Subdivision Regulations

ARTICLE 29-26 TITLE, PURPOSE AND DEFINITIONS

Section 29-26-1 Short Title

This ordinance shall be known and cited as the Revised Town of Thatcher Subdivision Regulations.

Section 29-26-2 Purpose and Intent

The purpose of this Ordinance is to provide for the orderly growth and harmonious development of the Town; to ensure adequate traffic circulation through coordinated street systems with relation to major thoroughfares, adjoining subdivisions and public facilities;  to achieve individual property lots of reasonable utility and livability; to secure adequate provisions for water supply, drainage, protection against flood, storm water detention, sanitary sewerage and other health and safety requirements; to ensure consideration for adequate sites for schools, recreation areas, and other public facilities; to promote the conveyance of land by accurate legal description; and to provide practical procedures for the achievement of this purpose.

Section 29-26-3 Definitions

For the purposes of these Regulations, certain words, terms and phrases are defined as follows:

1. Alley:  A passage or way open to public travel, affording generally a secondary means of vehicular access to abutting lots or upon which service entrances of buildings abut, and not intended for general traffic circulation.
   

2. Approval, Conditional:  An affirmative action by the Commission or the Council indicating that Approval will be forthcoming upon satisfaction of certain specified stipulations.
   

3. Approval, Preliminary:  Unconditional approval of the Preliminary Plat by the Commission as evidenced in its meeting minutes and noted upon prints of the Plat; constitutes authorization to proceed with final Engineering Plans and Final Plat preparation.
   

4. Approval, Final:  Unconditional approval of the Final Plat by the Council as evidenced by certification on the Plat by the Mayor and the Clerk of the Council; constitutes authorization to record a plat.  
   

5. Council:  The Common Council of the Town of Thatcher.
   

6. Building Line:  A line between which line and street right-of-way no building or structure or portion thereof, shall be erected, constructed and/or established other than steps, unenclosed balconies, unenclosed porches and roof overhangs.
   

7. Commission:  The Town of Thatcher Planning and Zoning Commission.
   

8. Department:  The Department of Planning and Community Services.
   

9. Easement:  A grant by a property owner of the use of land for a specific purpose or purposes, by the general public, corporation, or a certain person or persons.
   

10. Easement, Aerial:  A grant by a property owner for the use of land for the specific purpose of extending overhead utilities.
    

11. Land Split: The division of improved or unimproved land, whose area is two and one-half acres or less in size into two or three tracts or parcels of land for the purposes of sale or lease.
    

12. Lot:  Any lot, parcel, tract of land, or combination thereof, shown on a plat or described by metes and bounds, having frontage on a public or private street or on a permanent roadway easement which adjoins a street, and intended for transfer of ownership or intended or used for building development.
    

13. Lot, Double Frontage:  A lot which extends from one street to another street, existing or proposed.
    

14. Lots, Hillside:  Any lots, or portions hereof which will have structures build upon, where the terrain has an average cross-slope of fifteen (15) percent or greater.
    

15. Owner:  The person or persons holding title by deed to land , or holding title as vendees under land contract, or holding any other title of record.
    

16. Plan, Town:  The General Plan of the Town of Thatcher duly adopted by the Council
    

17. Plan, Development Master:  A preliminary master plan for the development of a community or other large land area, the platting of which is expected to be undertaken in progressive stages.  A Development Master Plan shall be subject to Commission and Council approval.
    

18. Plan, Neighborhood:  A plan designed by the Department to guide the planning of unsubdivided or vacant parcels of land in a partially built up neighborhood so as to make reasonable use of all land, correlate street patterns, and achieve the best possible land use relationships.

19. Plans, Engineering:  Plans, profiles, cross-sections and other required details for the construction of public improvements, prepared by a registered professional engineer in accordance with the approved Preliminary Plat and in compliance with standards of the design and construction of policies approved by the Council.

20. Plat:  A map of a subdivision.

    A. Preliminary Plat:  A preliminary map, including supporting data, indicating a proposed subdivision development, prepared in accordance with these Regulations.

    B. Final (Record) Plat:  A map of all or part of a subdivision providing substantial conformance to an approved Preliminary  Plat, prepared in accordance with these Regulations and approved by the Council before recordation.

    C. Recorded Plat:  A Final Plat bearing all of the certificates of approval required in Section of these Regulations and duly recorded in the Graham County Recorder's Office.
    

21. Standards, Public Improvement:  A set of regulations setting forth the details, specifications and instructions to be followed in the planning, design and construction of public improvements in the Town of Thatcher, as required by the Town or as by “Town of Thatcher Standards”.
    

22. Streets:  That area, whether public or private, between right-of-way lines, dedicated, reserved or provided for roadway purposes and other uses not inconsistent therewith.  A public street must be accepted for maintenance after construction in accordance with approved plans by the Town Council prior to acknowledgment that said street is a public street. 

    A.. Arterial Route:  A general term including freeways, expressways and arterial streets; an interstate, state, or county highway having regional continuity; any urban street having considerable continuity and carrying a large volume of both passenger and commercial vehicles.  These arterial routes are normally on the section lines.  Arterial Streets are designated on the master plan of the Town of Thatcher.

    B. Residential Streets:
    

    1. Collector Street:  A neighborhood street with limited continuity and having the primary function of carrying residential traffic from minor streets to arterial routes;  a secondary function being to provide access to abutting residential properties. 
       

    2. Frontage Street:  A minor street parallel and adjacent to an arterial route which provides access to abutting property, intercepts minor residential streets and controls access to an arterial route.
       

    3. Local Street:  A street used primarily for providing access to abutting property.
       

    4. Cul-de-sac Street:  A minor residential street having one end permanently terminated in a vehicular turnaround.
       

    5. Loop Street:  A minor residential street which forms a loop and returns to the same street from which it originated.
       

    6. Major Street:  A route of significant continuity accessing laterials and intercepting collectors.
       

23. Subdivider:  A subdivider shall be deemed to be the individual, firm, corporation, or partnership, association, syndicate, trust or other legal entity that files the application and initiates proceedings for the subdivision of land in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance and with provisions of the State of Arizona.
    

24. Subdivision: 

    A. "Subdivision" means improved or unimproved land or lands divided for the purpose of financing, sale or lease, whether immediate or future, into four or more lots, tracts or parcels of land, or, if a new street is involved, any such property which is divided into two or more lots, tracts or parcels of land, or, any such property, the boundaries of which have been fixed by recorded plat, which is divided into more than two parts.  "Subdivision" also includes any condominium, cooperative, community apartment, townhouse or similar project containing four or more parcels, in which an undivided interest in the land is coupled with the right of exclusive occupancy of any unit located thereon, but plats of such projects need not show the building or the manner in which the buildings or airspace above the property shown on the lot are to be divided.

    B. "Subdivision" does not include the following:
    

    1. The sale or exchange of parcels of land to or between adjoining property owners if such sale or exchange does not create additional lots.

    2. The partitioning of land in accordance with other statutes regulating the partitioning of land held in common ownership.

    3. The leasing of apartment, offices, stores or similar space within a building or trailer park, nor mineral, oil, or gas leases.

25. Utilities:  Installations or facilities, underground or overhead, furnishing for the use of the public electric, gas, steam, communications, water, drainage, sewage disposal or flood control, owned and operated by any person, firm, corporation, municipal department or board, duly authorized by State or municipal regulations.
    

26. Utility Committee:  An individual or group of individuals designated by the Thatcher Town Council as their representative(s) in subdivision matters related to location of any or all public utilities.
    

27. Way, Pedestrian:  A public walk provided entirely through a block from street to street and/or providing access to a school, park, recreation area, or a shopping center.
    

28. Floodplain:  The relatively flat areas or low lands adjoining the channel of a watercourse, or areas where drainage is or may be restricted by man-made structures which have been or may be covered partially or wholly by flood water, but shall compose an area not less than that area confined by the Fifty-year Flood and shall not exceed that area confined by the One hundred-Year Flood.
    

29. Delineated Floodplain:  Shall be that area delineated and mapped as a floodplain, as approved by the Council and as shown on the Town Official Zoning District Maps.  At no time shall be less than that delineated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
    

30. 50-year Flood:  A flood that has a 2% chance of occurring, based upon the criteria established by the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
    

31. 100-year Flood:  A flood that has a 1% chance of occurring, based upon the criteria established by the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
    

32. Drainage, Local:  Water which accumulated as a result of local storms and flows over land not included in a floodplain.  This shall include sheetflow and such flow as may be concentrated in local drainage systems with or without defined channels, excluding delineated floodplains.
    

33. Drainage, 100-Year Storm, Peak Discharge:  Local drainage resulting from a storm which has a 1% chance of occurring annually, based upon the methods given in Hydrologic Design for Highway Drainage in Arizona, published by the Arizona Department of Transportation, Highway Division.
    

34. Person:  Any firm, partnership, associated, corporation, individual, or any agent of any of the foregoing, or the State or any agency or political subdivision thereof.
    

35. 10-year, Peak Discharge:  A storm based on the 10-year event, at a certain duration (6 or 24-hour rainfall values shown on the most current precipitation maps for the area, prepared by the  ADOT method).

36. Offsite Drainage:  The storm surface waters emanating from higher lands outside the limits of the proposed subdivision and draining through the site of the proposed subdivision.
    

37. Direct Onsite Runoff:  That portion of the rainfall which falls within the entire limits of the proposed subdivision and which flows across the land or enters streams promptly after the rainfall.
    

38. Pre-development Conditions: The physical state of a site in terms of its ability to hold, shed, or channelize storm water prior to development--for quantity, quality, and flow rate.
    

39. Post-development Conditions: The physical state of a site in terms of its ability to hold, shed, or channelize storm water after development--for quantity, quality, and flow rate.
    

40. Dry Well: An underground structure installed in the bottom of a basin to expedite the percolation of captured storm water into the soil.
    

41. Backwater: The elevation profile of standing or flowing water upstream of a    constriction, whether natural or man-made.
    

42. Freeboard: The vertical clearance between the water surface and the soffit     (underside of a bridge deck or the top point of the inside diameter of a pipe) for culverts carrying storm water.
    

43. Spillway: An erosion-resistant structure installed at a low point on a basin’s walls to provide controlled overflow during a storm event larger than .
    

44. Basin: A man-made or improved natural low point on a site constructed to capture    storm water for the purpose of retaining or detaining it.
    

45. Detention: For the purposes of this Ordinance, detention is the act of capturing and slowing stormwater runoff in a basin then discharging the water at release rate that is less than or equal to pre-development flows.  Only offsite drainage and pre-development onsite drainage are allowed to be detained for later release into a downstream channel or storm sewer.
    

46. Retention: The act of capturing and holding in a basin the additional direct onsite runoff caused by post-development conditions.  This captured water may not be discharged into a downstream channel or storm sewer; instead, it must diminish by evaporation or soil percolation.
    

47. Sump: A basin that only retains the storm water it captures.  It does not have an outlet and looses water only through evaporation or soil percolation.