For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICIAL. Chief Building and Code Official responsible for the supervision and administration of the Subdivision Ordinance of the City of Columbus/this chapter.
AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC (ADT). The average number of motor vehicles per day that pass over a given point or segment of street.
ALLEY. A public or private right-of-way generally designed to provide secondary access to the side or rear of a property whose principal frontage is on another street.
APPLICANT. An owner, developer or subdivider submitting an application to divide property pursuant to this chapter.
APPROVING AUTHORITY. The City Council of the City of Columbus.
ADMINISTRATIVE SUBDIVISION. An adjustment of lot lines of no more than four lots without creating additional or elimination of any lots and requires no extensions of streets, sewers, utilities or other municipal facilities, and complies with all preexisting zoning requirements following subdivision.
BICYCLE LANE AND PATH. A designated lane on a roadway or an exclusive path separated from a roadway, designed specifically to accommodate the physical requirements of bicycling. BICYCLE PATHS are ordinarily designed to accommodate other forms of non-motorized pedestrian recreation.
BUFFER. A landscaped area intended to separate and partially obstruct visual or other sensory effects of two adjacent land uses or properties from one another.
CARTWAY. The actual surface area of a road used to accommodate motor vehicles, including moving traffic lanes, acceleration and deceleration lanes and parking lanes. On a street with curbs, the CARTWAY is measured from curbline to curbline. On streets without curbs, the CARTWAY is measured between the outside edges of the established road surface.
CENTERLINE OFFSET. The gap between the centerline of roads intersecting a common road from the same or opposite sides.
CHANNEL. The bed or banks of a natural stream or drainage way, which convey the constant or intermittent flow of water, including storm runoff.
COMMON AREA. An area within a development that is not individually owned or dedicated for public use, but is designed and designated for common or cooperative use within a development.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. The Comprehensive Development Plan and Long Range Transportation Plan of the City of Columbus.
CONCEPT PLAN. A preliminary presentation, including any necessary documentation, of a proposed subdivision and/or future development plan, providing adequate information for the purpose of discussion or classification.
CONVENTIONAL SUBDIVISION. A subdivision, which literally meets all nominal standards of Chapter 151 and this Chapter 152 for lot dimensions, setbacks, street frontage and other site development regulations.
CUL-DE-SAC. A local street with only one outlet and with an opposite end providing for the reversal of traffic.
CURB. A vertical or sloping edge of a roadway, intended to define the edge of the cartway and to channel or control drainage.
DEDICATION. A grant of land to the city or another public agency for a public purpose.
DESIGN STANDARDS. Standards that set forth specific improvement requirements.
DETENTION BASIN. An artificial or natural water collection facility, designed to collect surface or subsurface water and to control its rate of discharge, in order to prevent a net increase in the rate of water flow that existed prior to a development. A DETENTION BASIN must have an overflow pipe or system connecting to the public storm sewer system.
DEVELOPER. The legal or beneficial owner(s) of any land included in a proposed development.
DEVELOPMENT. A planning or construction project involving substantial improvement or change in the character and/or land use of a property.
DIVIDED STREET. A street whose moving lanes in opposite directions is separated by a physical barrier such as a median.
DRAINAGE. The removal of surface or stormwater from land by drains, grading or other means.
DRAINAGE SYSTEM. The system through which water flows.
EASEMENT. A right-of-way granted, but not dedicated, for limited use of private land for a public or quasi-public purpose and which the owner must maintain free of structures which obstruct or limit its use for such purpose.
EROSION. The wearing away of a land surface by water, wind, ice or gravity.
FINAL APPROVAL. The final official action of the City Council, upon a recommendation by the Planning Commission, permitting the filing of a subdivision with the Platte County Register of Deeds and the conveyance of individual parcels and lots to subsequent owners. FINAL APPROVAL follows the completion of detailed engineering plans, development agreements, posting of required guarantees and other requirements of this chapter.
GRADE. The slope of a street or other public way, defined as a percentage or ratio of vertical change in elevation to horizontal change in distance.
KEY MAP. An aerial map a common engineering scale of not less than one inch to 600 feet showing the location of a development project or subdivision in reference to surrounding property. The MAP shall show existing streets and city limit lines. The area shown shall be sufficient to show how the proposed project or subdivision will fit into existing developments.
LOT. A parcel of real property with a separate and distinct number shown on a plat, record, survey, parcel map or subdivision map recorded in the office of the Platte County Register of Deeds. A LOT is ordinarily established for the purpose of transfer of title and/or development which includes, but is not limited to, lots for townhouses or clusters of row homes. All LOTS shall have a direct connection to a public or private roadway right-of-way regardless of ownership.
LOT AREA. The size of a lot measured within its boundaries and expressed in terms of square feet or acres.
LOT FRONTAGE. The portion of a lot extending along a public street or private drive line.
MAIN. The principal artery of a system of continuous piping which conveys fluids and to which branches may be connected.
MAJOR SUBDIVISION. Any subdivision not defined and approved as an administrative subdivision or as a minor subdivision.
MINOR SUBDIVISION. An adjustment of lot lines of two or more lots without creating additional lots or a subdivision of land which creates no more than four lots from any single block or lot of an addition or subdivision, tract or parcel of land; requires no extensions of streets, sewers, utilities or other municipal facilities; and complies with all pre-existing zoning requirements following subdivision.
MOVING LANE. Any traffic lane within a cartway where traffic movement is the primary or sole function.
NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION AGENCY (NFPA). A global non-profit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards.
OFF-SITE. Located outside the boundaries of the parcel that is the subject of an application.
OPEN SPACE. Any parcel or area of land or water that is retained in an open state and set aside for public or private use.
PARKING LANE. A lane located on the sides of streets, designated or allowing on-street parking of motor vehicles.
PAVEMENT. An impermeable, hard surface, typically asphalt, asphaltic concrete, concrete or brick or other masonry paver units.
PLAT. A document, usually a map or maps, expressing the division of land into two or more lots or parcels, any one of which is ten acres or less. PLATS include preliminary and final plats.
(1) FINAL PLAT. The final plat of the subdivision which is presented for final approval. The FINAL PLAT contains detailed information, legal survey and documentation and is designed to be filed with the register of deeds.
(2) PRELIMINARY PLAT. A plat indicating the proposed layout of a development and related information, intended for the purpose of preliminary approval by approving authorities but not for filing with the Platte County Register of Deeds.
PRIVATE STREET. Privately owned and maintained access to a lot or parcel and shall have a public easement for utility and fire access.
RIGHT-OF-WAY. A strip of land, generally linear, occupied or intended to be occupied by a system that conveys people, traffic, fluids, utilities or energy from one point to another. RIGHTS-OF-WAY may include streets and roads, crosswalks, bicycle paths, recreational trails, railroads or fixed guideway transit, electric transmission infrastructure, communication infrastructure, gas pipelines, water mains or sewer mains.
SANITARY SEWER. A sewer that conducts sanitary wastes from a point of origin to a treatment or disposal facility. In developing areas, SANITARY SEWERS normally include interceptor, outfall and lateral sewers.
(1) INTERCEPTOR. A sanitary sewer that serves as a trunk, collecting sewage generated by a number of individual developments.
(2) LATERAL or LOCAL. A pipe that connects individual buildings or groups of buildings to an outfall or interceptor sewer.
(3) OUTFALL. A sanitary sewer that may be developed to connect an individual subdivision or development to an interceptor sewer.
SEPTIC SYSTEM. An underground system utilizing a watertight receptacle to receive the discharge of sewage, which provides for the decomposition of wastes produced by development on a single lot.
SIDEWALK. A concrete or brick paved path provided for pedestrian use, usually located at the side of and detached from a road, but within the right-of-way.
STORM SEWER. A conduit which conducts storm drainage from a development or subdivision, ultimately to a treatment facility, drainage way or stream.
STREET. A right-of-way dedicated to public use which provides a primary means of access to an abutting lot or parcel.
STREET HIERARCHY. The conceptual arrangement of streets based on function. Street types contained within the HIERARCHY include:
(1) Private street or frontage road;
(2) Local;
(3) Collector;
(4) Minor arterial;
(5) Major arterial; and
(6) Expressway.
SUBDIVISION. The division of a lot, tract or parcel into two or more lots, tracts, parcels or other units of land for title transfer or development, when one of the resultants lots is equal to ten acres or less. The term SUBDIVISION includes any time the creation of a public street or roadway is involved, but excludes the acquisition of land by the state, county or city, by eminent domain or otherwise, for the creation, extension or widening of a public street or roadway. The term also includes re-platting and, when appropriate to the context, re-platting shall be subject to the rules and regulations contained in this chapter and shall apply to land previously subdivided.
TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEY. USGA elevation plan to the latest NAVD showing height, depth, size and location of all manmade and natural features and improvements on a given parcel of land and adjacent properties and rights-of-way, as well as the changes in elevation, using a 50-foot grid to achieve one-foot contours throughout.
(Ord. 23-09, passed 8-21-2023)