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Select Language. A lot of one 1 acre or more in area created through a division of land not subject to the subdivision ordinance shall be eligible for issuance of a permit to establish a single-family detached house, provided the lot is served by a private and exclusive recorded easement or fee-simple projection of the building lot at least 15 feet in width connecting said lot to a public street.
A driveway accessible by emergency equipment must be located on said easement or lot projection. Any lot for which a non-residential use has been legally established prior to the effective date of this ordinance in accordance with provisions permitting establishment of use on a lot served by a private, exclusive recorded easement of at least 15 feet in width connecting said lot to a public street, may be construed in the same manner as a lot abutting a street provided that it is served with a driveway built to appropriate standards located on the permanent, recorded easement.
Up to six residential lots may be served by a privately maintained easement with a minimum foot right-of-way if designed according to the specifications of the Rural and Transitional Farmhouse Cluster development or the specifications of the Rural and Transitional Conservation Subdivision.
A site-specific development plan may be considered for approval in the Campus Institutional and Corporate Business Districts to permit interior lot access by private drives so long as business and emergency access is furnished to all interior building sites, and proposed buildings at the perimeter of the campus and corporate development front upon public street s or are buffered in accordance with this ordinance.
It is intended that subdivisions be primarily served by public streets and use of private drives is minimal. Private drives may be appropriate where property configuration or environmental constraints make their use a practical alternative. Private drives shall be constructed in accordance with Commercial Street Standards as found in the Land Development Standards Manual and sidewalks shall be provided on at least one side of the private drive.
Somewhat different phrasing is found in the Baltimore County subdivision regulations of When a lot is outside the metropolitan district and faces the prospect of permanent lack of sewers, the lot size must be 20, square feet.
If the lot is within the metropolitan district, and connection is made or septic tanks are used only temporarily, the minimum lot size is 10, square feet.
Where neither sewer nor water connections are provided, 20, square feet is the minimum. Even greater lot sizes are required by the Fauquier County, Virginia, subdivision regulations. Where an area is not supplied with sewers or water, lots must be 30, square feet. Where either sewer or water connections are provided the lot must be 15, square feet, and where both sewer and water are available, the minimum lot size need be only 7, square feet. Further, "if in the opinion of the county, circumstances in a particular area make a larger square footage advisable, the planning commission may require whatever increase in square footage appears necessary.
The subdivision regulations for Millington, Tennessee, control minimum size of lot in the following manner:. The size and shape of lots shall be such as the Planning Commission deems appropriate for the type of building development contemplated.
Lots to be used primarily for residential purposes and served by municipal water and sewerage must have a minimum area of ten thousand 10, square feet, and have a minimum lot width, at the building line, of seventy 70 feet.
Lots in areas not served by public water and sewerage either constructed or planned, must have a minimum area of twenty thousand 20, square feet, and have a minimum lot width, at the building line, of eighty 80 feet.
Control of lot dimensions in subdivisions is not confined to subdivision regulations. State and county codes may often be used to establish standards for lot sizes. In New York State, the Public Health Law, Chapter 5, Section 89, requires that before land is subdivided for the residential use of ten or more families, a plot of the area showing the methods proposed for the water supply and sewage disposal must be approved by the Commissioner of Health.
The recording and registering of any subdivision map or plat is not permitted unless the approval of the health officer has been obtained. In Westchester County, New York, a similar procedure must be followed, even in cases where the subdivision involves fewer than ten lots. The Sanitary Code of the Westchester County Department of Health, Article 9, imposes minimum lot size requirements in subdivisions where public water and sewer systems are not feasible.
The code requires a subdivider to submit the proposed subdivision plat to the Commissioner of Health for his approval of the proposed methods of providing water and sewage facilities and land drainage. This approval must be obtained before the plot is submitted to the local planning commission. Where water and sewage services are to be provided by connection with public mains and systems, the required approval may be indicated without formal application.
However, where individual installations are required, the formal procedure must be followed. No arrangement intended to furnish water from a single well or other source to more than one building site except a public supply shall be approved. No arrangement intended to dispose of sewage by a separate sewerage system to serve more than one building site, except a public sewer, shall be approved.
Despite the widespread use of the 20, square foot standard, most sanitation experts agree that it is almost impossible to predict without specific study of the soil and site characteristics of a lot what the minimum dimensions of that lot should be.
It is even less possible to establish one standard for all lots, regardless of their individual characteristics. This inability to generalize the lot size requirements for individual water supply and sewage disposal systems stems from two major causes. The first is that topography may impose certain requirements and limitations which make impossible an adequate separation between the septic tank installation and the source of water supply on a lot of only 20, square feet.
The second variable is that the "safe distance" between the source of water and the septic tank field varies with the permeability of the soil, i. An attempt to relate soil type and topography to minimum requirements for lot sizes is made by Robert C.
The following table reproduces the suggested scale of minimum lot sizes based upon soil type and topography developed by Mr. Salvato, Jr. Wiggin, Jr. Hall, in Public Works , October Despite occasional litigation, the specification of minimum lot size has been accepted as an integral part of the police power. The case is not yet so clear with respect to the regulation of building size.
The maximum size of buildings may be regulated through the joint operation of minimum lot area requirements and maximum coverage standards. Front, side and rear yard requirements also contribute to the regulation of the maximum size of a dwelling structure.
In addition, the fire code is often invoked to place a limit on structure size based upon the degree of "fireproofing. It is in the matter of minimum building size that the controversy exists. There are several bases upon which the advocates of the minimum building size regulation rest their case.
The first is that minimum building size bears a direct relation to health, and therefore its regulation falls properly within the scope of the police power. The second is that whereas a minimum dwelling size in excess of perhaps four or six hundred square feet may not be justified solely on the ground of relation to physical health, it can be justified because of its relation to total health — both physical and emotional.
It is stated that a community has the right to require a minimum standard of decent housing in the community on the basis of a broad interpretation of health. Taking the case a step further, a large minimum building size requirement may be supported because it "preserves the character of the neighborhood. Indeed, the minimum building size requirement is often found, if not in the same ordinance, in the same community where architectural control is practiced.
Another argument is that the police power may be used to aid in the preservation of property values, which in turn preserves the tax base of the community, and that requiring a minimum building size helps in this process.
It is this last argument that has led to ordinances containing not only sliding scales of minimum building sizes but also sliding scales of minimum building costs. The legal bases for minimum building size regulations differ, as do also the types of regulations.
We will explore the variety of minimum requirements which have been established — from those based almost entirely upon health standards to those based more upon the grounds of amenity and property values. These requirements are to be found in building codes, minimum housing codes and zoning ordinances.
In general, smaller minima are to be found in the minimum housing codes and in most of the building codes, whereas the larger minima are to be found in the zoning ordinances. Recently, a number of cities have passed minimum housing codes in which maintenance and occupancy standards for existing dwellings are set forth.
Most of these establish standards for the minimum size of habitable rooms and for floor area and cubic space in rooms used for sleeping purposes. Others go a step farther and specify minima for a variety of rooms and combinations of rooms. For example, the ordinance establishing minimum housing standards for habitable buildings in Kansas City, Missouri, passed in April, specified that the "total area of all habitable rooms in a dwelling unit shall be such as to provide at least 65 square feet of floor area per person.
This ordinance, in addition to the above requirements as to sleeping rooms, specifies a minimum floor area of 50 square feet per adult and a minimum floor area of 30 square feet and minimum air space of cubic feet for each child under the age of twelve. Two minimum housing codes which contain much more specific spatial standards for all dwellings are those in operation in Portland, Oregon, and Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Portland Housing Code, Section , specifies that "for each family in a single or two-family dwelling, there shall be not less than two regular use habitable rooms, one of which shall be a living room, and also there shall be a bathroom. Living room Sewing room, 60 square feet if in the family unit there are two bedrooms, otherwise 80 square feet. The term 'breakfast nooks' and 'dinettes' is to be understood to mean a room adjacent or in close proximity to the kitchen.
The following table is included as part of the ordinance in Article 27, as amended March 12, Similar to the minimum housing code standards are those occasionally contained in building codes which specify the minimum size of habitable rooms, etc.
Of these, one must be a sleeping room and have a floor area of not less than square feet, and the other must be a living room which, if space is provided elsewhere for eating and cooking, must be not less than square feet, or, where the room is to be used for living and eating space, must be at least square feet, and where such room shall be used for living, cooking and eating, must have a floor area of not less than square feet.
Similar to the Michigan model code are the standards established in the building code of Cook County, Illinois, adopted August , in which the following space requirements are specified:. Each living unit must provide at least one bedroom and one bathroom, and space for living, dining, cooking, storage, utility and heating. Where living, dining and cooking are done in one room, the minimum floor area for that room is square feet.
Where living and dining are done in one room, and cooking is done in a separate room, the living room must be square feet, and the kitchen must be 60 square feet. A living room devoted only to living, where separate dining and kitchen space is provided, must be square feet, and the kitchen where dining space is provided within must be 90 square feet. The major bedroom must have an area of not less than square feet, and any additional habitable rooms must be no less than 80 square feet in area.
In , the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission of Denver, Colorado, prepared a Uniform Building Code of Colorado available for adoption by any zoned unincorporated community or, with minor changes, by any municipality in Colorado. Minima of square feet for living rooms; square feet for living rooms with dining space included; square feet where dining, cooking and living space is included "provided that this area shall not be less than square feet when located in a dwelling unit having less than two 2 bedrooms.
All the above minima are exclusive of storage and closet space. This state building code prepared by the Department of Economic Development of New Jersey has no binding power within any municipality. It is "suggested as a code of minimum requirements for voluntary adoption by such municipalities as would care to follow that practice.
The relation between these minimum standards and the standards promulgated by the Federal Housing Administration to which buildings must conform in order to be eligible for FHA loans is fairly clear. Such requirements would permit dwellings of even less than square feet i. The American Public Health Association has recently published a model ordinance which suggests spatial standards higher than those incorporated in the ordinances cited above.
Thus, according to these standards, a minimum building size requirement in excess of four hundred square feet may be imposed according to family size. For a family of six, it would be possible under this regulation to require a minimum building size of six hundred and fifty square feet. It is interesting to compare the minimum building sizes which the Committee felt to be enforceable by law with the minima suggested in their volume on standards, Planning the Home for Occupancy.
This was published by Public Administration Service in Chicago in In this volume, the Committee on the Hygiene of Housing dealt not with enforceable minima, but with "desirable" minima. In the words of the Committee:. They should be clearly distinguished from the detailed regulation which must be embodied in a building code. These figures are not suggested as standards to be applied by legal means, but are goals at which to aim.
They represent the essential space requirements of the dwelling which, without extravagance, will make physical and emotional health possible. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the space required for home activities and equipment, the Committee evolved the following space standards for families of various sizes.
For the one-person family, a dwelling of square feet of floor area is desirable. A two-person family requires a dwelling unit having square feet of usable floor area; a three-person family requires 1, square feet of floor space; a four-person family, 1, square feet; a five-person family, 1, square feet; and a six-person family, 1, square feet.
These standards make an interesting comparison between legally enforceable health requirements and the requirements based upon amenity and a new interpretation of health. See the case of Lionshead Lake Inc. In general, regulations in building codes and housing codes establish minima without reference to the zoning district in which the dwelling is located, whereas regulations in zoning ordinances frequently establish different minima for the various residential districts.
There are many exceptions to this general rule, however. For example, in this section we shall include excerpts from two building codes which establish sliding scales of building size. There are also a number of zoning ordinances which establish a flat minimum for the entire community.
Examples of these will also be given. The town of Cortlandt, New York, in its recently adopted zoning ordinance, requires that "every building hereafter erected for use for dwelling purposes or converted for such use, shall have a gross floor area of not less than square feet computed as being the sum of the areas enclosed by the outside faces of all exterior walls surrounding each floor used for dwelling purposes, exclusive of any area used for an attached garage.
An amendment to the zoning ordinance of Mount Lebanon Township, Pennsylvania, adopted July 9, , establishes a minimum dwelling size for all single-family dwellings, leaving other types of residential buildings uncontrolled. The following standards are imposed:. An early minimum building size requirement is contained in a ordinance not a zoning ordinance in force in Boulder, Colorado, where "all dwellings.
An attempt is made in at least one ordinance to relate the minimum building size to occupancy. In a proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance of Pound Ridge, New York, a minimum floor area of 1, square feet is required in all zones and an area of 1, square feet is required in buildings over one story in the Residence A District.
Deviation from this standard is permitted, however, since the board of appeals is given discretionary power. In the Township of Southfield, Michigan, the Zoning Ordinance for District 1 specifies both a minimum building area and cubic volume for dwellings in the residence districts only one type of residential district is enumerated.
All dwellings must have a first floor area per family of not less than square feet and must provide at least 10, cubic feet of content.
The total number of communities with regulations establishing a flat minimum for dwelling unit size is not known, but this provision is found in far fewer ordinances than are the sliding scale provisions.
In a recent study conducted by the Division of Planning and Development of the New Jersey Department of Conservation and Economic Development, it was revealed that of the sixty-four zoned communities in New Jersey with minimum building size regulations, only twenty-one had a uniform requirement for all districts, whereas forty-three had ordinances with sliding scales in which the minimum requirements were varied from zone to zone. Examples of this type of provision are quite numerous. For example, the zoning ordinance of the Village of Allen Park, Michigan, requires a minimum first floor area of square feet for a single-story one-family dwelling, and requires a first floor area of at least square feet and a total cubic content of 8, cubic feet for a single-family dwelling of two or more stories.
Buildings designed for the occupancy of two families must have a first floor area of at least square feet, and a cubage of 15, In buildings designed for the occupancy of more than two families, each apartment must contain no less than 1, cubic feet.
The zoning ordinance for Rye, New York, adopted in , also establishes different minimum requirements for single-family dwellings and dwelling units in multi-family structures. Dwelling houses must have a total gross floor area of not less than 1, square feet, whereas apartment houses need have only a gross floor area of square feet for each dwelling unit included therein.
Farmington, Connecticut, in , adopted a zoning ordinance in which the following requirements are included. All single-family dwellings must be at least square feet in area, but two-story single-family dwellings must have square feet of floor area on the first floor.
Two-family dwellings must have a minimum floor area for each family of square feet for a three-room apartment and square feet for a four-room apartment. For each additional room in the apartment over four, square feet must be added to the minimum requirements.
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