[Massplanners] ANR frontage along a right-of way through old subdivision lots

[Douglas Finn]

Gisela -

What does Jim Hawkins say?

Broadly:

The purpose of the Subdivision Control Law is to ensure that a road, where
laid out to serve new separate parcels, meets minimum requirements for
breadth, grade, utility delivery, and general access, so as to ensure that
the houses on the lots can be served by public utilities and public
emergency services.

One can divide property and create separate lots using the ANR plan
process; however, lots laid out and sold in that manner - particularly if
an easement agreement was tacked on after the fact - do not enjoy the
status as a buildable lot.  Easements do not provide frontage.  In a
perfect world, ANR plans would not create land-locked parcels, but they
have, and they do.

- Doug.

Douglas Finn, Assistant
Edgartown Planning Board
70 Main Street, PO Box 5130
Edgartown, MA 02539
508-627-6170
dfinn at edgartown-ma.us


On Thu, Dec 2, 2021 at 1:23 PM Gisela Walker via MassPlanners <
massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:

> Please help: we continue to be plagued by these old paper subdivisions.
> Lots were laid out and sold without ever building out the subdivision. They
> left behind more or less built up access ways which lot owners now need to
> claim as frontage for ANRs.
> One such now is an approved ( in 1981)  50 ft wide Right -of- Way across 4
> lots and dead ending in a turn- around on the last lot. The R-o-Way is in
> decent shape as a gravel road that can be refurbished.
> The owner of the last lot wants to build a house.
> Question: Can you claim ANR frontage on a right-of-way across several
> other lots? and Can a dead end turn around serving 5 other lots be located
> exclusively on one such lot, and can the lot owner claim his frontage to be
> the circumference of the right of way?
>
> Thank you so much for any feedback. We have never processed a real
> subdivision in this town…
>
> Gisela Walker
> Charlemont Planning Board
>
>
> 24 Windy Hill Road
> Shelburne Falls MA 01370
> 413-625-2401
>
>
> --
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> MassPlanners at masscptc.org
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>
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