The design of a land development plan involves many municipality ordinance regulations that have to be considered. If it is determined that it would be difficult or not possible to meet a certain regulation, you might have to request that your plan be allowed to not have that particular regulation be met.
A waiver is the approval of a request for a municipality to not require a certain regulation to be met for a plan approval. A regulation that can be waived is usually found in the subdivision and land development ordinance and are many times associated with design requirements related to things such as stormwater management and landscaping.
Related: What Is a Subdivision Ordinance?
How a Waiver Request Is Approved
A waiver request is usually started through the preparation of a letter written to the local municipality stating your request for a waiver, the section of the municipality ordinance for which you would like the waiver, and the reason you would like the waiver. Your civil engineer would most likely prepare and submit this letter for you.
Your request would then be reviewed by a reviewing engineer and maybe a group such as a planning commission before a recommendation for approval or no approval is determined. If your request is approved, it would then probably have to get the municipality approval at the next meeting of the main governing group such as a board of supervisors.
Plan Requirements
Any waivers that are requested through your waiver request letter would probably have to be shown somewhere on the land development plan with the same information stated in the letter. There might also be a note stating when the waivers were approved.
Request Waivers Early
Being able to determine and request waivers early in the design of your land development project is important. It will save you time and money knowing sooner rather than later what waiver requests get approved and which ones do not so that you can plan accordingly.
Related: How to Create a Land Development Design (In 12 Steps)
Related: Land Development Regulations (A Simple Guide)
