The following words and phrases used in this title shall have the following meanings unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:
ALLEY: A public right-of-way primarily designed to serve as a secondary access to the side or rear of those properties whose principal frontage is on some other street.
APPLICANT: The owner of the land proposed to be subdivided or developed, or his representatives who shall have express written authority to act on behalf of the owner.
APPROACH: That portion of the driveway located between the street pavement or curb and the outside edge of the sidewalk, or property line.
BEDROOM: Any private room in a dwelling unit suitable for regular use for sleeping purposes, and having a closet. Bedrooms include rooms designated on development floor plans as dens, studios, offices or libraries, but excluding living rooms, family rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and mudrooms. Any room designated as other than a bedroom having a closet, but in the judgment of the Director of Public Works would normally be usable for sleeping purposes, shall be considered a bedroom.
BLOCK: A tract of land bounded by streets, or by a combination of streets and public parks, cemeteries, railroad rights-of-way, shorelines of waterways, or boundary lines of municipalities.
BUILDING: Any structure built for the support, shelter or enclosure of persons, animals, chattel or moveable property of any kind.
CERTIFY: Whenever this title requires that any agency or official certify the existence of some fact or circumstance, the City by administrative rule may require that such certification be made in any manner, oral or written, which provides reasonable assurance of the accuracy of the certification.
CITY: The City of McHenry, Illinois.
CITY COUNCIL: The Corporate Authorities of the City of McHenry, Illinois.
CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT: A development design technique that concentrates buildings in specific areas on a site to allow the remaining land to be used for recreation, common open space and preservation of environmentally sensitive features.
COMMON OWNERSHIP: Ownership by the same person, corporation, firm, entity, partnership or unincorporated association; or ownership by different corporations, firms, entities, partnerships or unincorporated associations, in which a stockbroker, partner or associate, or a member of his family, owns an interest in each corporation, firm, entity, partnership or unincorporated association.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN: The composite of the functional and geographic elements of the official plan of the City and environs or any segment thereof, in the form of plans, maps, charts, text of reports, implementing ordinances and including the Official Map.
CONDOMINIUM: A unit available for sale in fee simple contained in a multi-occupancy project subject to covenants and restrictions placing control over the common facilities in an elected board.
CUL-DE-SAC: A local street with only one outlet that terminates in a vehicular turnaround and having an appropriate terminal for the safe and convenient reversal of traffic movement.
DESIGN STANDARDS, MINIMUM: All codes, ordinances, regulations and written administrative policies and orders of the City, as amended from time to time, establishing standards and specifications for construction, including, without limitation, construction of public or private improvements as part of a subdivision or development.
DEVELOPER: The owner of land proposed to be subdivided or improved, or its representative, who is responsible for any undertaking that requires review and/or approval under these regulations. See definition of subdivider.
DEVELOPMENT: The construction of a new building or structure having a total floor area in excess of five hundred (500) square feet, other than one single-family dwelling unit; expansion by more than twenty five percent (25%) of an existing structure to which this title would apply if the structure were being constructed new; or activity that results in either more than three thousand (3,000) square feet of additional impervious area or more than one acre of hydrologically disturbed area; any of which may not be included within the definition of SUBDIVISION, as defined in this section.
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: The City of McHenry Director of Public Works, or his or her duly authorized designee.
DRIVEWAY: The paved area providing vehicular access from a street, alley or public way, to an open or enclosed parking area on private property.
DRIVEWAY APRON: The area of the driveway located in the public right-of-way, between the public walk or property line, and the paved surface of the streets.
EASEMENT: A strip of privately owned land occupied or intended to be occupied by a street, crosswalk, railroad, road, electric transmission line, oil or gas pipeline, water main, sanitary or storm sewer main, shade trees, or for any other similar public use.
ENGINEERING PLANS: The complete maps, drawings and analysis governing the specific location, design and construction of public or private improvements to be installed in accordance with the requirements of this title and of the City as a condition of the approval of a subdivision or development.
FLARE: The difference in width of a driveway approach at the outer edge of the sidewalk or the property line if no sidewalk exists, and the street pavement or curb.
HYDROLOGICALLY DISTURBED: An area where the land surface has been cleared, compacted or otherwise modified that changes stormwater runoff, volumes, rates or direction.
IMPROVEMENT, PUBLIC: Any facility necessary, in the determination of the City, to provide a parcel with access to a public right-of-way or with utility service of any kind, including, but not limited to, water, sanitary sewage treatment or disposal, stormwater control or drainage, or other necessary public service, such as a street, alley, drainage ditch, sidewalk, landscaping, off street parking area, or lot improvement.
LOT: A tract, plot or portion of a subdivision or other parcel of land intended as a unit for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of transfer of ownership, or possession, or for building development.
OFFICIAL MAP: The map established by the City showing streets, highways, parks, drainage systems laid out, adopted and established by law and any amendments or additions thereto resulting from the City’s actions or approval of subdivision plats.
OWNER: The record owners of the fee or a vendee in possession, including any person, group of persons, firm or firms, corporation or corporations, or any other legal entity having legal title to or sufficient proprietary interest in the land sought to be subdivided under the definition of common ownership.
PARKING LOT: A paved open area that is accessory to a main use on the property where operable vehicles are kept when not in use.
PARKWAY: A strip of land within the right-of-way between the street pavement or curb and the outside edge of the sidewalk, or property line.
PERSON: Any individual or group of individuals, or any corporation, general or limited partnership, joint venture, unincorporated association, or governmental or quasi-governmental organization.
PERSONNEL, RETAINED: Any engineer, attorney, planner, economist or other technical, professional or other expert paid and retained by the City to assist or advise the City, directly or indirectly, in planning, reviewing, evaluating, advising, approving, inspecting or accepting any development, subdivision and/or subdivision improvement.
PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT (PUD): A development constructed on a tract under common ownership planned and developed as an integral unit and consisting of a combination of residential and/or nonresidential uses on the land.
PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION: The City of McHenry Planning and Zoning Commission.
REQUIREMENTS OF LAW: All applicable Federal, State of Illinois, and City laws, statutes, codes, ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations, and written administrative policies of the City, including, without limitation, the City Technical Specifications Manual.
RESUBDIVISION: The further division of lots or relocation of lot lines of any lot or lots within a subdivision previously made and approved or recorded according to law, not including those exception set forth in the Plat Act.
RIGHT-OF-WAY: Any publicly dedicated strip of land owned, occupied or intended to be occupied by a street, crosswalk, railroad, road, electric transmission line, oil or gas pipeline, water main, sanitary or storm sewer main, shade trees, or for any other special use.
SALE OR LEASE: Any immediate or future transfer of ownership, or any possessory interest in land, including contract of sale, lease, devise, interstate succession, or other transfer of an interest in a subdivision or part thereof, whether by metes and bounds or lot and block description.
SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARD AREA: An area having special flood, mudslide or mudflow, or flood related erosion hazards, which is shown on a Flood Insurance Rate Map or Flood Boundary and Floodway Map issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
STREET: A public or private right-of-way that affords a primary means of vehicular access to abutting properties, however designated.
SUBDIVIDE: The act or process of creating a subdivision.
SUBDIVIDER: Any person who: a) having an interest in land, causes it, directly or indirectly, to be divided into a subdivision; or b) directly or indirectly, sells, leases or develops, or offers to sell, lease or develop, or advertises to sell, lease or develop, an interest, lot, parcel site, unit, or plat in a subdivision; or c) engages directly or through an agent in the business of selling, leasing, developing or offering for sale, lease or development a subdivision or any interest, lot, parcel site, unit or plat in a subdivision; or d) is directly or indirectly controlled by, or under direct or indirect common control with any of the forgoing.
SUBDIVISION: The partitioning or dividing of a parcel or tract of land which creates two (2) or more parcels of land, any of which is less than five (5) acres in area, not including those exceptions set forth in the Plat Act.
TOWNHOME: A dwelling unit that is attached to one or more other dwelling units on the same lot and that has an individual private ground level entrance to the outside and no portion of which is located above any other unit or portion thereof.
WETLAND: Areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.
(Ord. 04-841, 1-19-2004, eff. 2-1-2004; amd. Ord. 08-968; Ord. 12-1059; 2019 Code)