Everything outlined in red is a single parcel.
Scrapping and rewriting the sudivision regulations was one of the areas where the new planning director and I had differing opinions. A few quotes from a technical report to the town's codes and ordinances committee:
(The following is public information, and not post-employment criticism of a specific municipality in New York state.)
"The Townâs subdivision code doesnât distinguish between a minor or major subdivision. All plats need Planning Board approval, although the Town Engineer is empowered to approve some simple subdivision actions. Internally, subdivision names include the number of lots involved, but not necessarily created; a â2 lot subdivisionâ, â3 lot subdivisionâ, and so on. This is not standard practice elsewhere."
"To paraphrase Randall Arendt ... the Townâs current subdivision code emphasizes the fragmentation of land, not the creation of proper neighborhoods of homes and relationships, protection of working lands and sensitive environmental features, and preservation of rural and natural landscapes. The original authors of the Townâs subdivision code were writing it for what was an almost exclusively rural community in the 1950s. The Town didnât stay that way for long, but the subdivision code didnât keep up with the changes. The code now undermines efforts to implement many aspects of contemporary best planning practice, and many placemaking goals in the Comprehensive Plan."
On code organization:
"The subdivision codeâs outline scheme is difficult to navigate. Section numbers have little or no relation to specific topics. The many layers of chapters, articles, sections, and subsections make it difficult for users to find and cite regulations or processes. The relationship between different rules and processes affecting a project can be unclear."
On flag lots:
"... Occasionally, flag lots are stacked behind each other, with two or three âflag polesâ next to each other.
Most subdivision codes only allow flag lots for rare situations, usually when thereâs a physical barrier making it impossible to create a more normal lot pattern. However, the Townâs subdivision code allows flag lots anywhere and for any reason.
Subdividers in the Town of
cough often use flag lots as a cost saving measure, so they donât have to build any new roads or other improvements. However, this passes on the cost of building and maintaining long private driveways and utility lines to the homeowner.
Flag lots result in houses (and residents) that lack a strong relationship to the street and the rest of the neighborhood, isolating them physically from their neighbors. Those living on flag lots are at the total mercy of their neighbors for preserving views or quiet enjoyment of their land.
Houses on flag lots can be difficult for both casual visitors and first responders to find. It increases postal and parcel delivery route distance. A flag lot subdivision on a large lot limits future road access to neighboring lots, and undermines creation of a porous street network. Closely spaced driveways â often lined with tall fences or shrubs that block views of oncoming traffic â can be a traffic hazard."
On frontage subdivision:
"Frontage subdivision (also called strip subdivision) consists of residential lots along existing collector and arterial roads, usually in rural areas. Itâs the result of incremental, piecemeal lot splitting from much larger parent lots, with no long-term planning. Itâs a common phenomenon in the Town of
cough, and many other rural-urban fringe communities in upstate New York.
As with flag lots, some landowners use frontage subdivision to avoid building new roads. The town, county, or state unintentionally subsidizes frontage subdivision, because taxpayers paid to build the road that the lots sit on.
Frontage subdivision undermines the rural character that
cough and its residents value highly, and otherwise want to
preserve. With the sight of house after house along a road in an outlying area, a streetscape loses its character and sense of place, and becomes something thatâs not quite rural, and yet not quite suburban either. Frontage subdivision removes the greater publicâs ability to enjoy the landscape, in favor of those who live along the road.
Often, the people who live on frontage lots will resist future development on the land behind their backyards, because itâll block a view they feel belongs to them.
Frontage subdivision also fragments farm land, natural habitat, and wildlife migration corridors. Over time, the remnant parcel of successive frontage subdivision becomes a flag lot of its own making, with access limited to increasingly narrower narrow strips between roadside lots.
Multiple driveways along rural roads result in frequent vehicle turning movements, causing congestion and increased risk of accidents.
Farmers often justify frontage subdivision as something that helps maintain their income during a lean year. However, programs like County-designated, New York State Certified Agricultural Districts (and its favorable tax treatment), were originally intended to help stabilize farmersâ incomes and reduce the need for subdivision to generate income."
On piecemeal subdivision and inefficiency:
"The Townâs subdivision regulations donât control the size and shape of lots, except to say that lot area, width, depth, and orientation must be âappropriate,â and meet zoning code minimum lot size and dimension requirements.
Land division in the Town often takes place on a piecemeal basis, with no planning for efficient land use or future subdivision. Many of the new parcels resulting from lot splits are much larger than the minimum lot size under zoning, but have a configuration or shape that prevents later subdivision.
Piecemeal lots also need longer roads and utility lines to serve them â with drop length limits imposed by the internet and television utility often coming as a surprise during subsequent home construction â increasing the cost of maintenance compared to a more efficient lot pattern."
On street layout:
"The subdivision code has few regulations about street layout, except limiting block length to 1,500â (about 460 meters) and cul-se-sacs to 1,000â (about 300 meters), unless the Planning Board âdetermines necessary.â One of the many discretionary rules in the subdivision code states:
The lengths, widths, and shapes of blocks shall be determined with due regard to the provision of building sites suitable to the special needs of the type of uses contemplated, zoning requirements as to lot sizes and dimensions, need for convenient access, circulation, control and safety of highway traffic, solar access and the limitations and opportunities of topography.
The code is silent on connectivity, aside from a requirement that âThe arrangement of streets in the subdivision shall provide for the continuation of the principal streets in adjoining subdivisions or for their proper projection when adjoining property is not subdivided.â (Thereâs no definition for a âprincipal street,â however.) Otherwise, thereâs no language that requires connection to neighboring subdivisions, or a street pattern with provisions for future connectivity."
On street construction:
"Most cities, towns, and villages in New York have official street, sidewalk, and infrastructure design and construction. specifications. The Town of
cough is an exception. Aside from requiring that public roads be paved, and able to accommodate and support the weight of emergency vehicles, there are no official road or sidewalk construction specifications. The Public Works Department has one ârecommendedâ road profile, for a rural context road with shoulders and ditches. The profile has no options for sidewalks, curbs, or tree lawns, and itâs not binding.
Engineering and design specifications for new roads are usually negotiated on a case-by-case basis. The Town is also an outlier in not requiring subdividers to guarantee new roads for a time after theyâre dedicated to the Town.
Most subdivision codes set minimum construction standards for private roads; usually that they must meet the same standards as public roads. The Townâs subdivision code has no requirements for private roads, except a policy that they can accommodate and support the weight of emergency vehicles. The result has been private roads that deteriorate after a few years, or which have a gravel surface despite carrying hundreds of vehicles per day."
On premature subdivision:
"The subdivision code allows platting and recording subdivisions, with no guarantee that any improvements â roads, utilities, stormwater facilities, and the like â will ultimately be built. For final subdivisions, the Planning Board now imposes a standard condition that the Town wonât issue building permits on any lots until roads and utilities are in place. Because any recorded tax parcel can feasibly be bought and sold, the Town is exposed to the many problems of a âpaper subdivisionâ with unfinished or defective improvements.
The subdivision code also has a provision to void any subdivision if no improvements are made within 10 years of approval. Itâs possible for a subdivider to make improvements very slowly to preserve vesting and keep a plat âliveâ for years.
The Town required financial guarantees for some subdivision projects, referring to state law, but itâs not a part of local law as in most other cities, towns, and villages in New York."
On illegal subdivision:
"There have been many cases where someone hires a land surveyor to create a survey and records it as a subdivision plat with the
cough County Clerk; sometimes by lack of awareness of a municipal review process, and sometimes to deliberately subvert the municipal review process. There are no provisions in the subdivision code to invalidate or this kind of platting action, or block building permits for an illegally platted subdivision"
On vesting:
"Vesting standards â the timeframe that a subdivision approval is valid, and the conditions to make it permanent â now vary wildly from common practice. They lock in preliminary and final plat approvals for much longer timeframes than state law (and most communities in New York) require, and keep moribund proposals active for years. This can also cause problems if there is a rush of preliminary subdivision applications, following current regulations, before the Town adopts new planning regulations."
On red tape:
"The subdivision code offers one platting process in the Town; the formal number-lot subdivision. All subdivisions, whether theyâre conventional or cluster, or create 50 new lots or one, require formal preliminary and final plat approval by the Planning Board.
The subdivision code also lacks formal, separate major subdivision and minor subdivision processes. Instead, there are two unofficial levels of review: a combined preliminary/final plat for smaller subdivisions, and separate preliminary and final plats for larger projects. Staff discretion determines what projects see combined or separate review.
The code is also silent on lot line adjustment, lot consolidation, or subdivision and road vacation. The Town Engineer reviews and approves some lot line adjustments that staff considers âminor.â The Planning Board reviews others as a two-lot subdivision and lot consolidation â instead of moving the lot line, it splits one lot into two, and merges the new lot into the neighboring lot. As with subdivision, staff discretion decides what process to use for a lot line adjustment."
On new subdivision regulations:
"As well as addressing the existing codeâs shortcomings, recommendations of adopted plans, and implementing contemporary best planning practice for subdivision, the first draft of a new subdivision code will also include (but not be limited to) provisions for these missing aspects of the Townâs current subdivision regulations.
⢠Conventional, conservation, infill, and hamlet / compound style subdivisions.
⢠Zoning amendment to allow density bonuses for conservation, infill, and hamlet subdivisions.
⢠Efficient land division that wonât undermine future development potential.
⢠Lot shape.
⢠Flag lots; situations that allow their use, bans on stacking or neighboring flag lots, building orientation, provisions for wider access drives to serve more than one lot, and the like.
⢠Required alternatives to frontage development along collector and arterial roads in rural and agricultural areas.
⢠Buildout plans (âghost platâ) for subdivisions that are platted for development at a much lower density than what current or anticipated zoning allows.
⢠Buildout plans for agricultural lot splits, to ensure the parent or remnant lot is large enough to support a viable agricultural operation.
⢠Lot size averaging, which allows lot sizes to vary from code minimums and maximums if the average falls into an acceptable range.
⢠Placing a higher priority on conservation in the Townâs rural and exurban areas, and recreation in suburban areas.
⢠Parks / open space; amount, siting, shape, function, accessibility, connectivity, street frontage, overall quality, and the like.
⢠Street names.
⢠Private roads; situations that allow their use, imposing the same construction and design standards as for public roads, conditions for Town dedication, and the like.
⢠Prohibition of gated subdivisions.
⢠Topsoil preservation.
⢠Clear criteria for what types of land division actions need a certain approval process.
⢠An administrative review process for lot line adjustment, lot line consolidation, lot creation for utilities, and infill subdivision that meets certain criteria.
⢠Formal review for subdivision along collector and arterial roads, and areas of scenic importance, where development has the most impact on rural character.
⢠Recommended design sequence for different subdivision forms (conventional, cluster/conservation, etc.).
⢠Context sensitive street design standards.
⢠Reference to street and infrastructure construction specifications.
⢠Requiring complete improvements (roads, utilities,parks / open space, etc.), or some kind of financial guarantee (performance bond, etc.) covering the cost of all improvements, before final plat approval and recording.
⢠Phasing process and timeframes.
⢠Vesting timeframes.
⢠Zoning Code amendments to resolve any conflicts.
Layout, language, and appearance of the new subdivision code will follow an internal style guide. Code language will be in plain conversational English, using active voice, and simple terms instead of longer, more formal Latinate forms where possible. The code will use graphics, tables, bulleted lists, and flowcharts."
