines, radii, central angles and tangent distances of all
curves.
(2)
Existing features such as brooks, ponds, clusters of
trees, rock outcrops and structures.
(3)
Existing and, if applicable, proposed changes in grade
and contours of the said area and of the area immediately adjacent.
E.
Waiver of plat designation for park and playground areas.
(1)
In cases where the Planning Board finds that due to the
size, topography or location of the subdivision, land for park, playground
or other recreation purposes cannot be properly located therein, or if, in
the opinion of the Board, it is not desirable, the Board may waive the requirement
that the plat show land for such purposes. The Board shall then, as a condition
to approval of the plat, assess a recreation fee on a per-lot basis, the amount
to be based upon the most recent version of the consolidated fee schedule
of the Village of Scotia.[1]
(2)
Such amount shall be paid to the Board of Trustees at
the time of final plat approval, and no plat shall be signed by the authorized
officer of the Planning Board until such payment is made. All such payments
shall be held by the Board of Trustees in a special Village Recreation Site
Acquisition and Improvement Fund to be used for the acquisition of land that
is suitable for permanent park, playground or other recreational purposes
and that is so located that it will serve primarily the general neighborhood
in which the land covered by the plat lies and shall be used only for park,
playground or other recreational land acquisition or improvements. Such money
may also be used for the physical improvement of existing parks or recreation
areas serving the general neighborhood in which the land shown on the plat
is situated, provided that the Planning Board finds there is a need for such
improvements.
F.
Reserve strips prohibited. Reserve strips of land, which
might be used to control access from the proposed subdivision to any neighboring
property, or to any land within the subdivision itself shall be prohibited.
G.
Preservation of natural features. The Planning Board
shall, whenever possible, establish the preservation of all natural features
which add value to residential developments and to the community, such as
large trees or clusters of trees, watercourses and falls, shoreline areas,
historic spots, vistas and similar irreplaceable assets. No tree with a diameter
of ten (10) inches or more as measured three (3) feet above the base of the
trunk shall be removed unless such tree is within the right-of-way of a street
as shown on the final subdivision plat or unless such tree is located within
the proposed building footprint or within an area where it would be impractical
or prohibitively expensive to build a new residence or other structure on
a lot without removing such tree or trees.
