Any word or phrase that is defined in this Section shall have the meaning assigned to it by this Section whenever the word or phrase is used in these regulations.
ABUT: Touching, adjoining, or contiguous; as distinguished from lying near to or adjacent.
ACCEL LANE: An added roadway lane which permits integration and merging of slower moving vehicles into the main vehicular traffic stream.
ACCESS CONTROL: The limitation of public access rights to and from properties abutting streets or highways used to preserve high-level traffic service and improve safety.
ADMINISTRATOR: A person designated by the City Manager as the administrator of these regulations.
AGRICULTURE: The use of a tract of land for growing crops, pasturage, nurseries, dairying, or the raising of poultry or cattle and other livestock, including the structures necessary for carrying out farming operations and the residence(s) of those owning and operating the premises such as a member of the family thereof, or persons employed thereon and their families. The feeding or disposal of community or collected garbage shall not be deemed an agricultural use, nor shall riding academies, livery or boarding stables, dog kennels, commercial feedlots, or commercial greenhouses; however, forested and non-producing open space land are considered agricultural.
ALLEY: A strip of land along the side of or in the rear of lots intended to provide a secondary means of access to and from streets and such lots.
AMENITY: A natural or man-made feature that enhances or makes more attractive or satisfying a particular property.
ANNEXATION: The incorporation of land area into the city limits of Augusta.
APPLICANT: A person submitting an application for approval.
ARTERIAL STREET: Any street serving major traffic movements which is designed primarily as a traffic carrier between cities or between various sections of a city or county, which forms part of a network of through streets, and which prohibits direct access from residential lots. No parking is permitted on arterial streets except in designated areas.
BASE FLOOD ELEVATION: The highest elevation, expressed in feet above sea level, of the level of flood waters having a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any give year (commonly called the 100-year flood).
BENCHMARK: Surveying monument permanently fixed in the ground showing the height of that monument in relation to sea level.
BLOCK: A series of lots or tract of land bounded by streets, railway rights-of-way, waterways, parks or open land.
BOUNDARY SHIFT: A change in the boundary between adjoining lands that does not create an additional building site and such transaction, when completed, shall result in tracts of land or lots that comply with the design requirements for lots described in these regulations and with the applicable provisions of the Zoning Code and other applicable codes.
BUILDING SETBACK LINE: A line on a lot indicating the limit beyond which buildings or structures may not be erected or altered and establishing the minimum open space to be provided. Such line may be more, but not less restrictive than applicable zoning or other regulations.
CITY: The City of Augusta, Kansas
CITY CLERK: The City Clerk of the City of Augusta or his or her representative.
CITY ENGINEER: The City Engineer of the City of Augusta or his or her representative.
COLLECTOR STREET: Any street serving a neighborhood or large subdivision designed primarily to gather traffic from local or residential streets, connect them to an arterial street system and with community facilities. Existing collector streets shall have no parking when safety needs are determined by the Governing Body. There shall be no parking permitted on all new collector streets constructed after the effective date of these regulations except where additional street width is provided for parking. Specifying collector streets will depend on housing density and the development plan of the areas served.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: The adopted Comprehensive Development Plan for the City and the surrounding “Planning Area.”
COUNTY: Butler County, Kansas
COUNTY ENGINEER: The officially appointed engineer for the County.
CROSS LOT DRAINAGE: The passage of storm water runoff from adjacent areas that is outside the perimeter of the lot onto the lot.
CUL-DE-SAC: A street having only one outlet and being permanently terminated by a vehicle turn-around at the other end.
CURB CUT: The opening along the curb line to accommodate a driveway or wheelchair ramp.
DEAD-END STREET: A street having only one outlet and is not terminated by a vehicle turn-around at the other end.
DECEL LANE: An added roadway lane that permits vehicles to slow down and leave the main vehicle traffic stream.
DEDICATION: Gift or donation of property by the landowner to a governmental unit. The transfer is conveyed by a plat or a written separate instrument. The dedication is completed with a formal acceptance by the Governing Body.
DESIGN STANDARDS or DESIGN REQUIREMENTS: All requirements and regulations relating to design and layout of subdivisions contained in these regulations.
DETENTION FACILITY: A facility for the temporary storage of storm water runoff, designed to limit the maximum discharge to an amount equal to or less than the discharge from pre-developed conditions.
DEVELOPER: The legal or beneficial owner or owners of a lot or of land proposed to be subdivided including the holder of an option or contract to purchase, or other person having enforceable proprietary interest in the land.
DRAINAGE SWALE: A shallow ditch that will carry storm water runoff to the street or drainage channel.
DRAINAGE CHANNEL: A drainage ditch constructed to a specific cross section that will receive runoff from streets and drainage swales.
DRIVING SURFACES: Shall be considered from back of curb to back of curb for urban streets and the width of the driving surface plus an 8-foot-wide shoulder on each side of the driving surface for rural streets.
EASEMENT: A grant by a property owner of the specific use of a strip of land by others.
EGRESS: An exit.
ENCROACHMENT: Any obstruction in a delineated floodway, right-of-way, easement, building setback, or adjacent land.
ENCUMBER: To place a legal claim or restriction upon a tract or parcel of land.
ENGINEER: When used in connection with designing or engineering any improvements, including drainage, either on site or off-site, he or she shall be a professional engineer licensed by the State of Kansas or licensed to practice in the State.
FINAL PLAT: A subdivision as it is represented as a formal document by drawing and writing which is prepared in accordance with these regulations to be placed on record with the County Register of Deeds.
FLOOD INSURANCE STUDY (FIS): The official report provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The report contains flood profiles, as well as the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) and Flood Boundary/Floodway Map and the water surface elevation of the base flood.
FLOODWAY: The channel of a natural stream or river and portions of the flood plain adjoining the channel, which are reasonably required to carry and discharge the floodwater or flood flow of any natural stream or river, without increasing the water surface elevation at any point more than one foot.
FLOODWAY FRINGE: The area of the mapped flood plain, outside of the regulatory floodway, that is likely to be flooded by the base flood.
FLOODWAY, REGULATORY: The channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas as tabulated in the Flood Insurance Study (FIS) that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than one foot at any point.
FRONTAGE: The property on one side of a street between two intersecting streets (crossing or terminating) measured along the line of the street; or with a dead-end street, all property abutting one side of such street measured from the nearest intersecting street and the end of the dead-end street.
GROUNDWATER: Any subsurface water in the zone of saturation, including but not limited to spring water, perched water tables, seasonal water tables, and aquifers.
PLANNING AREA: The area around the City of Augusta as designated by Ordinance No. 1789 and Inter-local Agreement with Butler County, Kansas whereby the City of Augusta exercises both subdivision and zoning control.
GOVERNING BODY: The City Council of Augusta, Kansas or the County Board of Commissioners of Butler County, Kansas.
HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION: A community association, other than a condominium association, that is organized in a development where individual owners share common interests in open space or facilities. The homeowners association usually holds title to reserves, manages and maintains the common property, and enforces certain covenants and restrictions. Condominium associations differ from homeowners associations in that condominium associations do not have title to the common property.
IMPROVEMENTS: All facilities constructed or erected by a sub-divider and/or a city, township, or the county within a subdivision to permit and facilitate the use of lots or blocks for residential, assembly, recreational, commercial, industrial or other regulations.
INGRESS: An entrance.
LAND SURVEYOR: When used in connection with designing or surveying a plat or subdivision, a professional surveyor licensed by the State of Kansas.
LOCAL STREET: Any street designed primarily to provide access to other streets from individual property and of limited continuity within a neighborhood.
LOT: A portion of land in a subdivision or other parcel of land intended to be the unity by which such land would be individually transferred and/ or developed, whether immediate or future.
LOT DEPTH: The distance between the midpoint of the front lot line and the midpoint of the rear lot line.
LOT, DOUBLE FRONTAGE: A lot, two opposite lot lines of which abut upon streets which are more or less parallel.
LOT FRONTAGE: The distance measured along the street right-of-way line between a lot’s two side lot lines.
LOT LINE: The boundary line of a lot.
LOT SPLIT: The dividing or re-dividing of a lot or lots in a recorded plat of a subdivision into not more than two tracts which meet the criteria established by these regulations.
LOT WIDTH: The distance on a horizontal plane between the side lot lines of a lot, measured at right angles to the line establishing the lot depth at the established building setback line.
MANUFACTURED HOME PARK: A parcel of land that has been planned and improved in some manner, and used or intended to be used by occupied manufactured homes not placed on permanent foundations. The term “Manufactured home park” does not include sales lots where unoccupied manufactured homes, whether new or used, are parked for the purposes of storage, inspection, or sale: nor does it include a tract of land where a manufactured home as a second dwelling unit has been permitted on a temporary bases as a conditional use in accordance with the Augusta Zoning Code.
MANUFACTURED HOME SUBDIVISION: A subdivision that is platted for the development as individual home sites for manufactured homes, modular homes, residential-design manufactured homes, and site-built, single-family dwellings to be placed on permanent foundations.
MARGINAL ACCESS STREET: A local street which is parallel with and adjacent to a limited access highway or arterial street and which provides access to abutting properties and protection from fast through traffic on the limited access highway or arterial street.
MAYOR: The Mayor of the City of Augusta, Kansas.
METES AND BOUNDS: A method of describing the boundaries of a land parcel using distances and directions from a known point of reference.
OFF SITE IMPROVEMENTS: Improvements located on property outside the perimeter of the subdivision that are determined by the Planning Commission to be necessary to be constructed to serve the subdivision (e.g. construction of streets, sanitary sewers, water distribution systems, drainage, traffic signals, etc.)
ON-SITE: Located within the perimeter of the property that is subject to these regulations.
OPEN SPACE, COMMON: Land within or related to a development, not individually owned or dedicated for use, that is designed and intended for the common use or enjoyment of the residents of the development and may include such complementary structures and improvements as are necessary and appropriate. Common open space is platted as a Reserve and is owned and maintained by a Homeowners Association.
OWNER: Any person or persons, firm or firms, corporation or corporations, or any other legal entity having legal title to land to be subdivided under these regulations.
OWNERSHIP LIST: A list of land owners as prepared and certified by a licensed, qualified and bonded abstractor in the County and State, containing the names, addresses, and zip codes of said land owners.
PAD, MINIMUM: The elevation of the lowest opening of a habitable structure where flood waters can enter said structure. For structures located outside a FEMA designated Flood Hazard Area (FHA), the minimum pad elevation shall be established 3 feet above Base Flood Elevation. For structures located within the FHA, the basement floor of said structure shall be established 3 feet above Base Flood Elevation.
PARKING AREA: That portion of the legal right-of-way between the back of the street curb and the property line. The property owner does not own the parking area, but does have exclusive use to the parking area under certain conditions.
PLANNING COMMISSION: The Planning Commission of the City of Augusta, Kansas.
PLAT: A subdivision, as it is represented as a formal document by drawing and writing, that is presented to the Planning Commission for review and approval in accordance with these regulations and to the Governing Body for the acceptance of easements and dedications.
PLATTING BINDER: A report issued by a title insurance company setting forth the conditions to be met for certain property to be platted, e.g. easements filed for record, mortgages, fee title owners, etc.
PRELIMINARY PLAT: A tentative map or plan of a proposed subdivision of land showing the character and general details of the proposed development.
PROPERTY LINE: The legal boundary encompassing a specific lot or tract of land. Said line may encompass any legal easements located within the property line on the lot or tract of land. The property line does not include any legal right-of-way (streets or alleys) controlled by the City, County, State or federal governments except such rights-of-way in the Planning Area.
PUBLIC UTILITY FACILITIES: Telephone, electric, and cable television lines, poles, equipment, and structures; water or gas pipes, mains, valves or structures; sewer pipes, valves or structures; pumping stations; telephone exchanges and repeater stations; and all other facilities, equipment and structures necessary for conducting a service by a government or a public utility.
PUMPING STATION: A pumping facility that transports waste water between two gravity flow sewer lines. A pumping station is used when topographic conditions do not allow a continuous gravity flow system.
RESERVE: An area of property within a subdivision which is platted for specific uses, e.g., open space, landscaping, entry monuments, recreational facilities, utilities and drainage, floodway, private street, etc. Typically, future ownership and maintenance responsibilities for a reserve are set forth by a restrictive covenant which provides that a homeowner’s or lot owner’s association will hold title to the reserve and therefore be responsible for the reserve’s maintenance. The restrictive covenant may provide for ownership and maintenance to be tied to the ownership of an adjacent lot. Ownership and maintenance is not assigned to an individual, partnership or corporation except in the case of a reserve platted for possible future sales to a public body for a public facility.
RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS: Contracts entered into between private parties which constitute a restriction on the use of all private property within a subdivision for the benefit of property owners; and to provide mutual protection against undesirable aspects of development which would tend to impair stability of values. The City of Augusta is not a party to any subdivision restrictive covenants.
RE-SUBDIVISION: The subdivision of a tract of land that has previously been lawfully subdivided and a plat of such prior sub-division duly recorded. (Sometimes referred to as a “replat”.)
RIGHT-OF-WAY: The area between boundary lines of a street or other easement.
ROAD OR ROADWAY: The paved or improved area existing on the street right-of-way which is used for vehicular traffic, exclusive of sidewalks, driveways or related uses.
RURAL STREETS: Those streets located within the “Planning Area.” Rural streets may be located within the corporate limits of the City, but only in the Agricultural Districts.
SANITARY SEWERS: Pipes that carry only domestic, commercial and industrial sewage and into which storm, surface and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
SCREENING: Decorative fencing or evergreen vegetation maintained for the purpose of concealing form view the area behind such fencing or evergreen vegetation.
SECRETARY: The elected secretary of the planning commission or his or her designated deputy.
SEPTIC TANK: An individual sewage disposal system involving a water tight receptacle that receives the discharge of sewage from a building and is designed and constructed to permit settling of solids from liquid, digestion of the organic matter (sludge), and discharge of the liquid portion into an underground lateral disposal area. The sludge is pumped out of the tanks, usually by commercial firms, at regular intervals. Septic tanks are used for domestic wastes when a sanitary sewer line is not available to carry the wastes to a wastewater treatment plant. Approval of a site for use of a septic tank system involves establishing a minimum lot area to provide for the system’s operation, determining that the soil has an acceptable percolation rate and ensuring separation of the system from groundwater.
SEWAGE: The total of organic waste and waste water generated by residential, commercial and industrial establishments.
SEWAGE LAGOON: A shallow, artificial pond where sunlight, bacterial action and oxygen interact to restore waste water to a reasonable state of purity.
SIDEWALK: That portion of a street, paved or otherwise surfaced, intended for pedestrian use only.
SIGHT DISTANCE: Sight distance is the length of roadway ahead visible to the driver. Two types of sight distance criteria are primary design controls for urban streets and highways; intersection sight distance and stopping sight distance.
SIGHT DISTANCE, INTERSECTION: This is the unobstructed sight distance along both approaches of both roads at an intersection and across their included corners. The minimum distance must be sufficient to allow the operators of vehicles approaching simultaneously to see each other in time to prevent collisions at the intersection.
SIGHT DISTANCE, STOPPING: The minimum sight distance available on a roadway must be sufficiently long to enable a vehicle traveling at the design speed to stop before reaching a stationary object in its path. The stopping sight distance is the sum of two distances; 1) the distance a vehicle travels after the driver sights an object and before braking; and 2) the distance it travels after braking.
STORM WATER: All runoff, including but not limited to runoff from storms, snow melt, and drainage.
STREET: The street right-of-way or easement, whether public or private, including the paving or other improvements on the street right-of-way. A street may also be called avenue, road, lane, boulevard, way, drive or other name describing the right-of-way for vehicular traffic.
STREET WIDTH: The shortest distance between the property lines abutting both side of a street right-of-way.
SUB-DIVIDE LAND: To partition a parcel of land into two or more parcels, tracts, lots or sites for the purpose of transfer of ownership or development, whether immediate or future, when such parcel exists as a unit or contiguous units under a single ownership.
SUB-DIVIDER: The owner, or any person, firm or corporation, authorized by the owner, undertaking proceedings under the provisions of these regulations for the purpose of sub-dividing land.
SUB-DIVISION: Either an act of sub-dividing land as defined in this section or a tract of land sub-divided.
SUB-DIVISION DEVELOPMENT PLAN: A proposed development plan for an entire sub-division or tract of land containing more than one sub-division, including a distance surrounding the sub-division(s) on all sides.
SURVEY: A legal document containing a scale drawing and legal description of property, prepared by a licensed Kansas surveyor, and duly recorded with the County Register of Deeds.
TOPOGRAPHY: The configuration of a surface area showing North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88).
TURN-AROUND: An area at the closed end of a dead-end street or cul-de-sac within which vehicles may reverse their direction without any backing up.
URBAN STREETS: Those streets located within the corporate limits of the City.
VISION TRIANGLE: A triangular area at the intersection of streets maintained in such a manner as to provide a safe and open line of vision for drivers of vehicles and pedestrians approaching the intersection. Within the vision triangle, no one shall install, construct, plant, park, or maintain any sign, fence, hedge, shrubbery, tree, natural growth or other obstruction which would materially impede vision between the heights of 33 inches and eight feet above the street level. Such restrictions shall not apply to official traffic signs and signals and utility poles.
WATER TABLE: The upper surface of groundwater, or that level below where the soil is seasonally saturated with water.
WATERWAY: Any natural or artificial stream, river, creek, ditch, channel, canal, conduit, culvert, drain, waterway, gully, ravine or wash in which water flows in a definite direction or course, either continuously or intermittently, and has a definite channel, bed and banks, and includes any area adjacent thereto subject to inundation by reason of overflow or flood water.
ZERO LOT LINE: The location of a building on a lot in such a manner that one or more of the building’s sides rest directly on a lot line.