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

[Jeff Lacy]

Frontage is not from those ROWs, it’s off Route 8A. PB could have denied back then if they deemed frontage along 8A inadequate. But they approved it, so these are lots. Unless your zoning requires access across a lot’s frontage I believe they can use easements elsewhere.

Jeff Lacy
Rural Planning Associates
(413) 253-0705

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 2, 2021, at 1:57 PM, Gisela Walker <gisela.e.walker at gmail.com> wrote:
> Here is the plan we have, lot 6 and 7 owner wants to build on lot 6. Frontage on the other end of the lots is not accessible, steep cliff.
> 
> <Mount.Road sub. Charlemont.pdf>
> 
> Gisela Walker
> 24 Windy Hill Road
> Shelburne Falls MA 01370
> 413-625-2401
> 
>> On Dec 2, 2021, at 1:53 PM, Jeff Lacy <ruralplanningassociates at crocker.com> wrote:
>> 
>> ANR frontage must be from:
>> - public way
>> - approved subdivision road
>> - way in existence when Subdivision Control Law was adopted in the town and in opinion of PB is adequate in terms of several listed criteria.
>> 
>> Jeff Lacy
>> Rural Planning Associates
>> (413) 253-0705
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Dec 2, 2021, at 1:45 PM, Douglas Finn via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 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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