§ 71.53. Municipal administration of new land development planning requirements for revisions.
(a) It is the responsibility of the municipality to act upon revisions for new land development. If the new land development is requested by a private developer, the developer or his agent may complete the Department’s sewage facilities planning module and submit it to the municipality for action.
(b) The municipality shall review sewage facilities planning modules upon receipt and, if appropriate comments or documents have not been received under subsections (d)(2), (3) and (5), shall forward a copy of the sewage facilities planning modules to the sewage enforcement officer, owner of receiving sewerage facilities and appropriate planning or zoning agencies within 10 days of receipt. The municipality shall determine if the submittal of the sewage facilities planning module is complete within 10 working days of the receipt of comments from the sewage enforcement officer and appropriate planning or zoning agencies. The municipality shall review and act upon a complete sewage facilities planning module proposing a revision for new land development within 60 days of receipt or additional time as the applicant and municipality may agree to in writing. Failure of the municipality to act within the 60-day period or an agreed-to extension will cause the revision for new land development to be deemed approved by the municipality and the complete sewage facilities planning module shall be submitted to the Department by the municipality or applicant. Documentation of the period of time the revision was in possession of the municipality shall be in the form of a completeness checklist signed by an official of the municipality confirming that the requirements of subsection (d) have been met.
(c) Municipal action shall take the form of adopting, adopting with modifications or refusing to adopt the proposal as a revision to the municipality’s official plan.
(d) For the purposes of this section, no plan revision for new land development will be considered complete unless it includes the following:
(1) The information contained in § 71.52 (relating to content requirements—new land development revisions) and the Department’s sewage facilities planning module.
(2) Comments by appropriate official planning agencies of a municipality, including a planning agency with areawide jurisdiction if one exists, under the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (53 P. S. § § 10101—11202) and the existing county or joint county department of health. Evidence that the sewage facilities planning module has been before these agencies for 60 days without comment shall be sufficient to satisfy this paragraph.
(3) A written commitment from the owner of the receiving community sewerage facilities to provide service to the proposed new land development and the conditions for providing the services.
(4) Documentation that the proposal is consistent with the requirements of § 71.21(a)(5)(i)(A), (B), (E) and (I) (relating to content of official plans) or that inconsistencies have been resolved under § 71.31(e) (relating to municipal responsibility to review, adopt and implement official plans).
(5) A statement from the sewage enforcement officer for the local agency having jurisdiction for individual or community onlot sewage systems in the area where onlot systems are proposed commenting on:
(i) General site suitability for system usage.
(ii) The sewage enforcement officer shall have 20 days from receipt of a sewage facilities planning module from the municipality to provide these comments, which shall be based upon onsite verification of soil tests, general site conditions and other generally available soils information. Evidence that the sewage enforcement officer has been in receipt of the sewage facilities planning module for 20 days without commenting is sufficient to satisfy this subsection.
(6) Evidence documenting newspaper publication. The newspaper publication may be provided by the applicant or the applicant’s agent, the municipality or the local agency by publication in a newspaper of general circulation within the municipality affected. When an applicant or an applicant’s agent provides the required notice for publication, the applicant or applicant’s agent shall notify the municipality or local agency and the municipality and local agency will be relieved of the obligation to publish. The newspaper notice shall notify the public where the plan is available for review and indicate that all comments regarding the proposal shall be sent to the municipality within which the new land development is proposed. The newspaper publication shall meet the requirement of § 71.31(c) and provide notice of the proposed plan adoption action when the proposal involves one of the following:
(i) Construction of a sewage treatment facility.
(ii) A change in the flow at a sewage treatment facility of greater than 50,000 gpd.
(iii) Will result in a public expenditure in excess of $100,000 for the sewage facilities portion of a project.
(iv) Will lead to a major modification of the existing municipal administrative organization or the establishment of new administrative organizations within the municipal government.
(v) A subdivision of 50 lots or more.
(vi) A major change in established growth projections.
(vii) A different land use pattern than that established in the official sewage plan.
(viii) The use of large volume onlot sewage systems.
(ix) Resolution of a conflict between the proposed alternative and the consistency requirements contained in § 71.21(a)(5)(i)—(iii).
(x) The sewage facilities are proposed to discharge into high quality or exceptional value waters.
(e) Since it is the responsibility of the municipality to implement the provisions of official plan revisions, when reviewing a proposed plan revision the municipality shall consider the information requested in subsection (d) and whether the proposed plan revision is consistent with established municipal goals and capabilities.
(f) A municipality may refuse to adopt a proposed revision to its official plan for new land development for the following reasons, including, but not limited to:
(1) The plan is not technically or administratively able to be implemented.
(2) Present and future sewage disposal needs of the area, remaining acreage or delineated lots are not adequately addressed.
(3) The plan is not consistent with municipal land use plans and ordinances, subdivision ordinances or other ordinances or plans for controlling land use or development.
(4) The plan is not consistent with the comprehensive sewage program of the municipality as contained in the official plan.
(5) The plan does not meet the consistency requirements of § 71.21(a)(5)(i)—(iii).
(g) Whenever a municipality refuses to adopt a proposed revision to the official plan, it shall state the reasons for the refusal and forward a copy of this statement to the person making the submission, and to the Department.
(h) Upon adoption of the proposed revision to the official plan, the municipality shall forward the proposed revision to the Department with the information required in § 71.52 and subsection (d) for review. Adoption of the proposed revision to the official plan shall be by resolution of the municipality.
Authority The provisions of this § 71.53 amended under section 9 of the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act (35 P. S. § 750.9); The Clean Streams Law (35 P. S. § § 691.1—691.1001); and section 1920-A of The Administrative Code of 1929 (71 P. S. § 510-20).
Source The provisioins of this § 71.53 adopted August 13, 1971, effective August 14, 1971, 1 Pa.B. 1649; amended April 28, 1972, effective May 15, 1972, 2 Pa.B. 753; amended September 28, 1973, effective October 15, 1973, 3 Pa.B. 2176; reserved August 30, 1974, effective September 16, 1974, 4 Pa.B. 1805; amended June 9, 1989, effective June 10, 1989, 19 Pa.B. 2429; amended November 7, 1997, effective November 8, 1997, 27 Pa.B. 5877. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (206581) to (206582) and (228197).
Cross References This section cited in 25 Pa. Code § 71.14 (relating to private request to revise official plans); 25 Pa. Code § 71.54 (relating to Department administration of new land development requirements for revisions); and 25 Pa. Code § 93.4c (relating to implementation of antidegradation requirements).
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