The Owen County Planning Commission voted 6-1 to approve a final plat for a minor subdivision despite identified survey labeling errors, waiving the usual bond requirement and directing the applicant’s surveyor to correct the plat before county commissioners review it.

The vote came after extended debate over mismatched corner descriptions on the submitted survey, whether the commission could annotate a certified survey, and whether a bond or certificate of improvements was required for this small land split.

Commission staff said the application was for a limited family land split rather than a large subdivision and that a duplicate replat application and a $500 fee were administratively waived to avoid burdening the applicant. “I waived that personally administratively because I didn’t feel it was fair to this citizen who has had to jump through hoops,” the planning administrator said.

Commission members and the county attorney discussed technical errors on the survey. The commission identified two corner points on the survey (referred to in the record as points 157 and 158) where the written corner labels did not match the original subdivision references; members said one corner was labeled Southwest when the coordinate data indicated it should be Northwest, and another label was inconsistent with the narrative. The commission agreed those discrepancies must be corrected on a certified mylar prior to final recording.

Counsel advised that the commission could not unilaterally change a certified survey drawing. “This is certified by a surveyor, and this information entered record regarding the reference monuments by state law… we can’t change his survey,” the county attorney said, and the commission recorded that the surveyor must correct and re-certify the document.

Amid questions about possible conflicts of interest, one commissioner objected to another member participating because of a family connection to the survey work; the commissioner named on the record denied she was required to recuse herself and asserted she could vote. That dispute was raised in the meeting but did not block the final vote.

On the substance of the plat, commissioners voted to approve the final plat with two clear conditions recorded in the minutes: the surveyor must correct the corner labeling errors on the certified mylar, and the applicant must provide a corrected copy to planning staff by the next business-day deadline. The commission also moved and approved a waiver of the typical bond/certificate-of-improvements requirement for this minor split. The commission’s recorded result was “motion carries” with a 6-1 vote.

Staff told the applicant the corrected mylar and the corrected copy for commissioners’ packets should be delivered by the Wednesday before the next county-commission meeting; commissioners were scheduled to consider the plat at their Thursday meeting.

The approval advances the applicant’s minor subdivision to the county commissioners, but the plat cannot be recorded until the surveyor submits the corrected certified mylar and the county completes its final procedural review.

The planning administrator noted the waiver and the decision to treat this as a minor split were administrative judgments intended to reduce cost to the applicant; the commission’s attorney clarified legal limits on altering certified surveys and confirmed the surveyor must make any technical recertification.