(A) Penalties for violation.
(1) After the effective date of this subchapter, any person who, being the owner or agent of the owner of any land located within the territorial jurisdiction of this subchapter, thereafter subdivides his or her land in violation of this subchapter or transfers or sell land by reference to, exhibition of, or any other use of a plat showing a subdivision of the land before the plat has been properly approved under the terms of this subchapter and recorded in the office of the Watauga or Avery County Register of Deeds, shall be subject to a civil penalty in the amount of $100 to be recovered by the town. The description by metes and bounds instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transferring land shall not exempt the transaction from this penalty. Violators shall be issued a written citation which must be paid within 72 hours.
(2) Each day's continuing violation of this subchapter shall be a separate and distinct offense.
(3) Notwithstanding division (A)(1) above, this subchapter may also be enforced by appropriate equitable remedies issuing from a court of competent jurisdiction.
(4) Violation of this subchapter shall not be a misdemeanor.
(B) Separability. 1 Should any section or provision of this subchapter be decided by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional or invalid, such decision shall not affect the validity of the subchapter as a whole or any part thereof other than the part so declared to be unconstitutional or invalid. Should the requirements of these regulations conflict with any others in the Zoning Ordinance, the more stringent shall apply.
(C) Abrogation. This subchapter shall neither repeal, abrogate, annul, impair nor interfere with any existing subdivision, the plats of which are properly recorded in the office of the Register of Deeds prior to the effective date of this subchapter nor with the existing easements, covenants, deed restrictions, agreements or permits previously adopted or issued pursuant to law prior to the effective date of this subchapter.
(D) Effective date. 2 This subchapter shall take effect and be in force from and after its adoption by the Town Council of the Town of Beech Mountain, this 12th day of July, 1983.
(1989 Code, Title V, Ch. 51, Art. XVIII, § 1810) (Ord. passed 6-4-1985; Ord. passed 10-9-1991; Ord. 2021-03, passed 6-8-2021)
Editor's note:
1 Division (B) amended October 9, 1991.
2 Division (D) added by amendment June 4, 1985.