SUBDIVISION CONTROL ACT
Subdivision regulations result in the division of land into lots and sets the standards that the subdivider[1] or developer[2] of the land needs to provide before there can be sale of any lots or building on them can start. Subdivision is when three or more lots are created and the definition depends on state planning and zoning enabling act.
The Subdivision Control Act of 1967 was created to regulate the division of land in a bid to promote the public health, safety, and general welfare, further the orderly layout and use of land; to require that the land be suitable for building sites and public improvements and that there be adequate drainage of the land, provide for proper ingress and egress to lots and parcels; to promote proper surveying and monumenting of land subdivided and conveyed by accurate legal descriptions, provide for the approvals to be obtained prior to the recording and filing of plats and other land divisions, provide for the establishment of special assessment districts and for the imposition of special assessments to defray the cost of the operation and maintenance of retention basins for land within a final plat, establish the procedure for vacating, correcting, and revising plats[3]; to control residential building development within floodplain areas; to provide for reserving easements for, utilities in vacated streets and alleys; to provide for the filing of amended plats, provide for the making of assessors plats; to provide penalties for the violation of the provisions of this act, repeal certain parts of this act on specific dates and repeal acts and parts of acts.[4]
Governor
Engler signed into law P.A. 591 of 1996 thus replacing the Subdivision Control
Act with the Land Division Act on January 13, 1996, and changing the rules on
how land is divided in Michigan effective March 31, 1997. There was a further
change in the Act as the 1997 P.A. 87, effective July 28, 1997, amended the
recently created Land Division Act. The
interpretation of the Act is said to be problematic as
Reports such as the
Governors blue ribbon committee on Farmland Preservation had stated in its
goals to amend the Subdivision Control Act citing the need to eliminate the
incentive to create 10.1-acre lots. Other published goals for the Land Division
Act were to; change the pattern of development; long narrow lots, linear sprawl
along roads, lessen the “cost” to plat, and reduce the amount of farmland and
open space converted to residential use. These changes in State law have
township officials, realtors, farmers and others in Michigan both frustrated
and confused.4
This
Act has been problematic in terms of the long platting process time, absence of
standards for information on preliminary plats, and no regulation on the
division of land into parcels exceeding 10 acres or the re-division of parcels
every10 years.
The
1994 Farmland Task Force reported what farmers viewed as the flaws in the Act
as they pointed out that it resulted in accelerating rates of fragmentation in
Michigan rural areas resulting in Michigan having 40% more land fragmentation
than Indiana and Ohio states as the Act created an incentive to develop
unplatted lots exceeding 10 acres in size.[5]
In
January of 1995 there was an attempt to redress the problems of the Act that were
connected to
ü
Streamline the platting
process so that people were not afraid to plat property.
ü
Correct the current
Subdivision Control Act to eliminate land puzzling and the effects of the
arbitrary 10-acre lot size limit for exempt splits.
The
platting problems were due to local controls that wanted to stop development
and the loss of farmland and open space. Michigan Association of Realtors
(MAR), the Senate and the House of Representatives came up with a bill that had
fewer regulations and a free market approach (where a buyer may buy and seller
sell as much or as little as they want, based on the market demand) with
incentives for landowners to preserve larger parcels. Second generation splits
allow purchasers the freedom to sell part of their property after 10 years.
After
the June 1997 Act Democrat Representative Howard Wetters pointed out that
". . .the bill
is still seriously flawed! With no
clear local ordinance authority many existing local ordinances will be
successfully challenged and overturned.
Developers will have a field day!
And in the mean time who loses most, the citizens who have to live with
the confusing mess the legislature has created…. This bill lets people create
and sell lots people can't build on.
This bill allows developers and realtors to overturn local
ordinances. This bill promotes the
proliferation of development on prime farmland. This bill will not fix the problems PA 591 created.”[6]
This
is because under the current law, local governments do not have the mandate to
review the divisions that go on in their regions. The local governments however
have come up with innovative ways to control the division through the use of
anomalous zoning and the exclusion of certain types of septic systems. The new
law authorizes municipal approval with basic, objective rules, including lot
shape, minimum width and size standards, an adequate description, and safe
access; it sets a 30-day time limit on municipal approval5
The
Subdivision Act has since its inception been problematic for everyone, from the
environmentalists and farmers who want to preserve farmland and open space and
the local governments who have lost control of dictating how subdivision is to
be done and for the developers who feel that the formula for the division is
onerous[7].
Reference:
http://www.mirealtors.com/ladv/ladv_ht_subdivisioncontrol.htm
3. MSU Document on Land Division Act
http://www.msue.msu.edu/luf/page3.html
[1] A person who buys undeveloped acreage and divides it into smaller lots for sale to individuals or developers or for the subdivider’s own use.
[2] A person who improves the land, constructs and sells homes or other buildings on the lots.
[3] A plat is a map or chart of a subdivision of land. For either large or small subdivisions, the goals are the same; to meet the requirements of current land use ordinances and to provide a method of creating smaller parcels of land. Because the subdivision plat creates several parcels of land simultaneously, it avoids the need for determining junior/senior rights within the subdivision, and provides for a much simpler legal description when referring to any particular parcel of land within the subdivision.
[7] For the subdivision specifications go to:
1. 560.108. Divisions, number of parcels; parent parcels or parent tracts http://www.msue.msu.edu/luf/lda/ldact.htm