15.16.010 Prerequisites for building permit issuance.
A. No building permit shall be approved for an addition, alteration, intensification of use, change of occupancy, or erection of a building within the City or the City’s urban growth boundary unless the applicant or property owner has first obtained all required land division and/or land use approval(s) under HRMC Title 16 or 17, respectively. Additionally, no building permit will be issued unless:
1. The tract of land upon which the building is or will be located is a legal lot of record; and
2. The tract of land on which the building is or will be located has satisfactory and legal access to a publicly dedicated street.
B. During any required land division and/or land use permit process, the City will evaluate the need for, and exact any, right-of-way dedications or street frontage improvements needed to serve the demand created by the proposed development or to bring the property’s street frontage up to current planned standards as a condition of land division or land use permit approval. In so doing, the City will make appropriate fact-based findings about the rational nexus between the proposed development and the need for right-of-way and/or street frontage improvements as well as the proportionality of any such exaction(s).
C. If no land division or land use approval is required for the improvements proposed in a building permit application and the property’s sidewalk is either missing, incomplete or substandard in any respect, the following may be required as a condition of building permit issuance:
1. For building permits for new construction, or a renovation/addition the value of which is more than 50 percent of the property’s real market value, the City may require frontage improvements limited to sidewalk construction or repair and the installation of one or more street trees as a condition of building permit issuance.
2. For commercial building permits, the City may require frontage improvements limited to sidewalk and curb construction or repair and the installation of one or more street trees as a condition of building permit issuance.
3. In all cases where any aspect of the property’s street frontage improvements are not up to the City’s current planned standards for improvements and the project proposed in the building permit application will result in an increase in vehicle or pedestrian traffic to or from the site, the applicant will be required to execute waivers of remonstrance to the formation of a future local improvement district that would improve the abutting street frontage in any way that would specially benefit the property.
D. No building permit will be issued for a new structure or addition to an existing structure that would interfere in any way with the future opening, accepting, grading, paving or lighting a public street, the laying of sewer or water lines, or making connections from the City mains to such lines.
E. No building permit will be issued for a new structure or addition to an existing structure without the City first determining that the building or addition proposed is consistent with the then-current zoning, site development standards, and other applicable requirements in HRMC Title 17. (Ord. 2059 §1 Exh. A, 2021)