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Jefferson County WV Subdivision Ordinance Draft  11/15/07

The draft Subdivision Ordinance below, accompanies the Plan B draft Zoning Ordinance

They were originally written in April 2006 (Subdivision: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/listener/message/2130 )

and January 2005 (Zoning: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/listener/message/1714 )

Legal requirements are in Appendix A

 

Draft Subdivision Ordinance

GENERAL

1.                Landowners have a right to the land uses allowed by zoning, including multiple uses on one lot, and need county permits only for construction and subdividing, not for changes of use or multiple uses.

2.                Construction is controlled by the Improvement Location Permit Ordinance and Building Codes, not by this Ordinance.

3.                Before subdivision of land is commenced, subdivision plans and plats must be approved by the planning commission, in accordance with the comprehensive plan; as required by 8A-4-2(a)(10)

4.                Information provided must be current & accurate, and, where applicable, in accordance with relevant professional standards. Application with information which is inaccurate, outdated, or not meeting relevant professional standards, will be considered not to meet the requirements of this ordinance.

5.                The applicant may withdraw the application at any time before recording of final plat, and start with a new pre-application. A new pre-application may be filed no sooner than 90 days after any previous pre-application on the same land. No more than one pre-application, application, or final plat may cover the same land at the same time.

6.                Plats and deeds of lots created under this Ordinance shall include the note, "Farms in the county have a right to operate with both traditional and modern methods, which can involve smells, noises, and slow traffic on public roads."

MINOR SUBDIVISIONS

7.                Minor subdivisions include the following. Other subdividing of land will be considered major.

a)      The creation of lots with a net increase of four or less lots every five years

b)      Changing lines between lots in such a way as to move a total of 10,000 square feet or less from one or more lots to one or more others, every five years

8.                Information…

9.                Public notice…

10.             Hearing…

11.             Approval or Denial…

MAJOR SUBDIVISIONS: PRE-APPLICATION (If county commission or a court decides against requiring a pre-application, all this information would come in the formal application on day 0, and the legal ad for hearing would appear on day 6)

12.             Typical schedule. Minus signs show days before formal application.

a)      file preapplication, post sign (Fri): -35 days

b)      post on web & send email (same Fri)-35 days

c)      publish legal ad for completeness hearing (Thurs) -29

d)      file formal application (Fri), 0

e)      staff comments on completeness (Tue), day 32

f)      hearing on completeness (Tue), day 39 (typically decision is made that day, but deadline is day 45, which would delay remaining schedule)

g)      legal ad (Thurs, day 48) for hearing on whether it meets requirements

h)      hearing on whether it meets requirements (Tue), normally 6 weeks after completeness hearing, on day 81, but 4 times per year there are an odd number of weeks between PC meeting times, so hearing would be 5 weeks later on day 74.

i)       deadline for decision on whether it meets requirements, 14 days after hearing, unless held for up to 45 more days for more information.

 

Calendar

 

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

P

R

E

A

P

P

L

I

C

A

T

I

O

N

 

35

days

 

 

 

 

 

-35 pre-application submitted & put on web

 

 

 

 

 

-29 legal ad for hearing on completeness

-28

 

 

 

 

 

 

-21

 

 

 

 

 

 

-14

 

 

 

 

 

 

-7 public comments submitted by this date will be addressed in formal application

 

 

 

 

 

 

0 formal application submitted, put on web, sent to review agencies

1

C

O

M

P

L

E

T

E

N

E

S

S

39 days

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32 staff comment on completeness. Agencies may also advise if they have noted anything missing.

33

34

35

36

37

38

39 1st hearing & PC decides completeness.

 

Start new 45-day clock to decide if it meets requirements: ends day 84

40

41

42

43

R

E

Q

U

I

R

E

M

E

N

T

S

 

35 or 42 days

44

45 end first 45-day clock

46

47

48 legal ad for hearing on meeting requirements

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67 staff & agency comments on whether it meets requirements

68

69

70

71

72

73

74th or 81st day (depending when PC meets)

 

2nd hearing & PC decides if it meets requirements

 

This is 35 or 42 days after 1st PC decision, so it fits in the 45-day maximum clock.

 

This is 26 or 33 days after legal ad, so it fits the  21-day minimum legal notice.

 

(cannot decide earlier, since this hearing needs 21-day legal notice; earlier ad did not need any particular timing)

75

76

77

78

79

80

82

83

84 end 2nd 45-day clock; may be extended 45 more days for more information, such as legal opinion or 14 days for deliberation

 

 

13.             Applicant will reserve with staff a regular PC meeting date when there is at most one other major subdivision planned for hearing.

14.             Applicant for Major subdivision will provide pre-application information

a)      to the Planning Commission office on a Friday morning by 10am, 60 days before the hearing (Tuesday, when completeness will be decided) and 35 days before formal application is submitted.

b)      in 10 paper copies and 2 CDROMs, ready to be put on the county website, with an address of jeffersoncountywv.org/pc/abcdefg where "abcdefg" is a short name arranged with the PC staff, which will not change.

c)      The CDROMs will be in .pdf format and not exceed 10 megabytes, uncompressed [about 27 times the size of the current zoning ordinance with all amendments through 4/05]

d)      The hard copies will be available, 5 for staff, PC and other government review, 5 for loan to members of the public (e.g. at libraries).

e)      On the day of receipt, staff will email a notice of availability to all who have provided their email addresses for that purpose, and will copy the CDROM to the website. They will also send copies to review agencies and PC members which wish paper copies.

f)      The email list will include all local governments and boards and commissions unless they request to be removed from the list (in which case there will be an annual letter asking if they wish to be reinstated).

g)      The staff will place a legal notice of the public hearing on completeness as soon as possible after receipt of the pre-application

h)      The applicant will post signs (in format provided by PC) so they are readable from each public road within 1000 feet of the property. Posting will be done on the same day as pre-application is submitted

i)       The email and legal notices will include dates of hearings, web address of application, planning office phone number, project name, location map showing property boundaries and surrounding roads at 1"=1000' (so 200-acre square area would be 3" square in ad) , applicant's address & phone; number & type of housing units; square feet, height, & type of commercial space, acres, % to be in each of the following categories: building footprints, paved, grass, wooded, other natural (e.g. water, wetland, sinkhole).

15.             Appendix B lists the pre-application information required:

MAJOR SUBDIVISIONS: APPLICATION

 

16.             The final application will be filed by 10am on the Friday designated in the pre-application, will confirm which aspects of the pre-application remain the same and which have changed (e.g. because of public comment). Numbers may change by up to 10% without filing a new pre-application, and such changes must be highlighted. 20 paper copies and a CDROM will be filed with the office (as for the pre-application). Individual copies will also be mailed to review agencies and planning commissioners, on paper or CDROM. Staff will tell applicants the format for individual recipients. Review agencies and planning commissioners who wish copies of pre-applications may request them from staff. The CDROM will be suitable for the web as above. No urls on the CDROM shall be the same as the pre-application, even when content is identical, so the staff, public & commissioners can verify the content is identical in case of doubt. The CDROM will not exceed 12 megabytes, except that including the plats on the CDROM is optional, and if they are included, they may be any size necessary.

17.             On the day of receipt, staff will email a notice of availability to all who have provided their email addresses for that purpose, and will copy the CDROM to the website.

18.             Final application will provide the pre-application information, as revised, plus the information in Appendix C:

19.              Review agencies are:

a)      Jefferson County Schools

b)      Public Service District and/or other appropriate utility service agencies.

c)      Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission

d)      Jefferson County Sheriff

e)      Appropriate fire and rescue services providers

f)      West Virginia Department of Transportation

g)      Jefferson County Development Authority

h)      Jefferson County Health Department

i)       incorporated cities within 3 miles, including their departments and boards, such as planning, historic landmarks, and parks

j)