Opinion ID: 2202732
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Minimum Lot Size Law

Text: Mr. Michaud argues that because his application sought the Board's approval of a subdivision, the Board and hence the Superior Court, was limited to applying the State Subdivision Law and the Town's Subdivision Standards to the BPCC plan and that the Superior Court erred in considering the Minimum Lot Size Law. Neither the State Subdivision Law nor the Town's Subdivision Standards expressly refers to or incorporates the MLSL, 12 M.R.S.A. § 4807 et seq. The subdivision law, 30 M.R.S.A. § 4956(3)(F) (1978), states only that a subdivision [w]ill provide for adequate sewage waste disposal. Mr. Michaud concludes that the Board is not empowered to consider compliance with the State's minimum lot size requirements in passing on a subdivision plan. We disagree. Section 4807-A of the MLSL provides, in part: In all areas of the State, notwithstanding any other provision of state or local law or regulation, no person shall dispose of waste by a subsurface system unless certain lot size requirements are met. Section 4807-A requires a minimum of 20,000 square feet per single family residential unit. The average BPCC lot size is about 4,600 square feet. Section 4807-B permits subsurface waste disposal on lots smaller than those permitted by section 4807-A if the Board of Environmental Protection (the BEP) grants its approval. Similarly, section 4807-C provides for approval of lesser frontage by the BEP. Finally, section 4807-G, provides that the BEP may seek an injunction for violation of the chapter. Nothing in the MLSL states that a planning board may not deny subdivision approval for noncompliance with the MLSL. Rather, the MLSL merely assigns to the BEP sole authority to approve a lot that does not meet the MLSL's requirements. A planning board must consider whether lots in a proposed subdivision provide for adequate sewage waste disposal by applying the MLSL, see 30 M.R. S.A. § 4956(3)(F), along with other relevant considerations. 12 M.R.S.A. § 4807-A(1) makes the MLSL applicable to subsurface disposal of waste from any single family residential unit. Single family residential units means any structure of any kind, including mobile homes, used or designed to house a single family, and shall include those structures used permanently and seasonally. 12 M.R.S.A. § 4807(4). The Board found that the interests conveyed were not single family residential units. Section 4807-A(2) makes the MLSL also applicable to subsurface disposal of waste from any multiple unit housing or any other land use activity which may generate wastes in excess of the waste disposal requirements of normal single family residential units.... The Board found that the BPCC plan was exempted from the MLSL by the MLSL's grandfathering provision. The Board ruled that the camping facilities to the extent they were structures, were complete as of January 1, 1972, and therefore their use was exempted from the requirements of section 4807-A by the grandfathering provision contained in section 4807-D. Paragraph two of section 4807-D exempts any structure in existence and in place on or before October 3, 1973, which disposed of waste by a subsurface system. The term structures is not defined in the MLSL, but is itself used in defining multiple unit housing and single family residential unit. See 12 M.R.S.A. § 4807(1) & (4). Plaintiffs assert that the camping facilities do not constitute structures. The municipal defendants contend that the term structures includes the sewer, water, and electrical hookups that exist (and existed before October 3, 1973) at the BPCC campsites. Absent statutory definition, terms should be construed in context and to implement legislative intent. See Town of Arundel v. Swain, 374 A.2d 317, 318, 321 (Me.1977). We conclude that the utility hookups do not constitute structures, and therefore the BPCC plan is not grandfathered under the second paragraph of section 4807-D. Even though these campsite facilities do not constitute structures, a subdivision plan still might be exempted under the first paragraph of section 4807-D which provides that: [t]his chapter as to the use of a lot for single family residential purposes shall not apply to any lot which prior to January 1, 1970 was specifically described as an identifiable and separate lot ... provided that contiguous lots in the same ownership on or after October 3, 1973 shall be considered as one lot for the purposes hereof. By definition a subdivision creates lots. See 30 M.R.S.A. § 4956(1). The Michaud I Court found that the subdivision plan began only in 1980; before that the property was used as a transient campground. See 444 A.2d at 43-45. Thus, the BPCC lots cannot come within the January 1, 1970 deadline exempting use of a lot for single family residential purposes because no lots were created until 1980. Although the Board found that the interests conveyed were not single family residential units, this finding is actually a conclusion of law. No one disputes the underlying facts. The dispute is how to characterize those facts. The only reasonable characterization is the following: the utility hookups are not structures. The lots will contain single family residential units using subsurface sewer systems, and the lots, therefore, are not exempt under section 4807-D because they were not in existence until 1980.