Site Development Questions

[johnsmith8]

I am new at site development and have questions regarding who has the jurisdiction over the piece of land. My understanding is that sometimes the township has the jurisdictions and sometimes the county has the jurisdiction. Can someone tell me where I can find out who has the jurisdiction over the land to be developed? And if that government body has the jurisdiction, I need to comply with their code, law, ordinances when designing, is this correct? And if you have any other tips/books/websites regarding site development that you want to share, I appreciated very much. Thanks in advance for your responses and contributions.

 

[concretemasonry]

AS a start, check with the local authorities (county and township) for the details on who has jusidiction over different items. You may find a real maze of authorities that may conflict.

If this is a development the that sate and natural resouces may have some jurisdiction in addition to the Corps of engineers if it near some rivers. Even without building codes electrical planning and work could be under the approval and even inspection down to the individual unit level. The state health department will have some jurisdiction over wells and sewerage.

Dick

 

[civilperson]

Usually the most strict rules are town codes and they apply OUTSIDE the town limits to the extant of the zoning influence. Check with town officials as to limits of zoning and if the codes are applied for that area, if not then county, state or Fire Marshall rules apply.

 

[francesca]

Who is in charge of what depends on where you are. For example, when I worked in middle TN:

City subdivisions:
* Street department for roads and drainage (grading permit)
* City engineer for sewers and water
* TDEC (water pollution control, local office) for NOI/SWPPP and ARAPs
* TDEC (water supply) for Class V injection wells (sink holes)
* Prelim and final plats to County Planning Commission
* USACE for anything below the flowage easement

County subdivisions:
* County Highways department for roads
* Building & Codes for drainage (grading permit)
* Building and Codes for septic areas
* Local water authority for water
* TDEC (water pollution control, central office) for STEP/STEG sewers
* TDEC (water pollution control, local office) for NOI/SWPPP and ARAPs
* TDEC (water supply) for Class V injection wells (sink holes)
* Prelim and final plats to County Planning Commission
* USACE for anything below the flowage easement

The City/County has a population of >100,000 (not including local army base) and is one of the fastest growing in TN, so they're pretty well organized. Just north of the border in the podunk KY town they had little by way of subdivision/zoning regulations. The only thing stopping unscrupulous developers from plastering the town with trailer parks and dense apartment buildings was the inability to find large enough septic areas amid all the sink holes.

 

[zehowze]

A good book for someone new to site development is the Land Development Handbook by the Dewberry Companies. As far as websites check out Land Development Today online,

http://www.landdevelopmenttoday.com.

 

[civilperson]

Hooray for developers who allow trailer homes and strip malls!

 

[JKFCE]

I've found that larger cities have jurisdiction over most aspects of the land development process(planning, zoning, subdivision/ platting, landscaping, roads, drainage, building, fire, water, sewer, dry utilities, erosion control, storing hazardous material, etc). In the smaller towns, the township will have jurisdiction over a few things, the county will have a few things, and the state will have a few things. Also, there are a few states that have not developed their own DEQ requirements for things like erosion control and the USEPA governs. This can be very confusing and frustrating when you're trying to streamline your office procedures for project start up. We work all over the country and, because of the inherent variability, the first thing we do when we start a new project is try to find out who has jurisdiction over each aspect of the project. There is a basic list of things that are common to all projects, so just start at the smallest entity (the township) and ask if they have jurisdiction over [enter list here]. If the answer is "no", they probably know who does have jurisdiction and will let you know. Work your way up until you have answered all of your questions. Whoever has authority also makes the rules, so you might have to answer to 3 or 4 different entities to get your project built.