North Carolina § 136-102 - 6. Compliance of subdivision streets with minimum standards of the Board of Transportation required of developers.

§ 136-102. 6. Compliance of subdivision streets with minimum standards of the Board of Transportation required of developers.

The owner of a tract or parcel of land which is subdivided from and after October 1, 1975, into two or more lots, building sites, or other divisions for sale or building development for residential purposes, where such subdivision includes a new street or the changing of an existing street, shall record a map or plat of the subdivision with the register of deeds of the county in which the land is located. The map or plat shall be recorded prior to any conveyance of a portion of said land, by reference to said map or plat. The right-of-way of any new street or change in an existing street shall be delineated upon the map or plat with particularity and such streets shall be designated to be either public or private. Any street designated on the plat or map as public shall be conclusively presumed to be an offer of dedication to the public of such street. The right-of-way and design of streets designated as public shall be in accordance with the minimum right-of-way and construction standards established by the Board of Transportation for acceptance on the State highway system. If a municipal or county subdivision control ordinance is in effect in the area proposed for subdivision, the map or plat required by this section shall not be recorded by the register of deeds until after it has received final plat approval by the municipality or county, and until after it has received a certificate of approval by the Division of Highways as herein provided as to those streets regulated in subsection (g). The certificate of approval may be issued by a district engineer of the Division of Highways of the Department of Transportation. The right-of-way and construction plans for such public streets in residential subdivisions, including plans for street drainage, shall be submitted to the Division of Highways for review and approval, prior to the recording of the subdivision plat in the office of the register of deeds. The plat or map required by this section shall not be recorded by the register of deeds without a certification pursuant to G.S. 47-30.2 and, if determined to be necessary by the Review Officer, a certificate of approval by the Division of Highways of the plans for the public street as being in accordance with the minimum standards of the Board of Transportation for acceptance of the subdivision street on the State highway system for maintenance. The Review Officer shall not certify a map or plat subject to this section unless the new streets or changes in existing streets are designated either public or private. The certificate of approval shall not be deemed an acceptance of the dedication of the streets on the subdivision plat or map. Final acceptance by the Division of Highways of the public streets and placing them on the State highway system for maintenance shall be conclusive proof that the streets have been constructed according to the minimum standards of the Board of Transportation. No person or firm shall place or erect any utility in, over, or upon the existing or proposed right-of-way of any street in a subdivision to which this section applies, except in accordance with the Division of Highway's policies and procedures for accommodating utilities on highway rights-of-way, until the Division of Highways has given written approval of the location of such utilities. Written approval may be in the form of exchange of correspondence until such times as it is requested to add the street or streets to the State system, at which time an encroachment agreement furnished by the Division of Highways must be executed between the owner of the utility and the Division of Highways. The right of any utility placed or located on a proposed or existing subdivision public street right-of-way shall be subordinate to the street right-of-way, and the utility shall be subject to regulation by the Department of Transportation. Utilities are defined as electric power, telephone, television, telegraph, water, sewage, gas, oil, petroleum products, steam, chemicals, drainage, irrigation, and similar lines. Any utility installed in a subdivision street not in accordance with the Division of Highways accommodation policy, and without prior approval by the Division of Highways, shall be removed or relocated at no expense to the Division of Highways. Prior to entering any agreement or any conveyance with any prospective buyer, the developer and seller shall prepare and sign, and the buyer of the subject real estate shall receive and sign an acknowledgment of receipt of a separate instrument known as the subdivision streets disclosure statement (hereinafter referred to as disclosure statement). Said disclosure statement shall fully and completely disclose the status (whether public or private) of the street upon which the house or lot fronts. If the street is designated by the developer and seller as a public street, the developer and seller shall certify that the right-of-way and design of the street has been approved by the Division of Highways, and that the street has been or will be constructed by the developer and seller in accordance with the standards for subdivision streets adopted by the Board of Transportation for acceptance on the highway system. If the street is designated by the developer and seller as a private street, the developer and seller shall include in the disclosure statement an explanation of the consequences and responsibility as to maintenance of a private street, and shall fully and accurately disclose the party or parties upon whom responsibility for construction and maintenance of such street or streets shall rest, and shall further disclose that the street or streets will not be constructed to minimum standards, sufficient to allow their inclusion on the State highway system for maintenance. The disclosure statement shall contain a duplicate original which shall be given to the buyer. Written acknowledgment of receipt of the disclosure statement by the buyer shall be conclusive proof of the delivery thereof. The provisions of this section shall apply to all subdivisions located outside municipal corporate limits. As to subdivisions inside municipalities, this section shall apply to all proposed streets or changes in existing streets on the State highway system as shown on the comprehensive plan for the future development of the street system made pursuant to G.S. 136-66.2, and in effect at the date of approval of the map or plat. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any subdivision that consists only of lots located on Lakes Hickory, Norman, Mountain Island and Wylie which are lakes formed by the Catawba River which lots are leased upon October 1, 1975. No roads in any such subdivision shall be added to the State maintained road system without first having been brought up to standards established by the Board of Transportation for inclusion of roads in the system, without expense to the State. Prior to entering any agreement or any conveyance with any prospective buyer of a lot in any such subdivision, the seller shall prepare and sign, and the buyer shall receive and sign an acknowledgment of receipt of a statement fully and completely disclosing the status of and the responsibility for construction and maintenance of the road upon which such lot is located. The purpose of this section is to insure that new subdivision streets described herein to be dedicated to the public will comply with the State standards for placing subdivision streets on the State highway system for maintenance, or that full and accurate disclosure of the responsibility for construction and maintenance of private streets be made. This section shall be construed and applied in a manner which shall not inhibit the ability of public utilities to satisfy service requirements of subdivisions to which this section applies. The Division of Highways and district engineers of the Division of Highways of the Department of Transportation shall issue a certificate of approval for any subdivision affected by a transportation corridor official map established by the Board of Transportation only if the subdivision conforms to Article 2E of this Chapter or conforms to any variance issued in accordance with that Article. A willful violation of any of the provisions of this section shall be a Class 1 misdemeanor. History (1975, c. 488, s. 1; 1977, c. 464, ss. 7.1, 8; 1987, c. 747, s. 21; 1993, c. 539, s. 996; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c); 1997-309, s. 4; 1998-184, s. 3.) Editor's Note. - Session Laws 1987, c. 747, which amended this section, provided in s. 25 that as used in the act, the word "municipality" means a "city" as defined by G.S. 160A-1 . Session Laws 2007-440, s. 1, provides: "Notwithstanding the provisions of G.S. 136-102.6(c), (d), and (i), with respect to a subdivision plat for land located within the extraterritorial planning jurisdiction of any municipality having a population of at least 500,000, if said plat includes one or more streets approved for construction by the municipality as meeting the public street standards of the municipality prior to June 1, 2007, and said plat has not received a certificate of approval from the Division of Highways: "(1) The right-of-way and design of any street designated as public on said plat and approved for construction by the municipality prior to June 1, 2007, need not be in accordance with the minimum right-of-way and construction standards established by the Board of Transportation for acceptance on the State highway system. "(2) Said subdivision plat shall be recorded by the register of deeds without a certificate of approval by the Division of Highways if the final plat has been approved by the municipality. "(3) If and to the extent that any street designated as public on said plat meets the applicable public street standards of such municipality, said street shall be exempt from any ordinance requirement that the street also meet the standards of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and may be given final plat approval by the municipality." Session Laws 2007-440, s. 2, provides: "To the extent that any plats are recorded pursuant to this act, the disclosure statement required by G.S. 136-102.6(f) shall fully and completely disclose that any street designated as public on said plats has not been approved by and will not be accepted for maintenance by the Division of Highways and shall inform the buyer that the municipality cannot and will not accept the street until it comes within the corporate limits of the municipality through annexation and shall also disclose the arrangements that have been made to ensure the maintenance of the street prior to acceptance by the municipality."