153.01 General Provisions
153.01 GENERAL PROVISIONS
(a) Title
This Ordinance shall hereafter be known, cited and referred to as The Subdivision Control Ordinance of the City of Richmond, Indiana.
(b) Policy
(1) Pursuant to the Public Development Plan, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the City or Richmond, Indiana, to consider the subdivision of land and the subsequent development of the subdivided plat as subject to the control of the City in order to insure the orderly, planned, efficient and economic development of the City.
(2) Land to be subdivided shall be of such character that it can be used safely for building purposes and to the greatest extent possible without danger to health or peril from fire, flood or other menace, and shall not be subdivided until proper provision has been made for drainage, water, sewage and capital improvements, such as schools, parks, recreation facilities, transportation facilities, and improvements.
(3) The existing and proposed public improvements shall conform and be properly related to the City’s Public Development Plan. It is intended that this Subdivision Ordinance shall supplement and facilitate the enforcement of the provisions and standards contained in the Building and Housing Codes, the Zoning Ordinance and the Public Development Plan of the City of Richmond, Indiana.
(c) Purposes. This Ordinance is adopted for the following purposes:
(1) To protect and provide for the public health, safety and general welfare of the City.
(2) To guide the future growth and development of the City in accordance with the Public Development Plan.
(3) To provide for adequate light, air and privacy, to secure safety from fire, flood and other danger, and to prevent overcrowding of the land and undue congestion of the population.
(4) To protect the character and the social and economic stability of all parts of the City, and to encourage the orderly and beneficial development of all parts of the City.
(5) To protect and conserve the value of land throughout the City and the value of buildings and the improvements of the land and to minimize the conflicts among the uses of land and buildings.
(6) To guide public and private policy in action in order to provide adequate and efficient transportation, water, sewage, schools, parks, playgrounds, recreation and other public requirements and facilities.
(7) To provide the most beneficial relationship between the uses of land and buildings and the circulation of traffic throughout the City, having particular regard to the avoidance of congestion of streets and highways and pedestrian traffic movements appropriate to the various uses of lands and buildings, and to provide for the proper location and width of streets and building lines.
(8) To establish reasonable standards of design and procedures for subdivisions and re-plats of subdivisions in order to further the orderly layout and use of land and to insure proper legal descriptions in monumenting of subdivided land.
(9) To insure that public facilities are available and will have a sufficient capacity to serve the proposed subdivisions.
(10) To prevent the pollution of air, streams, and ponds, to assure the adequacy of drainage facilities, to safeguard the water table and encourage the wise use and management of natural resources throughout the City in order to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community and the value of the land.
(11) To preserve the natural beauty and topography of the City and to insure appropriate development with regard to these natural features.
(12) To provide for open spaces for the most efficient design and layout of the land, and providing for minimum width and area of lots or preserving the density of land as established in the Zoning Ordinance of the City.
(d) Power and authority to approve
(1) By authority of the Richmond Common Council and adopted pursuant to the powers and jurisdiction vested through the State of Indiana, the Richmond Plan Commission does hereby exercise the power and authority to review, approve and disapprove, plats for the subdivision of land within the corporate limits of the City of Richmond, Indiana, and within the unincorporated territorial jurisdictional area of the City or Richmond, Indiana.
(2) The Richmond Plan Commission may appoint a Plat Committee to hold hearings on and approve plats and re-plats on behalf of the Commission. The plat Committee shall consist of five (5) persons, with at least one (1) of the members being a member of the Commission. Each appointment of a member of the Plat Committee is for a term of one (1) year, but the Commission may remove a member from the Committee. The Commission shall mail notice of the removal, along with written reason, if any, for the removal, to the member at his residence address. A member who is removed shall not appeal the removal to a court or otherwise. The Plat committee shall take action only by a majority vote of the membership of the Committee.
(e) Jurisdiction
(1) This Subdivision Ordinance shall apply to all subdivision of land as defined herein located within the corporate limits of the City of Richmond and within the unincorporated territorial jurisdictional area of the City of Richmond, Indiana.
(2) No land shall be subdivided until; (A) the sub-divider or his agent submits a written application for approval to the Richmond City Plan Department; (B) primary and secondary approval of the plat has been obtained either from the Richmond City Plan Commission or the Plat Committee; and, (C) the plat of the subdivision has been signed and certified by the President and Executive Secretary of the Richmond City Plan Commission and has been filed with the Wayne County Recorder and Wayne County Auditor.
(3) Subdivision plans which have been granted tentative or preliminary approval under prior subdivision ordinances shall be deemed to have primary approval under this Subdivision Ordinance and shall be required to comply with all provisions of this Ordinance including 153.04(b)(8).
(4) No Improvement Location Permit or Certificate of Occupancy shall be issued for any parcel or plat of land which is created by subdivision after the effective date of and not in conformity with the provisions of this Subdivision Ordinance.
(f) Conditions
Regulation of the subdivision of land and the attachment of reasonable conditions to land subdivision is an exercise of valid police power delegated by the State to this City.
(g) Re-plat of land - Procedure for re-plat
A re-plat of an approved or recorded subdivision plat shall be required for any change in said plat, if such change affects a street layout, a lot line or an area dedicated for public use. The re-plat must be approved by the Plan Commission or Plat Committee utilizing the same procedure, rules and regulations as for a subdivision.
(h) Vacation of plats
(1) Any plat, or any part of any plat may be vacated by the owner or owners of the land. All the owners of land in the plat must declare the plat or part of the plat to be vacated in a written instrument, and that instrument must be executed, acknowledged, and recorded in the same manner as a deed to land.
(2) Such an instrument shall not be recorded until the Plan Commission has first given notice and held a public hearing on the abandonment or vacation of the public way or public ground or platted lot. The Plan Commission shall forward its recommendation to the legislative body having jurisdiction over the area. The legislative body may not override the recommendation of the Commission, unless it does so by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the total body.
(3) An instrument recorded under this section terminates the effect of the plat or part of the plat declared to be vacated, and terminates all public rights in the public ways and public grounds described in the plat or part of the plat.
(i) Modifications
(1) General
Where the Plan Commission or Plat Committee finds that extraordinary hardships or practical difficulties may result in strict compliance with this Ordinance and/or the purposes of this Ordinance may be served to a greater extent by an alternative proposal, it may approve modifications to this Subdivision Ordinance so that substantial justice may be done and the public interest secured, provided that such modifications shall not have the effect to nullify the intent of this Ordinance, and further provided the Plan Commission or Plat Committee not approve a modification unless it shall make findings based upon the evidence presented to it in each specific case that:
(A) The granting of the modification will not be detrimental to the public safety, health or welfare, or injurious to other property;
(B) The conditions upon which the request for modifications are based are unique to the property for which the modification is sought and are not applicable generally to other property;
(C) The modification will not, in any manner, modify the provisions of the Zoning Ordinance or the Public Development Plan.
(2) Conditions
In approving modifications, the Plan Commission or Plat Committee may require such conditions as will, in its judgment, secure substantially the objective of the standards or requirements of this Ordinance.
(3) Procedures
A petition for any such modification shall be submitted in writing by a sub-divider at the time when primary approval is applied for. The petition shall state fully the grounds for application and all the facts relied upon by the petitioner.
(j) Enforcement and penalties
(1) It shall be the duty of the Plan Director to enforce this Ordinance and to bring to the attention of the City Attorney any violations or lack of compliance herewith.
(2) No owner, or agent of the owner, of any parcel of land located in a proposed subdivision shall transfer or sell any such parcel before a plat of a subdivision has been approved by the Plan Commission or Plat Committee in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance, and filed with the CountyRecorder and CountyAuditor.
(3) A subdivision of any lot or any parcel of land by the use of metes and bounds description for the purpose of sale, transfer or lease with the intent of evading this Ordinance shall not be permitted. All such described subdivisions shall be subject to all the requirements contained in this Ordinance.
(4) No Improvement Location Permit shall be issued for the construction of any building or structure located on a lot or plat subdivided or sold in violation of the provisions of this Ordinance.
(5) Appropriate actions and proceedings may be taken by law or in equity to prevent any violation of this Ordinance, to prevent unlawful construction, to recover damages, to restrain, correct, or abate a violation, to prevent illegal occupancy of a building, structure, or premises.
(k) Interpretation, conflict and separability
(1) In their interpretation and application, the provisions of this Ordinance shall be held to be minimum requirements for the promotion of the public health, safety, and general welfare.
(2) This Ordinance is not intended to interfere with, abrogate or nullify any other ordinance, rule or regulation, statutes or other provision of law. Where any provision of these regulations imposes restrictions different than those imposed by any other ordinance, rule or regulation, or other provision of law whichever provisions are more restrictive or impose higher standards shall control.
(3) If any section, clause, provision or portion of this Ordinance shall be held to be invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect any other section, clause, provision or portion of this Ordinance.
(l) Repeal of prior subdivision ordinance
Upon adoption of this Ordinance, according to law, the subdivision regulations for the City or Richmond, Indiana, adopted under Ordinance No. 1800-1960 as amended are hereby repealed, and this Ordinance shall become Chapter 153 of the Richmond Code.
(m) Enactment
In order that land may be subdivided in accordance with these policies, this Subdivision Ordinance is hereby adopted.
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