The Planning Board, in considering an application for the subdivision of land, shall be guided by the following considerations and standards. The standards shall be considered to be minimum requirements and shall be waived by the Planning Board only under circumstances set forth in Article XV herein.
A.Â
Character of land. Land to be subdivided shall be
of such character that, in the opinion of the Planning Board, it can
be used safely for building purposes without danger to health or fire,
flood or other menace and with a minimum of detrimental effects on
the environment.
B.Â
Conformity to Official Map and Town Comprehensive
Plan. Subdivisions shall conform to the Official Map of the Town and
shall be in harmony with the Town Comprehensive Plan as it is developed
by the Town Planning Board and adopted by the Town Board.
C.Â
Specifications for required improvements. All required
improvements shall be constructed or installed to conform to Town
specifications as available from the Town Engineer.
A.Â
Location, width and construction of streets. Streets
shall be suitably located, of sufficient width and adequately constructed
to accommodate the prospective traffic and to afford satisfactory
access to police, fire-fighting, snow removal or other road maintenance
equipment and shall be coordinated so as to compose a convenient system.
The arrangement of streets shall be such as to cause no undue hardship
to adjoining properties.
B.Â
Widths of right-of-way and street grades. Rights-of-way
of streets shall have a width of at least 50 feet. A greater width,
not exceeding 70 feet, may be required by the Town Planning Board.
The grade of any street shall not exceed 8% nor be less than 1%.
[Amended 1-14-1991 by L.L. No. 9-1991]
C.Â
Relation to topography. Streets shall be logically
related to the topography, and all streets shall be arranged so as
to obtain as many as possible of the building sites at or above the
grades of the streets. Grades of streets shall conform as closely
as possible to the original topography. A combination of steep grades
and sharp curves shall be avoided.
D.Â
Intersections. Cross (four-cornered) street intersections
shall be avoided insofar as possible, except at important traffic
intersections. A distance of at least 150 feet shall be maintained
between the center lines of offset intersections. Within 100 feet
of an intersection, streets shall be approximately at right angles
and grades shall be limited to 1% to 3%.
E.Â
Continuation of streets into adjacent property. The
arrangement of streets shall provide for the continuation of principal
streets between adjacent properties where such continuation is necessary
for convenient movement of traffic, effective fire protection, efficient
provision of utilities and particularly where such continuation is
in accordance with the Town Comprehensive Plan. If the adjacent property
is undeveloped and the street must be a dead-end street temporarily,
the right-of-way and improvements shall be extended to the property
line. A temporary circular turnaround of a minimum of 50 feet in radius
shall be provided on all temporary dead-end streets, with the notation
on the plat that land outside the street right-of-way shall revert
to abutters whenever the street is continued. No driveway access shall
be permitted on such turnaround. The Planning Board may limit temporary
dead-end streets to a length not more than double the permitted length
of permanent dead-end streets.
F.Â
Permanent dead-end streets. Where a street does not
extend to the boundary of the subdivision and its continuation is
not needed for access to adjoining property, it shall be separated
from such boundary by a distance of not less than 100 feet. Reserve
strips of land shall not be left between the end of a proposed street
and an adjacent piece of property. However, the Planning Board may
require the reservation of a twenty-foot-wide easement to accommodate
pedestrian traffic or utilities. A circular turnaround of a minimum
right-of-way radius of 75 feet and pavement radius of 65 feet shall
be provided at the end of a permanent dead-end street. For greater
convenience to traffic and more effective police and fire protection,
permanent dead-end streets shall, in general, be limited in length
to 600 feet.
[Amended 1-14-1991 by L.L. No. 9-1991]
G.Â
Special treatment along major arterial streets. When
a subdivision abuts or contains an existing or proposed major arterial
street, the Planning Board may require marginal access streets, reverse
frontage with screen planting contained in a nonaccess reservation
along the rear property line or such other treatment as may be necessary
for adequate protection of residential properties and to afford separation
of through and local traffic.
H.Â
Intersections with collector or major arterial roads.
Minor or secondary street openings into such roads shall, in general,
be at least 500 feet apart.
All streets shall be named, and such names shall
be subject to the approval of the Planning Board. Names shall be sufficiently
different in sound and in spelling from other street names in the
Town and vicinity so as not to cause confusion. A street which is
a continuation of an existing street shall bear the same name.
Streets and street improvements shall conform
to all applicable Town ordinances and specifications and will be subject
to the inspection and approval of the Town Engineer before consideration
for acceptance by the Town Board.
A.Â
Lot to be buildable. The lot arrangement shall be such that in constructing a building in compliance with Chapter 197, Zoning, there will be no foreseeable difficulties for reasons of topography or other natural conditions in providing access to buildings on such lots from an approved street.
B.Â
Access across a watercourse. Where a watercourse separates
the buildable area of a lot from the street by which it has access,
provision shall be made for installation of a culvert or other structure
of design approved by the Town Planning Board.
C.Â
Side lines. All side lot lines shall be at right angles
to street lines and radial to curved street lines unless a variation
from this rule will give a better street or lot plan.
D.Â
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.
E.Â
Access from major streets. Lots shall not, in general,
derive access exclusively from a major street. Where driveway access
from a major street may be necessary for several adjoining lots, the
Planning Board may require that such lots be served by a combined
private access drive in order to limit possible traffic hazard on
such street.
F.Â
Access from private streets. Access from private streets
shall be deemed acceptable only if such streets are designed and improved
in accordance with these regulations.
G.Â
Monuments and lot corner markers. Permanent monuments
meeting specifications approved by the Town Engineer shall be set
at block corners, points of curves in streets and at intervals of
approximately 500 feet or such other distance as the Town Engineer
may require, and their location shall be shown on the subdivision
plat. Iron pipes shall not be considered permanent monuments for the
purpose of these regulations.
A.Â
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 at least 20 feet in width.
B.Â
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 Town Engineer shall approve the design and size of facility based on anticipated runoff from a twenty-five-year storm under conditions of total potential development permitted by Chapter 197, Zoning, in the watershed.
C.Â
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,
and this study shall be reviewed by the Town 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 twenty-five-year storm, the Planning Board shall notify the
Town Board of such potential condition. In such case, the Planning
Board shall not approve the subdivision until provision has been made
for the improvement of said condition.
D.Â
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 nor for such other uses as may
increase danger to health, life or property or aggravate the flood
hazard, but such land within the plat shall 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.