SECTION I - INTRODUCTION
1.1 NECESSITY
Each year throughout the county and on the borders of the municipalities within the county, new subdivisions and new individual lots come into existence, Federal, State, and County highway construction tend to accelerate this development. A portion of subdivision activity will be used to lay out large tracts for airports, industrial development and institutional uses, but most of it will be used for residential building sites, schools, parks, and neighborhood shopping centers or items commonly known as subdivision platting activity. The regulation of this subdivision activity is becoming widely recognized as a method of insuring sound community growth and serves as a means to help for safeguarding the interests of the home owner, subdivider, and local government.
Regulations controlling land subdivision are perhaps the most important guiding instrument and undoubtedly require the greatest amount of cooperation between the local government and the developer. These regulations are intended to provide procedures and standards in order to promote a sound working relationship between the governmental officials responsible for community design and upkeep and the prospective land developer.
1.2 PRINCIPLES OF NEIGHBORHOOD DESIGN
Just as the church was the essential dominant social factor of the medieval city, the focuses of social activity in the modern city are the home, school, and church. With all their specialized communal aids, they constitute the essential nucleus of the neighborhood unit.
In the modern city a neighborhood has physical boundaries and identifiable characteristics. Its pattern is determined by the need for isolating the school and the home from the dangers of high-speed traffic movements, noise, and through-traffic, which, for the most part, should never pass through a neighborhood. Generally such traffic movements should circumvent the neighborhood and define its physical boundaries. Whatever traffic filters into the neighborhood should be destined therein and move at a pace which respects the rights of the pedestrian.
Any proposed subdivision should definitely conform to the provisions of any overall plan of the area where the subdivision would be located. This enables several subdivisions to be grouped together to form a neighborhood unit.
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