[Ord. 284, 9/11/1985, § 222; as amended by Ord.
348, 6/14/1989, §§ 1, 2; and by Ord. 448, 11/15/2000]
Unless otherwise expressly stated, the following words shall,
for the purpose of this chapter, have the meaning herein indicated:
A landowner or developer, as hereinafter defined, who has
filed an application for development, including his heirs, successors
and assigns.
Every application, whether preliminary or final, required
to be filed and approved prior to start of construction or development,
including but not limited to an application for a building permit,
for the approval of a subdivision plat or plan, or for the approval
of a development plan.
The one-hundred-year flood elevation as indicated on the
Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) as revised for the Township of Lower
Swatara, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, prepared by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, Federal Insurance Administration.
An area bound by streets.
The Board of Commissioners of Lower Swatara Township, Dauphin
County, Pennsylvania.
The line within a property defining the required minimum
distance between any principal or accessory structure and the adjacent
right-of-way and the line defining side and rear yards where required.
That portion of a street or alley which is improved, designated
or intended for vehicular use.
The Chairman of the Lower Swatara Township Planning Commission.
A triangular shaped portion of land established at street
intersections in which nothing is erected, placed, planted or allowed
to grow in such a manner as to limit or obstruct the sight distance
of motorists entering or leaving the intersection. (See Exhibit VI.)[1]
The Lower Swatara Township Planning Commission.
Land amenities, parts of buildings, central services and
utilities and any other elements and facilities owned and used by
all unit owners and are designated as common elements. These elements
may include but are not limited to:
The land on which the building is located and portions of the
building which are not included in a unit.
The foundation, structural parts, supports, main walls, roofs,
basements, halls, corridors, lobbies, stairways and entrances and
exits of the building.
The yards, parking area and driveways.
Portions of the land and building used exclusively for the management,
operation or maintenance of the common elements.
Installations of all central services and utilities.
All other elements of the building necessary or convenient to
its existence, management, operation, maintenance and safety or normally
in common use.
Such other facilities as are designated as common elements.
A parcel or parcels of land or an area of water or a combination
of land and water within a development site and designed and intended
for the use or enjoyment of residents of a development not including
streets, off-street parking areas and areas set aside for public facilities.
Real estate, portions of which are designated for separate
ownership and the remainder of which is designated for common ownership
solely by the owners of those portions. Real estate is not a condominium
unless the undivided interests in the common elements are vested in
the unit owners.
The community association which administers and maintains
the common property and common elements of a condominium.
County of Dauphin, Pennsylvania.
A right-of-way, publicly or privately owned, intended to
furnish access for pedestrians.
A minor street open at one end for vehicular and pedestrian
access with the opposite end terminating in a vehicular turnaround.
A drain, ditch or conduit, not incorporated in a closed system,
that carries drainage water under a driveway, roadway, railroad, pedestrian
walk or public way.
A stone or concrete boundary usually marking the edge of
the roadway or paved area.
The opening along the curb line at which point vehicles may
enter or leave the roadway.
An excavation. The difference between a point on the original
ground and designated point of lower elevation on the final grade.
Also, the material removed in excavation.
Any landowner, agent of such landowner or tenant with the
permission of such landowner who makes or causes to be made a subdivision.
The provisions for development including a planned residential
development, a plat of subdivision, all covenants relating to use,
location and bulk of buildings and other structures, intensity of
use or density of development, streets, ways and parking facilities,
common open space and public facilities. The phrase "provisions of
the development plan" when used in this chapter shall mean the written
and graphic materials referred to in this definition.
Surface water runoff.
The removal of surface water or groundwater from land by drains,
grading or other means which include runoff controls to minimize erosion
and sedimentation during and after construction of development, the
means for preserving the water supply and the prevention or alleviation
of flooding.
Any ditch, gutter, culvert, storm sewer or other structure
designed, intended or constructed for the purpose of diverting surface
waters from or carrying surface waters off streets, public rights-of-way,
parks, recreation areas or any part of any subdivision or contiguous
land areas.
Pipes, swales, natural features and man-made improvements
designed to carry drainage.
A private roadway providing access for vehicles to a parking
space, garage, dwelling or other structure.
A single unit providing complete independent living facilities
for one or more persons including permanent provisions for living,
sleeping, eating, cooking and sanitation.
Any completed building or structure that was designed to
be built partially or wholly underground. A completed building or
structure which was not intended to serve as a substructure or foundation
for a building.
Any structure designed primarily for residential occupancy,
except a mobile home, which is wholly or in substantial part made,
fabricated, formed or assembled in manufacturing facilities for installation
or assembly and installation on the building site in such a manner
that all concealed parts or processes of manufacture cannot be inspected
at the site without disassembly, damage or destruction.
A transportable, single-family dwelling intended for permanent
occupancy contained in one unit or in two or more units designed to
be joined into one integral unit capable of again being separated
for repeated towing which arrives at a site complete and ready for
occupancy except for minor and incidental unpacking and assembly operations
and constructed so that it may be used without a permanent foundation.
A building used by three or more families living independently
of each other and doing their own cooking including apartment houses,
row houses or townhouses.
A dwelling which is designed for and occupied by not more
than one family and surrounded by open space or yards and which is
not attached to any other dwelling by any means, excluding mobile
home dwellings.
A dwelling used by one family, having one side yard and one
party wall common with another dwelling.
A one-family dwelling attached to two or more one-family
dwellings by common vertical walls.
A building used by two families with one dwelling unit arranged
over the other and having two side yards.
A building used by two families with one dwelling unit arranged
over the other, having one side yard and one party wall in common
with another building.
A right-of-way granted for the limited use of land for public
or quasi-public purposes.
A registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania designated
by the Township to perform the duties of engineer as herein specified.
An individual, licensed and registered under laws of the
commonwealth, to engage in the practice of engineering. A professional
engineer may not practice land surveying unless licensed as set forth
in the Engineer, Land Surveyor and Geologist Registration Law, 63
P.S. § 148 et seq.; however, a professional engineer may
perform engineering land surveys.
Surveys for:
The development of any tract of land including the incidental
design of related improvements such as line and grade extension of
roads, sewers and grading but not independent engineering judgment;
provided, however, that tract perimeter surveys shall be the function
of the professional land survey.
The determination of the configuration or contour of the earth's
surface or the position of fixed objects thereon or related thereto
by means of measuring lines and angles and applying the principles
of mathematics, photogrammetry or other measurement methods.
Geodetic or cadastral survey, underground survey and hydrographic
survey.
Sedimentation and erosion control surveys.
The determination of the quantities of materials.
Tests for water percolation in soils.
The preparation of plans and specifications and estimates of
proposed work as described herein.
The engineering specifications of the Township regulating
the installation of any required improvements or for any facility
installed by any owner, subject to public use.
The detachment and movement of soil or rock fragments or
the wearing away of the land surface by water, wind, ice and gravity.
Any act by which earth, sand, gravel, rock or any other similar
material is dug into, cut, quarried, uncovered, removed, displaced,
relocated or bulldozed. It shall include the conditions resulting
therefrom.
The vertical location of the ground surface prior to excavation
or filling.
Any act by which earth, sand, gravel, rock or any other material
is placed, pushed, dumped, pulled, transported or moved to a new location
above the natural surface of the ground or on top of the stripped
surface and shall include the conditions resulting therefrom. The
difference in elevation between a point on the original ground and
a designated point of higher elevation on the final grade. The material
used to make a fill.
The proposed elevation of the land surface of a site after
completion of all site preparation work.
A temporary inundation of normally dry land areas.
A flood that, on the average, is likely to occur once every
100 years (i.e., that as a one-percent chance of occurring each year,
although the flood may occur in any year).
That portion of the floodplain outside the floodway.
The land in the floodplain within a community subject to
a one-percent-or-greater chance of flooding any given year.
An official map of a community issued by the Federal Insurance
Administration.
Any combination of structural and nonstructural additions,
changes or adjustments to proposed and existing structures which reduce
or eliminate flood damage to real estate or improved real property,
water and sanitary facilities, structures and their contents.
The designated area of a floodplain required to carry and
discharge flood waters of a given magnitude. For the purposes of this
chapter, the floodway shall be capable of accommodating a flood of
the one-hundred-year magnitude.
The Board of Commissioners of Lower Swatara Township, Dauphin
County, Pennsylvania.
See definition "existing grade."
See definition "finished grade."
Those floodplain areas specifically designated in Chapter 27, Zoning, as being inundated by the one-hundred-year flood. Included would be areas identified as the Floodway (FW) and the Flood Fringe (FF).
Any man-made, immovable item which becomes part of, placed
upon or is affixed to real estate.
Any of the following activities:
The improvements of one lot or two or more contiguous lots,
tracts or parcels of land for any purpose involving:
A group of two or more residential or nonresidential buildings,
whether proposed initially or cumulatively, or a single nonresidential
building on a lot or lots, regardless of the number of occupants or
tenure; or
The division or allocation of land or space, whether initially
or cumulatively, between or among two or more existing or prospective
occupants by means of, or for the purpose of streets, common areas,
leaseholds, condominiums, building groups or other features.
A subdivision of land.
"Land development" does not include development which involves:
The conversion of an existing single-family detached dwelling
or single family semidetached dwelling into not more than three residential
units, unless such units are intended to be a condominium;
The addition of an accessory building, including farm buildings,
on a lot or lots subordinate to an existing principal building; or
The addition or conversion of buildings or rides within the
confines of an enterprise which would be considered an amusement park.
For the purposes of this subsection, an "amusement park" is defined
as a tract or area used principally as a location for permanent amusement
structures or rides. This exclusion shall not apply to newly acquired
acreage by an amusement park until initial plans for the expanded
area have been approved by the proper authorities.
The legal or beneficial owner or owners of land including
the holder of an option or contract to purchase (whether or not such
option or contract is subject to any condition), a lessee if he is
authorized under the lease to exercise the rights of the landowner
or other person having a proprietary interest in the land.
A designated parcel, tract or area of land established by
a plat or otherwise as permitted by law and to be used, developed
or built upon as a unit.
The area contained within the property lines of a lot as
shown on a subdivision plan excluding space within any rights-of-way,
but including the area of any easement.
An interior lot having frontage on two streets.
A lot extending between, and having frontage on an arterial
street and a minor street, and with vehicular access solely from the
latter.
A legal instrument under which title to real estate is conveyed
and by which a condominium is created and established.
See definition "dwelling, mobile home."
A parcel of land in a mobile home park or mobile home community,
improved with the necessary utility connections and other appurtenances
necessary for the erection thereon of a single mobile home.
A parcel or contiguous parcels of land which has been so
designated and improved that it contains two or more mobile home lots
for the placement thereon of mobile homes.
Municipal Authority of the Township of Lower Swatara.
The Township of Lower Swatara, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
See definition "common open space."
Open space owned by a public agency and maintained by it
for the use and enjoyment of the general public.
Any individual or group of individuals, partnership, copartnership
or corporation.
The Development Policy Plan (Master Plan) and/or Future Land
Use Plan and/or Official Map or other such plans, or portions thereof,
as may be adopted, pursuant to statute, for the area of the Township
in which the subdivision or land development is located.
An informal plan, not necessarily to exact scale, indicating
salient existing features of a tract and its surroundings and the
general layout of a proposed subdivision or land development.
Lower Swatara Township Planning Commission, Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania.
A complete and exact subdivision or land development plan,
prepared for official recording as required by statute, to define
property rights and proposed streets and other improvements.
A tentative subdivision or land development plan, in lesser
detail than a final plan, showing approximate proposed street and
lot layout as a basis for consideration prior to preparation of a
final plan.
The basic purpose for which a building or land area is occupied
or intended to be occupied as opposed to accessory or incidental uses,
usually classifiable as residential, commercial manufacturing or public
in nature.
A legally established right-of-way, other than a public street,
which provides the primary pedestrian and vehicular access to one
or more lots and constructed to the design standards contained in
this chapter.
The profile of the center line of the finished surface of
the street which shall be midway between the sidelines of the street.
Includes:
A formal meeting held pursuant to public notice by the Board
of Commissioners or Planning Commission, intended to inform and obtain
public comment prior to taking action in accordance with this chapter.
Notice published once each week for two successive weeks
in a newspaper of general circulation in the Township of Lower Swatara,
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Such notice shall state the time and
place of the hearing and the particular nature of the matter to be
considered at the hearing. The first publication shall not be more
than 30 days and the second publication shall not be less than seven
days from the date of the hearing.
Any fee, leasehold or other estate or interest in, over or
under land, including structures, fixtures and other improvements
and interests which by custom, usage or law pass with a conveyance
of land though not described in the contract of sale or instrument
of conveyance. Real estate includes parcels with or without upper
or lower boundaries and spaces that may be filled with air or water.
A strip of land adjacent to a street intended to control
access to the street from an adjacent property.
See definition "lot, reverse frontage."
A public thoroughfare for vehicular traffic and/or pedestrian
traffic, whether designated as a street, highway, thoroughfare, parkway,
road, avenue, boulevard, lane, alley or however designated.
The surface water discharge or rate of discharge of a given
watershed after a fall of rain or snow that does not enter the soil
but runs off the surface of the land.
A sanitary sewage collection method in which sewage is carried
from the site by a system of pipes to a central treatment and disposal
plant.
The process by which mineral or organic matter is accumulated
or deposited by wind, water or gravity. Once this matter is deposited
(or remains suspended in water), it is usually referred to as "sediment."
An underground system with a septic tank used for the decomposition
of domestic wastes. Also referred to as an "on-lot system."
A service way providing a secondary means of private access
to abutting property and not intended for general traffic circulation.
See definition "building setback line."
A graphic representation of shadows cast by nature landscaping,
screening and structures plotted with regard to topography, slope
and direction at 9:00 a.m., 12:00 noon and 3:00 p.m. on the date of
the winter solstice.
A paved, surfaced or leveled area, paralleling and usually
separated from the street, used as a pedestrian walkway.
The length of roadway visible to the driver of a passenger
vehicle at any given point on the roadway when the view is unobstructed
by traffic.
The face of an embankment or cut section; any ground whose
surface makes an angle with the plane of the horizon. Slopes are usually
expressed in a percentage based upon vertical difference in feet per
100 feet of horizontal distance.
The chemical or structural treatment of a mass of soil to
increase or maintain its stability or otherwise to improve its engineering
properties.
A property owner' s right to have the sunlight shine on his
land.
[Added by Ord. No. 607, 5/17/2023]
Radiant energy (direct, diffuse or reflected) received from
the sun at wavelengths suitable for conversion into thermal, chemical
or electrical energy.
Any device, structure or part of a device or structure which
is used primarily to transform solar energy into thermal, chemical
or electrical energy, including any space or structural component
specifically designed to retain heat derived from solar energy.[2]
Any storm drainage technique that retards or detains runoff
such as detention or retention basin parking lot storage, rooftop
storage, porous pavement, dry wells or any combination thereof.
A watercourse having a source and terminus, banks and channel
through which waters flow at least periodically.
A public right-of-way which affords primary vehicular pedestrian
access to abutting properties including street, highway, thoroughfare,
parkway, road, avenue, boulevard, lane, alley or however designated.
The officially established grade of the street upon which
a lot fronts or in its absence the established grade of the other
streets upon which the lot abuts at the midpoint of the frontage of
the lot thereon. If there is no officially established grade, the
existing grade of the street at such midpoint shall be taken as the
street grade.
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ARTERIAL STREET — A major street or highway with fast
or heavy traffic volumes of considerable continuity and use primarily
as a traffic artery for intercommunication among large areas.
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COLLECTOR — A major street or highway which carries traffic
from minor streets to the major system of arterial streets, including
principal entrance streets of a residential, commercial or industrial
development and streets for major circulation within such developments.
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LIMITED ACCESS HIGHWAY — A major street or highway which
carries large volumes of traffic at comparatively high speed with
access at designated points and not from abutting properties.
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A street used primarily for access to abutting properties.
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CUL-DE-SAC — See definition of "cul-de-sac."
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MARGINAL ACCESS STREET — A minor street which is parallel
and adjacent to limited access highways or arterial streets and which
provides access to abutting properties and protection from through
traffic.
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The shortest distance between the lines delineating the right-of-way
of a street.
Any man-made object having an ascertainable stationary location
on or in land or water, whether or not affixed to the land.
The owner or authorized agent of the owner of a lot, tract
or parcel of land to be subdivided for sale or development under the
terms of this chapter.
The division or redivision of a lot, tract or parcel of land
by any means into two or more lots, tracts parcels or other divisions
of land including changes in existing lot lines for the purpose, whether
immediate or future, of lease, partition by the court for distribution
to heirs or devisees, transfers of ownership or building or lot development;
provided, however, that the subdivision by lease of land for agricultural
purposes into parcels of more than 10 acres, not involving any new
street or easement of access or any residential dwelling, shall be
exempted.
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MINOR SUBDIVISION — The subdivisions of a single lot,
tract or parcel of land into six or fewer lots, tracts or parcels
of land, for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of transfer
of ownership or of building development, providing lots, tracts or
parcels of land thereby created have frontage on an improved public
street or streets and providing, further, that there is not created
by the subdivision any new street, street easement, easements of access
or need therefor.
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Where, in the judgment of the Township Engineer, at least
90% (based on the cost of the required improvements for which financial
security was posted) of those improvements required as a condition
for final approval have been completed in accordance with the approved
plan so that the project will be able to be used, occupied or operated
for its intended use.
A plan showing all present and proposed grades and facilities
for stormwater drainage.
An individual licensed and registered under the laws of this
commonwealth to engage in the practice of land surveying. A professional
land surveyor may perform engineering land surveys but may not practice
any other branch of engineering.
A low-lying stretch of land characterized as a depression
used to carry surface water runoff.
A map showing the elevations of the ground by contours or
elevations.
The configuration of a surface area showing relative elevations.
Surface soils and subsurface soils which presumably are fertile
soils and soil material, ordinarily rich in organic matter or humus
debris. Topsoil is usually found in the uppermost soil layer called
the "A horizon."
The Township of Lower Swatara, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania,
Board of Commissioners, its agents or authorized representatives.
Any land, tract or parcel of land which has not been graded
in any other manner prepared for the construction of a building.
A part of the property, structure or building designed or
intended for any type of independent use which has direct exit to
a public street or way or to an easement or right-of-way leading to
a public street or way, and includes a proportionate undivided interest
in the common elements which is assigned to the property, structure
or building.
Any agency which under public franchise or ownership or under
certificate of convenience and necessity provides the public with
electricity, gas, heat, steam, communication, rail transportation,
water, sewage collection or other similar service.
A closely regulated private enterprise with an exclusive franchise
for providing a public service.
An inventory of the source, quantity, yield and use of groundwater
and surface water resources within the Township.
A permanent stream, intermittent stream, river, brook, creek
or a channel or ditch for water, whether natural or man-made.
A device which converts wind energy to mechanical or electrical
energy.
The blades, plus hub to which the blades are attached, that
are used to capture wind for purpose of energy conversion. The wind
rotor is generally used on a pole or tower and, along with other generating
and electrical storage equipment, forms a wind energy system.
[1]
Editor's Note: Exhibit VI is included as an attachment to this chapter.
[2]
Editor's Note: The former definitions of "solar energy system,"
"solar skyspace," and "solar skyspace easement," which immediately
followed, were repealed by Ord. No.
607, 5/17/2023.
