Chapter 12 - Platting And Dedication - Wyoming Statutes

CHAPTER 12 - PLATTING AND DEDICATION

 

34-12-101. Application of provisions.

 

Noneof the provisions of this act shall be construed to require replatting in anycase where plats have been made and recorded in pursuance of any law heretoforein force; and all plats heretofore filed for record, and not subsequentlyvacated, are hereby declared valid, notwithstanding irregularities andomissions in the manner or form of acknowledgment or judge's certificate.

 

34-12-102. Description of townsites and subdivisions; effect; duty torecord.

 

Everyoriginal owner or proprietor of any tract or parcel of land, who has heretoforesubdivided, or shall hereafter subdivide the same into three (3) or more partsfor the purpose of laying out any town or city, or any addition thereto, or anypart thereof, or suburban lots, shall cause a plat of such subdivision, withreferences to known or permanent monuments, to be made, which shall accuratelydescribe all the subdivisions of such tract or parcel of land, numbering thesame by progressive numbers, and giving the dimensions, and length and breadththereof, and the breadth and courses of all the streets and alleys establishedtherein. Descriptions of lots or parcels of land in such subdivisions,according to the number and designation thereof, on said plat contained, inconveyances, or for the purposes of taxation, shall be deemed good and validfor all intents and purposes. The duty to file for record a plat, as providedherein, shall attach as a covenant of warranty, in all conveyances of any partor parcel of such subdivisions by the original owners or proprietors, againstany and all assessments, costs and damages, paid, lost or incurred by anygrantee, or person claiming under him, in consequence of the omission on thepart of said owner or proprietors to file such plat.

 

34-12-103. Contents of plat; acknowledgment; approval by countycommissioners or governing body of cities or towns; filing and recording.

 

Everysuch plat shall contain a statement to the effect that "the above orforegoing subdivision of (here insert a correct description of the land orparcel subdivided) as appears on this plat, is with the free consent, and inaccordance with the desires of the undersigned owners and proprietors",which shall be signed by the owners and proprietors, and shall be dulyacknowledged before some officer authorized to take the acknowledgement ofdeeds. The plat shall meet the approval of the board of county commissioners ifit is of land situated without the boundaries of any city or town or by thegoverning body of the city or town if situated within the boundaries of suchcity or town. When thus executed, acknowledged and approved, said plat shall befiled for record and recorded in the office of the clerk of the proper county;provided, however, that any such plat of land adjacent to any incorporated cityor town, or within one (1) mile of the boundaries of any such city or town,shall be jointly approved by both the board of county commissioners of saidcounty and the governing body of said city or town before same shall be filedand recorded in the office of the county clerk as aforesaid.

 

34-12-104. Townsites; effect of acknowledgment and recording.

 

Theacknowledgment and recording of such plat, is equivalent to a deed in feesimple of such portion of the premises platted as is on such plat set apart forstreets, or other public use, or is thereon dedicated to charitable, religiousor educational purposes.

 

34-12-105. Townsites; recording fees.

 

Whenany person, company or corporation, shall file a townsite plat, or an additionto a townsite, it must be accompanied by a fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00)for the purpose of purchasing an abstract book in which the lots and blocksmust be described, this fee to include the filing and recording of said plat.

 

34-12-106. Vacation; generally.

 

Anysuch plat may be vacated by the proprietors thereof at any time before the saleof any lots therein, by a written instrument declaring the same to be vacated,duly executed, acknowledged or proved and recorded in the same office with theplat to be vacated, and the execution and recording of such writing shalloperate to destroy the force and effect of the recording of the plat sovacated, and to divest all public rights in the streets, alleys, commons andpublic grounds laid out or described in such plat, and in case where any lotshave been sold, the plat may be vacated as herein provided, by all the ownersof lots in such plat joining in the execution of the writing aforesaid. No plator portion thereof within the corporate limits of a city or town shall bevacated as herein provided without the approval of the city or town. No plator portion thereof for which a subdivision permit has been obtained pursuant toW.S. 18-5-304 shall be vacated as herein provided without the approval of thecounty commissioners. No municipal or county approval under this section shallbe arbitrarily or unreasonably withheld.

 

34-12-107. Vacation; streets and alleys.

 

Streetsand alleys so platted and laid out, or which have been platted or laid outunder any prior law of this state regulating private plats, may be altered orvacated in the manner provided by law for the alteration or discontinuance ofhighways.

 

34-12-108. Vacation; partial vacation; when permitted.

 

Anypart of a plat may be vacated under the provisions, and subject to theconditions of this act; provided, such vacating does not abridge or destroy anyof the rights and privileges of other proprietors in said plat; and provided,further, that nothing contained in this section shall authorize the closing orobstruction of any public highways laid out according to law.

 

34-12-109. Vacation; partial vacation; effect on streets.

 

Whenany part of a plat shall be vacated as aforesaid, the proprietors of the lotsso vacated may enclose the streets, alleys and public grounds adjoining lots inequal proportions.

 

34-12-110. Vacation; duty of county clerk.

 

Thecounty clerk, in whose office the plats aforesaid are recorded, shall write inplain, legible letters across that part of said plat so vacated, the word "vacated",and also make a reference on the same to the volume and page in which the saidinstrument of vacation is recorded.

 

34-12-111. Vacation; platting by county surveyor; acknowledgment andrecording; conveyance and assessment by number.

 

Theowner of any lots in a plat so vacated, may cause the same and a proportionatepart of adjacent streets and public grounds to be platted and numbered by thecounty surveyor; and when such plat is acknowledged by such owner, and isrecorded in the clerk's office of the county, such lots may be conveyed andassessed by the numbers given them on such plat.

 

34-12-112. Procedure after failure to make plat; acknowledgment;recording; costs.

 

Wheneverthe original owner or proprietor of any subdivision of any land, ascontemplated in W.S. 34-12-102, has sold or conveyed any part thereof, orinvested the public with any rights therein, and has failed and neglected toexecute and file for record a plat, as provided in section one of this act, thecounty clerk shall notify some, or all, of such owners and proprietors by mailor otherwise, and demand the execution of said plat as provided; and if suchowners or proprietors, whether so notified or not, fail and neglect to executeand file for record said plat for thirty (30) days after the issuance of suchnotice, the county clerk shall cause to be made the plat of such subdivision,and any surveying necessary therefor. Said plat shall be signed andacknowledged by the county clerk, who shall certify that he executed it by reasonof the failure of the owners or proprietors named to do so, and filed forrecord; and when so filed for record, shall have the same effect for allpurposes as if executed, acknowledged and recorded by the owners or proprietorsthemselves. A correct statement of the costs and expenses of such plat,surveying and recording, verified by oath, shall be by the county clerk laidbefore the first session of the county commissioners, who shall allow the sameand order the same to be paid out of the county treasury, and who shall, at thesame time, assess the same amount pro rata, upon all the several subdivisionsof said tract, parcel or lot so subdivided; and said assessment shall becollected with, and in like manner as the general taxes and shall go to thegeneral county fund; or said county commissioners may direct suit to be broughtin the name of the county before any court having jurisdiction, to recover ofthe said original owners or proprietors, or either of them, the said cost andexpense of procuring and recording said plat.

 

34-12-113. Procedure when ownership in severalty and descriptionuncertain.

 

Wheneverany congressional subdivision of land of forty (40) acres of land, or less, orany lot or subdivision is owned by two (2) or more persons in severalty, andthe description of one (1) or more of the different parts or parcels thereof,cannot, in the judgment of the county clerk, be made sufficiently certain andaccurate for the purposes of assessment and taxation without noting the metesand bounds of the same, said county clerk shall require, and cause to be madeand recorded, a plat of such tract or lot of land, with its severalsubdivisions, in accordance with the provisions of (this act, and he shallproceed in such cases according to the provisions of) W.S. 34-12-112, and allthe provisions of said section in relation to plats of towns, cities, and soforth, shall govern as to the tracts and parcels of land in this sectionreferred to.

 

34-12-114. Warranty of accurate description; notice if inaccuratedescription; proceedings upon repeal.

 

Everyconveyance of land in this state shall be deemed to be a warranty that thedescription therein contained is sufficiently definite and accurate, to enablethe county clerk to enter the same on the plat book required by law to be kept;and when there is presented, to be entered on the transfer book, any conveyancein which the description is not, in the opinion of the county clerk,sufficiently definite and accurate, he shall note said fact on said deed withthat of the entry for transfer, and shall notify the person presenting thesame, that the land therein not sufficiently described, must be platted withinthirty (30) days thereafter. Any person aggrieved by the opinion of the countyclerk may, within said thirty (30) days, appeal therefrom to the countycommissioners, by claiming said appeal in writing, and thereupon, no furtherproceedings shall be taken by the county clerk; and at their next session thecounty commissioners shall determine said question, and direct whether or notsaid plat shall be executed and filed, and within what time, and if the grantorin such conveyance shall neglect for thirty (30) days thereafter to file forrecord a plat of said land, and of the appropriate congressional subdivision inwhich the same is found, duly executed and acknowledged as required by thecounty clerk, or, in case of appeal, as directed by the county commissioners,then the county clerk shall proceed, as is provided in W.S. 34-12-112, andcause such plat to be made and recorded, and thereupon the same proceedingsshall be had, and rights shall accrue, and remedies had as are in said sectionprovided. Such plat shall describe said tract of land, and any othersubdivision of the smallest congressional subdivision of which the same is apart, numbering them by progressive numbers, setting forth the courses anddistances, and numbers of acres, and such other memoranda as are usual andproper; and descriptions of such lots or subdivisions according to the numberand designation thereof on said plat, shall be deemed good and sufficient forall purposes of conveyancing and taxation.

 

34-12-115. Selling lots not platted prohibited.

 

Anyperson who shall dispose of, or offer for sale, or lease, any lots in any town,or addition to any town or city, until the plat thereof has been dulyacknowledged and recorded as provided in this act, shall forfeit and pay fiftydollars ($50.00) for each lot, and part of lot sold, leased or disposed of, oroffered for sale.