Planning Director Lisa Hannon presented a city-initiated replat for four lots at 1701, 1703, 1705 and 1707 South Hatcher Street and told the Decatur Planning & Zoning Commission that the parcels meet subdivision-ordinance minimums and that the city owns the corner parcel at 1707. "This can be legally plotted and they do meet the minimum requirements of the subdivision ordinance," Hannon said.

Staff told the commission they found nonconforming setbacks for three properties and are working with property owners or will take the matter to the Board of Adjustments. Hannon said the city will pay the replat application costs and that the city has utilities running through the strip historically shown as an alley. She said staff plans to present special-exception requests to the Board of Adjustments on Nov. 17.

The commission and staff focused much of the discussion on an ingress-and-egress easement that appeared on plats through 1968 but was missing from later records. "To the best of our knowledge, Mason, it just wasn't on there anymore," a staff member, Pam, said when asked whether the alley had been vacated or removed from later plat records. The surveyor who reviewed the property, staff said, found no recorded document vacating the alley; instead older survey documents showed the easement and later plats did not.

A nearby property owner who identified his address as 1703 South Hatcher spoke in favor of the replat and described long-standing private use of the strip. "That is not an alley. It's, basically, a private drive," the resident said. He also told the commission he is "paying taxes on about 2,800 square feet that I can't use," and said he has had multiple surveys done while staff and neighbors work to resolve property lines.

Commissioner Terry Barubi moved to recommend approval of the replat to city council contingent upon the Board of Adjustments approving the required special exceptions; Commissioner Shelby Hicks seconded. The commission voted to recommend approval with that contingency.

What happens next: The Board of Adjustments will consider the special-exception requests on Nov. 17. If the Board of Adjustments grants the exceptions, the replat will return to the Planning & Zoning Commission and then to city council as required by city procedure.