Land Use Regulations Series – Did you Know

A subdivision is a “division of land that creates one or more parcels containing less than 160 acres…in order that the title to or possession of the parcel may be sold, rented, leased or otherwise conveyed…” A minor subdivision creates one to five lots and a major subdivision creates six or more lots.

Over the past six years the Richland County Planner Office has reviewed approximately 111 subdivision applications and 22 amended subdivision applications and examined 147 certificates of surveys, for a total of 280 applications. 44 of the 111 subdivision applications were major applications.

The governing bodies of Richland County, City of Sidney, and the Town of Fairview adopted subdivision regulations according to Montana Code Annotated Title 76 “Montana Subdivision and Platting Act”. The purpose of the regulations is to promote public health, safety and general welfare by regulating the subdivision of lands in such ways to prevent overcrowding of land, lessen congestion in the streets and highways, provide for adequate water supply, sewage disposal, parks, and other public requirements, promote preservation of open space, and to protect the rights of the property owners

Before you plan to sell, rent, lease or convey a parcel, prior to any development according to the subdivision regulations. “Construction work shall not occur on land proposed for subdivision until the governing body has given conditional approval of the preliminary plat. Construction work undertaken prior to the preliminary plat approval subjects the subdivider to the possibility the work will have to be redone or removed.”

The most commonly asked question is, “How long does the review take?” The answer is that the timeline depends on a lot of factors. It can take up to one year or more depending on such things like: how complete the application is, how detailed the application is, and the applicant’s response time after each review step is completed.

The full review timeline and process is outlined in Section II, III and IV of the regulations. There are three main stages: 1) Pre-Application Meeting; 2) Submittal of preliminary plat application; and 3) final plat application.

The pre-application is an introductory step, with an informal meeting between the developer and the planner. This is when the planner provides the developer feedback on the initial design, describes the subdivision process, and gives the developer a list of items to be submitted with the preliminary plat application.

When the developer submits the preliminary plat application, the planner reviews the application by completing the following steps: 1) Element Review; to be completed within 5 working days, if any elements are missing this timeline starts over until all of the missing elements have been submitted. 2) Sufficiency Review; to be completed within 15 working days, this timeline starts over until all of the elements have the sufficient information required for review. After all the elements are submitted and the application is deemed sufficient the planner completes the staff report. The recurring timelines are why it is important for the developer to submit a complete, detailed application at the beginning.

Once the application is deemed sufficient, the governing body has 35 to 80 working days to grant approval, conditional approval or deny the application, depending on the number of lots being created. The next step is for the planner to review the application and write a staff report and recommendation.

Once the staff report is completed, the final stage of the application process is: 1) The planning board holds public hearing (for major subdivisions only); 2) the planning board provides a recommendation and conditions to governing body; 3) the governing body holds a public meeting to review the subdivision; 4) the governing body issues a decision of conditional approval, approval or denial of the application; 5) the subdivider completes the conditions of approval (conditions usually include getting approval from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and installation of utilities, such as electric, natural gas, cable, telephone, roadway, water, sewer, etc…); 6) The subdivider submits the final plat application showing all the conditions of preliminary approval have been met; 7) the governing body reviews and approves the final plat; and 8) the final plat is recorded.

Completing the final stage means the lots can be sold.

The County Planner Office is releasing a series of land use articles to provide the public with information that relates to our local land use requirements and regulations.

If you would like a copy of the Richland County, City of Sidney, Town of Fairview Subdivision Regulations, Review Fee Schedule and Subdivision Regulations Supplements contact the Office of County Planner at 123 West Main Street, Suite 2 in Sidney, Montana 59270 or call (406) 433-6886 or you may go online at http://www.richland.org.