For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
Alley. A public or private right-of-way primarily designed to serve as secondary access to the side or rear of those properties whose principal frontage is on a street.
Applicant. The owner of land proposed to be subdivided, or that person’s representative.
Block. An area of land within a plat, consisting of one or more lots, which area is normally bounded by streets, or an exterior boundary of the plat, a river, or lake, or a combination of such boundaries or features.
Boulevard. The portion of the street right-of-way between the curb and the property line.
Buildable Land. Contiguous land area occurring within the property lines of a parcel of lot excluding wetlands, watercourses, ponds, public waters below the ordinary high water mark and easements for pipelines and utility transmission lines.
Building. Any structure used or intended for supporting or sheltering any use or occupancy.
Certificate of Survey. A land survey prepared by a land surveyor registered in the state with a certification that the information on the land survey is accurate.
Common Open Space. Any open space including parks, nature areas, playgrounds, trails, and recreational buildings and structures owned in common by a group of property owners.
Comprehensive Plan. The group of maps, charts, and texts that make up the development goals of the city.
Covenants. Restrictions, usually recorded, as to the manner in which land or a structure thereon may be used.
Cul-de-sac. A local street with only one outlet and having an appropriate terminal for the safe and convenient reversal of traffic movement.
Design Standards. The specifications for the preparation of preliminary and final plats indicating, among other things, the optimum, minimum, or maximum dimensions of such items as rights-of-way, blocks, easements, and lots.
Diameter at Breast Height. The diameter of a tree measured at diameter breast height (four and one-half feet from the uphill side of the existing ground level). If a tree splits into multiple trunks below four and one-half feet, then the trunk is measured at its narrowest point beneath the split.
Easement. A grant by a property owner for the use of land for the purpose of constructing and maintaining access, drainage, or utilities, including, but not limited to, sanitary sewers, water mains, electric lines, telephone lines, storm sewers or storm drainageways, and gas lines.
Essential Services. The erection, construction, alteration, or maintenance by private or public utilities, or municipal departments of underground or overhead telephone, gas, electrical, steam, hot water, waste, or water transmission, distribution, collection, supply, or disposal systems, including poles, wires, mains, drains, sewers, pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, hydrants, and other similar equipment and accessories in connection therewith for the furnishing of adequate service by such private or public utilities or municipal departments. Essential services shall not include waste facilities.
Final Plat. A drawing or map of a subdivision meeting all of the requirements of the city and in such form as required by the county for the purpose of recording.
Improvement, Public. Any improvement or facility for which a governmental body, including, but not limited to, the city or a school district, may assume the responsibility for maintenance and operation, or which may affect an improvement for which such responsibility already exists.
Lot. Land occupied or capable of being occupied by a building and its accessory buildings, together with such open spaces as are required under the provisions of the city zoning regulations having not less than the minimum area required by the zoning regulations for a building site in the district in which such lot is situated and having its principal frontage on a street. This definition does not include outlots.
Lot, Butt. A lot located at the end of a block and located between two corner lots.
Lot, Corner. A lot situated at the junction of and abutting on two or more intersecting streets, or a lot at the point of deflection in alignment of a single street, the interior angle of which is 135 degrees or less.
Lot Depth. The mean horizontal distance between the front lot line and the rear lot line of a lot (the greater frontage of a corner lot shall be deemed its depth and the lesser frontage its width).
Lot, Double Frontage. A lot which has a pair of opposite lot lines abutting two substantially parallel streets, and which is not a corner lot.
Lot, Flag. A lot without the required full lot width on a public roadway and with access to the public roadway provided to the bulk of the lot by means of a narrow strip or private easement.
Lot, Frontage. The front of a lot shall be, for the purposes of complying with this chapter, that boundary abutting a public right-of-way having the least width.
Lot Line. A property line bounding a lot except that where any portion of a lot extends into the public right-of-way, the lot line shall be deemed to be the boundary of said public right-of-way.
Lot, Through. A lot fronting on two parallel streets.
Lot Width. The horizontal distance between the side lot lines measured at right angles to the lot depth, at the minimum front building setback line.
Outlot. A remnant parcel of land created during the platting process, which parcel is intended as open space or other use, or for future development or platting.
Owner. A person having a legal or equitable title to, or some other possessory interest in, land.
Pedestrian Way. A public right-of-way or private easement across a block or within a block to provide access for pedestrians.
Plat. The drawing or map of a subdivision prepared for filing of record pursuant to M.S. Chapter 505, as it may be amended from time to time, and containing all elements and requirements set forth in M.S. Chapter 505, as it may be amended from time to time, and in this chapter.
Preliminary Plat. A tentative drawing or map of a proposed subdivision meeting requirements enumerated in this chapter. The term also refers to a stage of the subdivision review process and its required submittals.
Right-of-Way. Unencumbered land occupied or intended to be occupied by a street, water main, sanitary or storm sewer main, or for another uses specifically permitted by the City Council. The usage of the term “right-of-way” for land platting purposes shall mean that every right of way hereafter established and shown on a final plat is to be separate and distinct from the lots or parcels adjoining such right-of-way and not included within the dimensions or areas of such lots or parcels. Right-of-way intended for streets, water main, sanitary sewers, storm drains, or any other use involving maintenance by a public agency shall be dedicated to public use by the recording of the plat on which such right-of-way is established.
Setback. The required distance between a building and the property line nearest thereto.
Simple Subdivision. A review procedure for subdivisions which contains not more than four lots and which does not require the construction of any new street.
Street. A public right-of-way affording primary access by pedestrians or vehicles, or both, to abutting properties, whether designated as a street, highway, thoroughfare, parkway, road, avenue, or boulevard.
Street, Collector. Those streets which carry traffic from local streets to the major system of arterials and highways. Collector streets primarily provide principal access to residential neighborhoods, including, to a lesser degree, direct land access.
Street, Local. A street which is used primarily for access to abutting properties and for local traffic.
Street, Arterial. Those streets carrying larger volumes of traffic and serving as links between various areas of the community, city, and metropolitan area. Such streets are intended to provide for collection and distribution of traffic between highways and collector streets.
Street Width. The shortest distance between lines of lots delineating the street’s right-of-way.
Subdivision. A described tract of land which pursuant to the requirements of this chapter and state statutes is to be or has been divided into two or more parcels, or combined with an adjoining parcel so as to form one lot or parcel. The term includes conveyance, plats and platting, registered land surveys, and other means of division or joinder and, where it is appropriate to the context, relates either to the process of dividing or combining or to the land divided, combined, platted or conveyed. Does not include the following separations, which are exempted from the subdivision process by M.S. § 462.358, subd. 4b, as it may be amended from time to time:
1. Where all the resulting parcels, tracts, lots, or interests will be 20 acres or larger in size and 500 feet in width for residential uses and five acres or larger in size for commercial and industrial uses;
2. Creating cemetery lots; and
3. Resulting from court orders or the adjustment of a lot line by the relocation of a common boundary.
Tree. Any of the following type of trees, as each is defined herein:
Coniferous Tree. A woody plant which, at maturity, is at least 12 feet or more in height, having foliage on the outermost portion of the branches year round.
Deciduous Tree. A woody plant which, at maturity, is at least 15 feet or more in height, having a defined crown, and which sheds leaves annually. Diameter of the tree is measured two feet from the ground.
Significant Tree. A healthy deciduous tree having a diameter of six inches or greater when measured four feet from the ground or a coniferous tree measuring four inches in diameter or greater, when measured four feet from the ground.
Significant Tree Stand. A grouping or cluster of coniferous and/or deciduous trees with contiguous crown cover, occupying 500 or more square feet of property, which are comprised of deciduous trees six inches or larger in diameter or coniferous trees four inches in diameter.
Specimen Tree. A particularly impressive or unusual example of a species due to its size, shape, age, or other trait that epitomizes the character of the species.