(A) Administration.
(1) The Town Manager shall be the Administrator of this chapter.
(2) The Town Manager shall be responsible for administering the provisions of this chapter, providing necessary materials and information to the Planning and Zoning Board and Town Council and performing all other duties consistent with the administration of this chapter.
(3) It shall further be the duty of the Town Manager to enforce these regulations and to bring to the attention of the Liberty Town Attorney any violation or lack of compliance herewith.
(B) Procedure for plat approval. After the effective date of this chapter, no subdivision plat of land within the territorial jurisdiction of the Town of Liberty shall be filed or recorded until it has been submitted to and approved by the Town of Liberty and until approval is certified in writing on the face of the plat by the Town Manager.
(C) Enforcement.
(1) Register of Deeds. After the effective date of this chapter, the Register of Deeds shall not file or record a plat of a subdivision of land located within the territorial jurisdiction of the Town of Liberty that has not been approved in accordance with these provisions, nor shall the Clerk of Superior Court order or direct the recording of a plat if the recording would be in conflict with this section.
(2) Building Inspector. After the effective date of this chapter, the Building Inspector(s) shall not issue any permits for construction until a final plat has been approved and recorded in accordance with these provisions.
(3) Violation. It is a violation of this chapter to record any deed indicating a lot on a preliminary or sketch plat until a final plat has been recorded.
(D) Penalties for violation.
(1) After the effective date of this chapter, any person who, being the owner or agent of the owner of any land located within the territorial jurisdiction of this chapter, thereafter subdivides his or her land in violation of this chapter or transfers or sells land by reference to, exhibition of, or any other uses of a plat showing a subdivision of the land before the plat has been properly approved under the terms of this chapter and recorded in the office of the Randolph County Register of Deeds, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
(2) The description by metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transferring land shall not exempt the transaction from this penalty.
(3) The Town of Liberty through its attorney or other official designated by the Town Council, may enjoin illegal subdivision, transfer or sale of land, and the court shall, upon appropriate findings, issue an injunction and order requiring the offending party to comply with the Subdivision Chapter. Further, violators of this chapter shall be subject, upon conviction, to fine and/or imprisonment as provided by G.S. § 14-4.
(E) Effect of plat approval on dedications. The approval of a plat pursuant to this chapter shall not be deemed to constitute or effect the acceptance by the Town of Liberty of the dedication or maintenance of any street or other ground, public utility line or other public facility shown on the plat.
(F) Variances.
(1) Where, because of severe topographical or other conditions peculiar to the site, strict adherence to the provisions of this chapter would cause an unnecessary hardship, the Town Council upon recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Board, may authorize a variance to the terms of this chapter only to the extent that is absolutely necessary and not to an extent which would violate the intent of the chapter.
(2) All requests for variances shall be submitted in writing, by the subdivider or his or her agent, to the Town Manager. The request shall be accompanied by materials providing sufficient evidence to support the claim of hardship.
(G) Amendments.
(1) The Town Council of the Town of Liberty may from time to time amend the terms of this chapter, but no amendment shall become effective unless it shall have been proposed by or shall have been submitted to the Planning and Zoning Board for review and recommendation.
(2) The Planning and Zoning Board shall have 60 days within which to submit its report. If the Planning and Zoning Board fails to submit a report within the specified time, it shall be deemed to have approved the amendment.
(3) Upon receipt of the Planning and Zoning Board's recommendation, or upon the expiration of the above mentioned 60-day period with no recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Board, the Town Council shall schedule a public hearing on the proposed amendment.
(4) After the hearing the Town Council may adopt, by ordinance, amendments to this chapter.
(H) Abrogation. It is not intended that this chapter repeal, abrogate, annul, impair or interfere with any existing easements, covenants, deed restrictions, permits previously issued pursuant to law or other agreements between parties, provided however, where this chapter imposes greater restrictions upon the land or requires a higher standard of development, the provision of this chapter shall govern.
(I) Re-enactment and repeal of existing Subdivision Chapter.
(1) This chapter in part carries forward by re-enactment some of the provisions of the Town of Liberty Subdivision Chapter adopted September 28, 1981 as amended, and it is not the intention to repeal but rather to re-enact and continue in force those existing provisions so that all rights and liabilities that have accrued thereunder are preserved and may be enforced.
(2) All provisions of the Subdivision Chapter, which are not re-enacted herein are hereby repealed.
(3) All suits at law or in equity and/or all prosecutions resulting from the violation of any subdivision ordinance heretofore in effect, which are now pending in any of the courts of this state or of the United States, shall not be abated or abandoned by reason of the adoption of this chapter, but shall be prosecuted to their finality the same as if this chapter had not been adopted; and any and all violations of the existing chapter, prosecutions for which had not yet been instituted, may be hereafter filed and prosecuted; and nothing in this chapter shall be construed as to abandon, abate or dismiss any litigation or prosecution now pending and/or which may heretofore have been instituted or prosecuted.
(Ord. passed 5-26-1997)