For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
AFFECTED ENTITY. A county, municipality, local district, special service district created under state law, school district, interlocal cooperation entity established under state law, specified property owner, property owners association, public utility or the Department of Transportation.
AGRICULTURAL. The tilling of the soil, raising of crops, horticulture, including the grazing and pasturing of domestic animals, but not including any agricultural business such as fruit packing plants, fur farms, animal hospitals or similar uses.
AGRICULTURAL LAND. Land devoted to the raising of useful plants and animals with a reasonable expectation of profit, including: forages and sod crops, grains and feed crops, livestock, trees and fruits, or vegetables, nursery, floral and ornamental stock; or land devoted to and meeting the requirements and qualifications for payments or other compensation under a crop-land retirement program with an agency of the state or federal government.
AGRICULTURAL ZONE DISTRICT. Those areas designated in the Zoning Ordinance of the county as A-1 and where the primary permitted land use is agriculture.
ANGLE. The rotation required to superimpose either of two lines on the other.
APPEAL AUTHORITY. The person, board, commission, agency or other body designated by ordinance to decide an appeal of a decision of a land use application or a variance.
ARC. A segment of a (surveyed) curve.
BEARING. The angular direction of a line on a survey.
BLOCK. A segment of a platted subdivision usually containing one or more lots.
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. The Board of San Juan County Commissioners.
CERTIFICATION. The confirmation of an official document or a copy thereof by an authorized official.
COLLATERAL. Funds or some other valuable pledged as security against a promise to repay or perform certain actions.
CONFIGURATION. The shape of a boundary or perimeter line, the shape of a lot, block or subdivision.
COUNTY. San Juan County, Utah.
CULINARY. Water intended for human consumption, usually required to meet certain health standards.
DEDICATION. The conveyance of land or an easement thereon through a final plat or other instrument to a public agency or to one or more persons for a specific purpose.
DELINEATE. To draw or trace the outline of.
DIVIDED LAND. Land that is described as the land to be divided in a notice as required by this chapter and has been divided by a minor subdivision.
DWELLING UNIT. A structure or portion thereof designed to provide permanent living accommodations for an individual or family.
EASEMENT. A right, such as a right-of-way, afforded a person to make limited use of another’s real property.
ESCROW DEPOSIT. The placement of cash in a special account held by a bank or other financial institution to be released upon completion of specific tasks such as construction of a road.
FIRST LIEN AND RESTRICTION OF SALE. A form of collateral wherein the county places a lien on one or more lots in a subdivision and prohibits the sale of those lots until specified public improvements have been satisfactorily completed.
FLOODPLAIN. Land that is within the 100-year flood plain designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or has not been studied or designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but presents a likelihood of experiencing chronic flooding or a catastrophic flood event because the land has characteristics that are similar to those of a 100-year floodplain designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FLOODPLAIN DATA. Information that defines the boundary of a floodplain, either mapped or given in elevations.
HIGH DENSITY SUBDIVISION. When a subdivision has ten or more lots within a concentrated area.
IMPACT FEES. Fees that may be required to provide required infrastructure improvements and/or services.
LAND TO BE DIVIDED. Land that is proposed to be divided by a platted or minor subdivision.
LAND USE APPLICATION. An application required by a county’s land use ordinance.
LAND USE AUTHORITY. A person, board, commission, agency or other body designated by the local legislative body to act upon a land use application.
LETTER OF CREDIT. A document issued by a bank or other financial institution which guarantees a subdivider or developer a specific amount of credit and which can be called by the county for failure to perform specified improvements.
LOT. A parcel or unit of ground described by metes and bounds or as a numbered lot or parcel in a recorded subdivision and held or intended to be held in a separate lease or ownership.
LOT CORNER. A lot abutting two or more streets at their intersection or upon two parts of the same street when such streets or parts of the same street form an interior angle of less than 135 degrees.
LOT DEPTH. The horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.
LOT FRONTAGE. That part of a front lot line that abuts a street.
LOT LINE ADJUSTMENT. The relocation of the property boundary line in a subdivision between two adjoining lots with the consent of the owners of record pursuant to state law.
LOT WIDTH. The horizontal distance between the side yard lines.
MINOR SUBDIVISION. A division of land into no more than ten lots or a division of land that is compliant with state law as follows:
(1) The parent parcel shall be at least 100 contiguous acres of agricultural land;
(2) One new lot, of at least one acre in size and after division is separate from the remainder of the original 100 or more contiguous acres of agricultural land, may be created; and
(3) May not be within 1,000 feet of another minor subdivision created through this definition.
MINOR SUBDIVISION LOT. A lot created by a minor subdivision.
MYLAR.
(1) A thin polyester material that when drawn upon can be reproduced on a blue or black line print; and
(2) The official copy of a subdivision plat.
OFFICIAL. Any elected official or their designated deputy of the county or the appointed Administrative Assistant, Building Inspector, Surveyor, Subdivision Administrator or Zoning Administrator of the county.
OWNER OF RECORD. The individual named on a deed that has been recorded at the County Recorder’s office.
PARCEL OF RECORD. Any lot, tract, parcel or other piece of land that was recorded at the County Recorder’s office.
PERFORMANCE BOND. A form of collateral, issued by a bonding company which guarantees a specified amount of money to be paid in the event of failure to perform by a subdivider or other person.
PERIMETER BOUNDARY. A line around any piece of property such as a lot, block or subdivision which encloses and separates that piece from adjacent pieces.
PERSON. Any individual or agent of an individual, a family entity, a corporation, a public entity or any other organization or association that has the legal right to own, lease or use property.
PLANNING COMMISSION, SAN JUAN COUNTY. A seven-member board appointed by the Board of County Commissioners. The PLANNING COMMISSION serves the community by healing and making a variety of decisions on county planning and zoning issues that impact the county and its residents. For the purposes of this chapter, the PLANNING COMMISSION may be the land use authority.
PLAT. A map or other graphical representation of lands being laid out and prepared in accordance with state law and this chapter which serves as an instrument for approval by the Board of County Commissioners of the county.
PLAT, FINAL. The official signed plat which is recorded with the County Recorder.
PLAT, PRELIMINARY. The map or maps of a proposed subdivision, and specified supporting materials prepared in sufficient detail to permit the evaluation of the subdivision prior to final engineering design and survey.
PUBLIC HEARING. A hearing at which members of the public are provided a reasonable opportunity to comment on the subject of the hearing.
PUBLIC MEETING. A meeting that is required to be open to the public under the Open and Public Meetings Act of the state.
RADII. (Plural of RADIUS.) A line segment between the center of a circle and any point on its circumference.
RECORDER. The County Recorder of San Juan County, Utah.
RIGHT-OF-WAY. A legal right of passage over another person’s ground.
ROAD. See STREET, PUBLIC.
ROAD, COUNTY. A road or highway designated as a county road and maintained by the county.
ROAD, PRIVATE. A road or driveway on privately-owned property, limited to the use of the owner or a group of owners who share the use and maintain the road without assistance from the county. A PRIVATE ROAD has not been given to or accepted by the county for public use and maintenance.
SEAL. The official seal of a licensed professional land surveyor.
SECTION LINE. The line delineating the boundary of a section of land in the United States Geological Survey.
SEWER SYSTEM, PRIVATE. A system for treatment and disposal of household sewage that is owned by an individual or several individuals and designed to serve the owners property only (e.g., septic tank and leach field systems).
SEWER SYSTEM, PUBLIC. An approved sanitary sewer system containing transmission lines and treatment facilities owned and operated by a public entity such as a municipality or special district.
SIGHT DISTANCE TRIANGLE. The area at the intersection of two streets or roads or where a driveway enters a street or road, which is intended to allow a clear line of sight of oncoming vehicles.
STOCK-PROOF FENCE. A fence designed to contain or prevent cattle, horses, sheep or other domestic animals from entering or leaving the fenced area.
STREET, PUBLIC. A public right-of-way, including a highway, avenue, boulevard, parkway, road, lane, walk, alley, viaduct, subway, tunnel, bridge, public easement or other way.
SUBDIVIDE. Any division of an existing parcel of land in accordance with this chapter.
SUBDIVIDER. Any person or agent of a person who causes land to be subdivided.
SUBDIVISION. The division, re-subdivision or proposal to divide any land into two or more lots, parcels, sites, units, plots or other division of land for the purpose, whether immediate or future, for offer, sale, lease, development, either on the installment plan or upon any and all other plans, terms or conditions. SUBDIVISION does not include:
(1) A bona fide division or partition of agricultural land for agricultural purposes;
(2) A recorded agreement between owners of adjoining properties adjusting their mutual boundary if:
(a) No new lot is created; and
(b) The adjustment does not violate applicable land use ordinances.
(3) A recorded document, executed by the owner of record:
(a) Revising the legal description of more than one contiguous unsubdivided parcel of property into one legal description encompassing all such parcels of property; or
(b) Joining a subdivided parcel of property to another parcel of property that has not been subdivided, if the joinder does not violate applicable land use ordinances.
(4) A bona fide division or partition of land for the purpose of siting on one or more of the resulting separate parcels:
(a) An electrical transmission line or a substation;
(b) A natural gas pipeline or a regulation station;
(c) An unmanned telecommunications, microwave, fiber optic, electrical or other utility service regeneration, transformation, retransmission or amplification facility; or
(d) A data gathering tower or turbine for the generation of electricity.
(5) A recorded agreement between owners of adjoining subdivided properties adjusting their mutual boundary if:
(a) No new dwelling lot or housing unit will result from the adjustment; and
(b) The adjustment will not violate any applicable land use ordinance.
(6) A bona fide division or partition of land by deed or other instrument where the land use authority expressly approves in writing the division in anticipation of further land use approvals on the parcel or parcels; and
(7) The joining of a subdivided parcel of property to another parcel of property that has not been subdivided does not constitute a SUBDIVISION under this definition as to the unsubdivided parcel of property or subject the unsubdivided parcel to this chapter.
SUBDIVISION, PHASE(S). Carrying out a subdivision in gradual stages. SUBDIVISION PHASE(S) may not be one lot and must be contiguous to other parts of the subdivision.
SUBDIVISION ADMINISTRATOR.
(1) The official or employee of the county appointed by the Board of County Commissioners to administer this chapter.
(2) For the purposes of this chapter, the SUBDIVISION ADMINISTRATOR may be the land use authority.
SUBDIVISION IMPROVEMENT AGREEMENT. A contract between a subdivider or developer and the county which specifies the required public improvements to be constructed in or in support of a subdivision including the estimated costs and the method of guarantee the collateral, to ensure the improvements are constructed.
STORM WATER DETENTION. The holding of storm water on a particular site through the use of swales or structures that are designed to release the water at a specified rate.
SURVEY MONUMENT. An object placed or built to identify a survey reference point, usually a section corner on the land.
TOPOGRAPHICAL CONTOURS. Horizontal lines on a map indicating an elevation above a specified point, usually sea level, and containing intermittent lines in intervals usually of two feet, five feet or other specified distances.
UNIT COSTS. The cost of a specified segment or part of an improvement usually expressed as a cost per linear foot.
UNINCORPORATED. The area outside of the incorporated area of a municipality.
VACATE.
(1) To abandon or relinquish a right to use a specific piece of land such as a road, right-of-way or easement; or
(2) To void a subdivision or portion thereof and return it to unplatted status.
VELOCITY (WATER). The rate of flow at a specific point usually stated in cubic feet per seconds (cfs) or gallons per minute (gpm).
VICINITY MAP. A small scale map shown as an insert on a larger map that indicates the location of a subdivision or other pieces of land in relation to a much larger geographic area.
WATER SYSTEM, PRIVATE. A source of water and the transmission lines owned by one or more persons to serve only his, her or their property (i.e., an individual domestic well).
WATER SYSTEM, PUBLIC. A source of water, including transmission lines and treatment facilities owned by a public entity such as a municipality or special district to provide water to their residents.
ZONING MAP. A map, adopted as part of a land use ordinance, that depicts land use zones, overlays or districts.
(Ord. passed 4- -2016)