No owner of any land in the Township or any other person shall subdivide any lot, tract or parcel of land, or lay out, construct, open or dedicate for public use or travel, any street, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, drainage facilities, or other facilities in connection therewith, or for the common use of occupants of buildings within the subdivision or land development, or proceed with land development or sell lots unless and until final plans of such subdivision or development have been prepared by a registered professional engineer, or registered land surveyor (if no improvements are necessary), submitted to and approved in writing thereon by the Board of Supervisors and recorded in the office of the County Recorder of Deeds.
A. 
No person shall sell any lot in a subdivision and no permit to erect, alter or repair any building upon land in a subdivision or land development may be issued unless and until the municipal improvements required by the Board of Supervisors in connection therewith have been constructed and completed.
B. 
No person shall occupy any building in a subdivision or land development depending for ingress and egress upon the improvement of any street provided for in this chapter before improvements are fully completed from an existing paved street to and across the front of the lot on which the building is located, and/or to a sufficient depth along the side of the lot to service any driveways or parking spaces.
[Amended 8-16-1989 by Ord. No. 150]
A. 
Generally. The Board of Supervisors may from time to time set all fees by resolution.
B. 
Engineering and consulting fees.
(1) 
The owner shall reimburse the Township for reasonable engineering fees incurred by the Township for services of the Township Engineer incidental to the examination and other work incidental to the approval of each subdivision or development, or section thereof, and shall also pay to the Township reasonable and necessary consultant fees incurred by the Township for consulting services incidental to the approval of such plans of each subdivision or development, or section thereof.
(2) 
The Township's consultants shall include, but not limited to, the Township Engineer, the Township Solicitor and any planners or other consultants hired to review the plans such as traffic engineers, hydrogeologists, etc.
(3) 
The engineering and consultant fees required to be reimbursed in Subsection B(1) hereof shall be promptly reimbursed to the Township by the owner, upon the submission of bills therefor to the owner by the Township from time to time.
(4) 
To the engineering and consultant fees required to be paid to the Township by this section, there shall be added the sum of 8%, which the owner shall pay to the Township as reimbursement to the Township for the costs incurred by the Township for the collection of such fees and the disbursement of the same to the Township Engineer and/or consultant(s).
(5) 
For the purpose of this section, a lot line change shall be considered a subdivision and the owner shall be required to reimburse the Township for the engineering, consulting and administrative fees incurred in processing the lot line change as well as minor and major subdivisions.
(6) 
In the event the applicant disputes the amount of any such expense in connection with the review of a plan, or the inspection of improvements, the applicant shall, within 10 working days of the date of billing, notify the Township that such expenses are disputed as unreasonable or unnecessary. If notice is not received within 10 days, the applicant shall be deemed to have approved the bills and shall have waived the right to challenge the bills.
(7) 
If within 20 days from the date of billing, the Township and the applicant cannot agree on the amount of expenses which are reasonable and necessary, then the applicant and Township shall jointly, by mutual agreement, appoint another professional engineer licensed as such in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to review said expenses and to make a determination as to the amount thereof which is reasonable and necessary.
(8) 
The professional engineer so appointed shall hear such evidence and review such documentation as the professional engineer, in his or her sole opinion, deems necessary, and render a decision within 50 days of the date of billing. The applicant shall be required to pay the entire amount determined in the decision immediately.
(9) 
In the event that the Township and the applicant cannot agree upon the professional engineer to be appointed within 20 days of the date of billing, then upon application of either party, the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County (or if at the time there be no President Judge, then the senior active judge then sitting) shall appoint such engineer; however, shall not appoint an engineer who has been retained by, or who performed services for, the Township or the applicant within the preceding five years.
(10) 
The fee of the appointed professional engineer for determining the reasonable and necessary expenses shall be paid by the applicant if the amount of payment required in the decision is equal to or greater than the original bill. If the amount of payment required in the decision is less than the original bill by $1,000 or more, the Township shall pay the fee of the professional engineer, but otherwise, the Township and the applicant shall each pay 1/2 of the fee of the appointed professional engineer.
C. 
Deposit required. An escrow deposit in an amount required by the Board shall be required at the time of submission of a completed application in order to cover engineering, consulting fees and other charges which will be incurred during review and approval of subdivision and land development plans. No application shall be deemed complete until the required deposits are submitted to the Township. The Township shall not review any application until such deposits are paid.
The number of sketch, preliminary, final, minor subdivision or land development and lot line change plans, the number of applications, and the number types of other required materials to be submitted to the Township by the applicant and to be distributed by the Township to state and county reviewing agencies may change from time to time as the requirements of the reviewing agencies change.
A. 
No person, partnership or corporation, who or which being the owner or agent of the owner of any lot, tract or parcel of land shall lay out, construct, open or dedicate any street, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, water main or other improvement for public use, travel or other purposes, or for the common use of occupants of buildings abutting thereon, or shall sell, transfer, or agree or enter into an agreement to sell any land in a subdivision or land development, whether by reference to or by other use of a plat of such subdivision or land development, or erect any building thereon, unless and until a final plat has been prepared in full compliance with the provisions of this chapter and has been recorded as provided in this chapter.
B. 
The description of metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transferring shall not exempt the seller or transferor from the penalties or from the remedies provided in this chapter.
[Added 8-16-1989 by Ord. No. 150]
A. 
If any mandatory provisions of this chapter are shown by the applicant, to the satisfaction of the Board of Supervisors, to be unreasonable, to cause undue hardship, or that an alternate standard can provide equal or better results, the Board of Supervisors may grant a modification to that provision. A modification may be granted, provided it will not be contrary to public interest and the purpose and intent of this chapter is maintained.
B. 
All requests for modification shall be in writing and signed by the applicant. The request shall state the reasons and grounds for why the provision is unreasonable or the hardship imposed, and shall discuss the minimum modification necessary.
C. 
It is not sufficient proof of hardship to show that greater profit would result if the modification were granted. Furthermore, hardship complained of cannot be claimed by one who purchases with or without knowledge of restrictions; it must be from the application of this chapter; it must be suffered directly by the property in question; and evidence of a modification granted under similar circumstances shall not be considered.
D. 
The Board of Supervisors shall request an advisory opinion on the modification request from the Township's Planning Commission.
E. 
In granting modifications, the Board of Supervisors may impose such conditions as will, in its judgment, secure substantially the objectives of the standards or requirements so modified.
F. 
The Township shall keep a written record of all requests for modifications.
G. 
If a modification is granted, it shall be referenced in the conditions of approval of the plan, and shall apply only to that plan.
[Added 3-7-1990 by Ord. No. 152]
A. 
In addition to other remedies provided for herein, the Township may institute and maintain appropriate actions at law or in equity to restrain, correct or abate violations, to prevent unlawful construction, 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.
B. 
The Township, its Zoning Officer or other officers or officials, 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 of real property in violation of any provision of this chapter. This authority to deny any such permits or approvals shall apply to any of the following applicants:
(1) 
The owner of record at the time of such violation.
(2) 
The vendee or lessee of the owner of record at the time of such violation without regard as to whether such vendee or lessee had actual or constructive knowledge of the violation.
(3) 
The current owner of record who acquired title to the property subsequent to the time of violation without regard as to whether such current owner had actual or constructive knowledge of the violation.
(4) 
The vendee or lessee of the current owner of record who acquired the property subsequent to the time of violation without regard as to whether such vendee or lessee had actual or constructive knowledge of the violation.
C. 
No permit shall be issued, nor shall any approval be granted to any applicant identified in Subsection B, above, unless such applicant complies with the conditions which would have been applicable to the property at the time the applicant acquired an interest in such real property, unless the Township waives such condition or conditions.
[Added 3-7-1990 by Ord. No. 152]
A. 
Any person, partnership or corporation who or which has violated any of the provisions of this chapter, upon being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement proceeding commenced by the Township, shall pay a judgment of not more than $500, plus all court costs, plus reasonable attorney's fees incurred by the Township as a result thereof. No judgment shall commence or be imposed, levied or payable until the date of the determination of a violation by the Magisterial District Judge. If the defendant neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the Township may enforce the judgment pursuant to the applicable rules of civil procedure. Each day that a violation continues shall constitute a separate violation, unless the Magisterial District Judge, determining that there has been a violation, further determines that there was a good faith basis for the person, partnership or corporation violating this chapter to have believed that there was no such violation, in which event, there shall be deemed to have been only one such violation until the fifth day following the date of the determination of a violation by the Magisterial District Judge, and thereafter each day that the violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.
B. 
The court of common pleas, upon petition of the defendant, may grant an order of stay upon cause shown, tolling the per diem judgment pending a final adjudication of the violation and judgment.
C. 
Nothing contained herein shall be construed or interpreted to grant to any person or entity, other than the Township, the right to commence any action for enforcement pursuant to this section.
[Added 9-15-1993 by Ord. No. 172]
Any property located within Upper Makefield Township which is designated as open space or is subject to a restriction against further subdivision, whether by a notation on a subdivision plan and/or restriction in a deed, shall not be further subdivided, regardless of an intervening zoning change.