Court Opinion

ID: 9618948
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:19:55.646089+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:34.304216
License: Public Domain

LAWRENCE E. MOONEY, Judge,
dissenting.
To the extent that the majority holds that a single parcel may be finally included within two distinct subdivisions, I dissent. The developer of a new subdivision has sought to have a parcel within an existing subdivision preliminarily platted as part of its new subdivision. The Subdivision Regulations at issue allow for partial or complete vacation of a subdivision, but the developer did not seek a partial vacation of the lot from the existing subdivision prior to its inclusion in the preliminary plat of the new subdivision. The Planning and Zoning Commission has argued that a single parcel may be finally included within two or more subdivisions with conflicting indentures.
The majority claims that it appears that partial vacation of a lot from a subdivision is at the discretion of the landowner. Not so. The Subdivision Regulations unequivocally provide that such partial vacation may be opposed and that the County Commission shall decide the issue.
Whenever any person or corporation may desire to vacate any subdivision or part thereof in which he shall be the legal owner of all lots, such person or corporation may petition the County Commission giving a distinct description of the property to be vacated and the names of the persons to be affected thereby; which petition shall be filed together with the appropriate filing fee with the Planning Department, who shall give notice of the hearing of the petition in a public newspaper. If no opposition be made to said petition, the County Commission may vacate the same by order with such restrictions they may deem necessary for the public good. No vacation shall take place unless a recommendation of the Planning Department has been provided, which shall be filed with said petition.
Jefferson County, Mo., Subdivision Regulations sec. 4.8 (Aug. 29, 2005).
And this is with good reason. An indenture agreement among subdivision-lot owners is a contract. Maryland Estates Homeowners’ Ass’n v. Puckett, 936 S.W.2d 218, 219 (Mo.App. E.D.1996). As a lot-owner in the existing subdivision, the developer may owe certain contractual obligations to his fellow lot-owners. Before the developer is allowed to escape any indenture obligations he undertook, the other lot-owners have a right to oppose his secession and that decision rightly rests with the County Commission.