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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrd 1999-30 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS ORDINANCE#99-30 AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, AMENDING ARTICLES III AND V OF THE SUBDIVISION ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, TO CLARIFY THE MAXIMUM STREET GRADE FOR HILLSIDE LOCAL ROADS AND TO CLARIFY THE METHODOLOGY BY WHICH "PRESERVATION REQUIREMENT" AND DISTURBANCE ALLOWANCE" ARE CALCULATED. WHEREAS, The Town of Fountain Hills adopted Ordinance #90-8, on June 28, 1990, which adopted The Code of the Town of Fountain Hills,Arizona, and WHEREAS, The Town of Fountain Hills adopted Ordinance 96-XX on October 3, 1996 which adopted The Subdivision Ordinance of the Town of Fountain Hills, and WHEREAS, Chapter 15 of The Code of the Town of Fountain Hills, Arizona, is commonly referred to as The Subdivision Ordinance of the Town of Fountain Hills, and WHEREAS, The Town of Fountain Hills has made subsequent amendments to The Subdivision Ordinance of the Town of Fountain Hills, and WHEREAS, The Town of Fountain Hills has rewritten portions of Articles III and V of The Subdivision Ordinance of the Town of Fountain Hills in order to clarify several regulations contained therein, including but not limited to the maximum road slope for hillside local roads and the methodology by which "preservation requirement" and"disturbance allowance" are calculated. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS,ARIZONA AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. Articles III and V of The Subdivision Ordinance of the Town of Fountain Hills are hereby amended as shown below. New language is shown as being double- underlined and language to be deleted is shown as being cressecd eut. PASS 'AIL lo -qg____ MOTION ClilowL.r ORDINANCE 99-30 SECOND 0-AKA-a%c S oh PAGE 1 OF 7 COUNT 4 -o ARTICLE III—SUBDIVISION DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS Street Design. Grades. 1. The maximum grade of a street is as follows: a. Arterial Streets: As determined by the Town Engineer. b. Major Collector Streets: Ten percent c. Minor Collector Streets: 12 percent d. Local Streets: 12 percent e. Hillside-local Streets: In subdivisions where the natural slope of at least 75 percent of the gross subdivision size is 10 percent or greater, and with the Town Engineer's approval, hillside local streets may be utilized. The maximum street grade shall not exceed more than 15 ]2 percent €ef However, short road sections that are less than 400 feet long may have a continuous grade of between 12 and 15 percent. Those street grades and road sections length) between sections of streets exceeding 12 percent, regardless of their length, shall Lir not exceed 12 percent nor shall they be less than 400 feet in length. ARTICLE V - GRADING STANDARDS 502. Subdivision Grading Standards B. Grading for Parks and Golf Courses. The limitations in disturbance as specified in this sectien Article(including area of disturbance as well as height and detention of cut and fill) may be waived by the Town Council for the development of a park, golf course, trails or other recreational development that does not entail a building or buildings as the primary purpose of the development. C. Grading for Utility Lines. Utility lines,including water and sewer lines and laterals,must be placed within the allowed disturbance area and all disturbed lands shall be restored to the original grade and revegetated with vegetation indigenous to the site. Lots or parcels owned by utility companies which are regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission are only exempted from the hillside disturbance regulations of this ordinance if the development of the lot or parcel is solely for utility-related uses. L ORDINANCE 99-30 PAGE 2 OF 7 504. Hillside Disturbance. A. The purpose of these land disturbance regulations is to limit the amount of hillside disturbance within each subdivision. The amount of hillside area that may be disturbed shall be based on the severity of the slope. Hillside areas shall mean any area having slopes equal to or greater than 10 percent,as measured from a topographical contour map prepared and stamped by an Arizona-registered land surveyor. The Town requires the submission of topographic contour maps having contour intervals not greater than two feet and at a scale not smaller than 1" = 20' for sites less than 10 acres. Sites 10 to 100 acres may utilize contour intervals not greater than five feet at a scale not smaller than 1" = 50'. Sites over 100 acres may utilize contour intervals not greater than five feet at a scale not smaller than 1"=100'. Individual non-contiguous areas of hillside or non-hillside that are less than 500 square feet that are located within larger areas non-hillside or hillside, respectively, shall may be included with the larger area of non-hillside or hillside that surrounds it. Whether a subdivider chooses the Lot-by-Lot Hillside Protection Option or the Hillside Transfer and Protection Option, T1he actual square footage of disturbance permitted within one slope interval may be transferred,but only into areas having a lesser degree of slope. The percent of slope shall be determined by the spacing between the contour lines of as shown on the preliminary plat. Following are the land disturbance allowance of slope interval areas of 500 square feet or more: Percent of Preservation Disturbance Slope Requirement Allowance (%) (%) <10 0 100 10-<20 70 30 20-<30 80 20 30 and more 90 10 B. There are no exempted disturbance activities, except as otherwise specifically provided for in this ordinance. Any exempted disturbance activities shall be subtracted from the gross area of the subdivision, and the required "Preservation Requirement" and "Disturbance Allowance" areas, as noted above in Subsection A, shall be calculated from the net (gross area of the subdivision minus exempted disturbance activities) area of the subdivision, or that area remaining after the area(s)of exempted disturbance have been subtracted from the gross area of the subdivision. L ORDINANCE 99-30 PAGE 3 OF 7 For example, the following is an illustration of the correct method to calculate the "Preservation Requirement" and "Disturbance Allowance" for Happy Acres, a fictional, 100 acre subdivision, having 25 acres in each percentage slope band, with 10 acres "exempted" for roadway construction. The ten acres of "exempted" disturbance activities are allocated evenly across the four percentage slope bands. The following table provides the only acceptable methodology to calculate "Preservation Requirement" and "Disturbance Allowance" under the Hillside Transfer and Protection Option, as described in Subsection A,above and subsection G.2.below: HAPPY ACRES SUBDIVISION 10-20% &NI Igtfil Total Land Area(In Acres) 25.00 25Q4 25.00 25.00 100.00 Q. Exempt Areas(In Acres) 2-50 2 0 2.50 QS 10.00 Residual(Net) Total 22 0 22.50 22.50 22.50 90.00 E Disturbance Allowance % 100% 30le 2Q!°Lo 1 0 F Maximum Disturbance Allowance in 22.50 5 4 5_0 2.25 36.00 Acres Preservation Requirement % 70E0 °o °o %kwI Minimum Preservation Requirement in 0 15.75 18.00 ? 5 454. Q Acres Proposed Disturbance in Acres 15.00 7s00 4 l0 4-0Q 30.00 I Excess(Short) N/A (0.25) 0-5_4 (1.75) Internal Hillside Transfers NLA 0.25 _ (0.25) 0 Required Size of Outside Sending Area ILA 0 0 17.5 A. 1 r 'v' ' n i r .vi ' ' 1 r . B. The total "exempt" areas for the subdivision total 10.0 acres. Residual or "net" areas in the subdivision are derived by subtracting "Exempt Areas" from"Total Land Area", in each slope category. These net totals, in each slope category, are used to calculate Maximum Disturbance Allowance and Minimum Preservation Requirement in each slope category. D. The maximum disturbance percentage in each slope category. E Derived by multiplying "Residual (Net)Total" by "Disturbance Allowance %." F. The minimum preservation requirement in each slope category. U. Derived by multiplying "Residual (Net)Total" by "Preservation Requirement %." ORDINANCE 99-30 PAGE 4 OF 7 Loy H. The developer of the Happy Acres Subdivision proposes to disturb, through the development of the subdivision, an amount of non-"exempted" land in each slope category, in an amount noted on the table. Derived by subtracting "Proposed Disturbance in Acres" from "Maximum Disturbance Allowance in Acres." A (Short) in this row indicates that the proposed subdivision will disturb more land in that slope category than is permitted. In this case the subdivider can transfer an excess in the 20-30% slope category to compensate for the shortage in the 10-20% slope cate,. . In the case of the "short" in the 30%+ slope cate•• h- .s'v'.- IL. -i -r -• . - the amount of disturbed land in that slope category or seek Town Council approval of a hillside transfer from outside the subdivision. ,L If the subdivider chooses the Hillside Transfer and Protection Option, as has the subdivider for Happy Acres. hillside transfers from a steeper slope category to a lessor slope category are permitted within the subdivision. The subdivider has transferred .25 acres of the .5 acre excess in the 20-30% slope category to compensate for the .25 acres of non-permitted disturbance in the 10-20% slope category. I. Derived by dividing any (short') acreage, after any internal hillside transfers, by the Disturbance Allowance %. If the subdivider did not desire to preserve the required amount of land in that slope category within the subdivision, and the Town Council approved of a hillside transfer from outside of the subdivision,this is the amount of land within that slope category, or a steeper slope category that would need to be preserved within the "outside sending area" or the area outside of (libe the subdivision from which the hillside transfer was originating. The following disturbance activities are exempted only from the horizontal Hillside Disturbance Regulations contained in this Section: g Disturbance within street rights-of-way, tracts of land for private roads meeting public road standards, and any roadway grading required by the Town Engineer outside of street rights-of-way or tracts for private roads meeting public road standards, h. Utility lines or any other public improvements are not exempted from the requirements of this Section. However, Hhillside disturbance activities needed for the development of utility lines develepment and associated equipment outside of disturbances caused by other development activities are exempt from the regulations of this Section on land not owned by the utility if the utility company requires in writing that the utility line be located outside of other development activities and if the Town Council concurs with the need of the specific utility line and its alignment. L ORDINANCE 99-30 PAGE 5 OF 7 2. The following disturbance activities are specifically not exempted from the Hillside Disturbance Regulations contained in this Section: Disturbance activities for the development of any effluent watering field or any lake or pond intended for the storage of treated effluent, or any service and/or access road or any above or below ground pipeline or utility lines, whether or not the development of such fields, ponds, lakes, service/access roads, pipelines or utility lines have been mandated or suggested by another governmental agency or Court. lz Any "utility" disturbance, other than for a utility line and associated equipment as described above in subsection lb. In addition to the detailed information that is required to be provided to the Town to ensure compliance with this Article, as noted in Section 203(D)(9) of this Ordinance, the property owner may submit to the Town an alternative method of calculating the "Preservation Rea • - ii- " - ",. .. - Allowance" as included in Section 504 (A). The Town Council may approve this alternative method of calculating the "Preservation Requirement" and the "Disturbance Allowance"at the time of preliminary plat consideration. C. Any previously-disturbed hillside areas within a proposed subdivision, including but not limited to areas such as access roads, where the salvaging of landscape materials for 110r revegetation purposes as described in Section 606 (C) of this Ordinance has occurred, shall be counted toward the total amount of hillside within the subdivision but shall not be accepted by the Town as undisturbed hillside areas. If an applicant desires to salvage landscape materials for revegetation purposes prior to Final Plat approval, the applicant may do so at the risk of non-compliance with this Ordinance and denial of the final plat. D. All grading and/or disturbance performed subsequent to September 20, 1991, or subdivision improvement grading (whichever date is most recent) is considered to be cumulative under this ordinance. In other words the topography of land within the Town as of September 20, 1991 is considered to be natural grade by this Ordinance. Grading and/or other disturbance activities conducted since September 20, 1991 shall not be exempted from the hillside disturbance regulations of this Ordinance and their cumulative hillside disturbance shall be offset at the time of subdivision approval pursuant to the regulations of this Section. L ORDINANCE 99-30 PAGE 6 OF 7 Section 2. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or portion of this ordinance or any part of the code adopted herein is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions thereof. PASSED AND ADOPTED BY the Mayor and Common Council of the Town of Fountain Hills, Arizona, this twenty-first day of October, 1999. FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO: 14 CAL Sharon Morga , yor Cassie B. Hansen, Town Clerk 1, I D BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM: ea.euw: Li) Z:A.11 Paul L Nordin, Town Manager William E. Farrell, Town Attorney ORDINANCE 99-30 PAGE 7 OF 7