[R.O. 2013 § 400.010; Ord. No. 65-9 § 1]
For the purposes of this Chapter, the following words or phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this Section:
SUBDIVISION
The division of a parcel of land into two (2) or more lots or other divisions of land; such word includes resubdivision and, when appropriate to the context, relates to the process of subdividing or to the land or territory subdivided.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.030; Ord. No. 65-9 § 3; Ord. No. 91-10 § 1, 4-22-1991; Ord. No. 12-53 § 1, 12-10-2012]
The Planning and Zoning Commission for the City shall consist of seven (7) citizens appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Board of Aldermen; the Mayor, if the Mayor chooses to be a member; and, if the Board of Aldermen chooses to have a member serve on the Commission, a member of the Board of Aldermen selected by the Board annually at its first organizational meeting. All citizen members of the Commission shall serve without compensation. The term of each of the citizen members shall be for four (4) years, except that the terms of the citizen members first appointed shall be for varying periods so that the succeeding terms will be staggered. Any vacancy in the membership shall be filled for the unexpired term by appointment as aforesaid. The Board may remove any citizen member for cause stated in writing and after public hearing.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.040; Ord. No. 65-9 § 4]
The Planning and Zoning Commission shall elect a Chairman and secretary from among the citizen members. The term of the Chairman and secretary shall be for one (1) year with eligibility for reelection. The Commission shall hold regular meetings and special meetings as it provides by rules, and shall adopt rules for the transaction of business and keep a record of its proceedings. These records shall be public records. The Commission shall appoint the employees and staff necessary for its work, and may contract with City planners and other professional persons for the services that it requires. The expenditures of the Commission, exclusive of grants and gifts, shall be within the amounts appropriated for the purpose by the Board of Aldermen.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.050; Ord. No. 65-9 § 8]
All public officials shall, upon request, furnish to the Planning and Zoning Commission, within a reasonable time, all available information it requires for its work. The Commission, its members and employees, in the performance of its functions, may enter upon any land to make examinations and surveys. In general, the Commission shall have the power necessary to enable it to perform its functions and promote municipal planning.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.070; Ord. No. 65-9 § 7]
The Planning and Zoning Commission may adopt the City plan as a whole by a single resolution or, as the work of making the whole City plan progresses, may from time to time adopt parts thereof, any part to correspond generally with one (1) or more of the functional subdivisions of the subject matter of the plan. Before the adoption, amendment or extension of the plan, or portion thereof, the Commission shall hold at least one (1) public hearing thereon. Fifteen (15) days' notice of the time and place of such hearing shall be published in at least one (1) newspaper having general circulation within the City. The hearing may be adjourned from time to time. The adoption of the plan requires a majority vote of the full membership of the Planning and Zoning Commission. The resolution shall refer expressly to the maps, descriptive matter and other matters intended by the Commission to form the whole or part of the plan, and the action taken shall be recorded on the adopted plan or part thereof by the identifying signature of the secretary of the Commission, and such plan, or part thereof, shall be filed in the office of the Commission and identified properly by file number. A copy of the plan, or part thereof, shall be certified to the Board of Aldermen and the City Clerk, a copy shall be available in the office of the County Recorder of Deeds and shall be available at the City Clerk's office for public inspection during normal office hours.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.080; Ord. No. 65-9 § 6]
In the preparation of the City plan, the Planning and Zoning Commission shall make careful and comprehensive surveys and studies of the existing conditions and probable future growth of the municipality. The plan shall be made with the purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated development of the City which will, in accordance with existing and future needs, best promote the general welfare, as well as efficiency and economy in the process of development.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.090; Ord. No. 65-9 § 5]
The Planning and Zoning Commission shall make and adopt a City Plan for the physical development of the City. The City Plan, with the accompanying maps, plats, charts and descriptive and explanatory matter, shall show the Commission's recommendations for the physical development and uses of land and may include, among other things: The general location, character and extent of streets and other public ways, grounds, places and spaces; the general location and extent of public utilities and terminals, whether publicly or privately owned; the acceptance, widening, removal, extension, relocation, narrowing, vacation, abandonment or change of use of any of the foregoing; and the general character, extent and layout of the replanning of blighted districts and slum areas. The Commission shall also prepare a zoning plan for the regulation of the height, area, bulk, location and use of private, nonprofit and public structures and premises, and of population density.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.100; Ord. No. 65-9 § 9]
Whenever the Planning and Zoning Commission adopts the plan of the City, or any department thereof, no street or other public facility, and no public utility, whether publicly or privately owned, the location, extent and character thereof having been included in the recommendations and proposals of the plan, or portions thereof, shall be constructed or authorized in the municipality until the location, extent and character thereof has been submitted to and approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. In case of disapproval, the Commission shall communicate its reasons to the Board of Aldermen, and the Board of Aldermen by vote of not less than two-thirds (2/3) of its entire membership, may overrule the disapproval and, upon the overruling, the Board or other appropriate body or officer may proceed; except, that if the public facility or utility is one the authorization or financing of which does not fall within the province of the Board, the submission to the Planning and Zoning Commission shall be by the body having jurisdiction, and the Planning and Zoning Commission's disapproval may be overruled by that body by a vote of not less than two-thirds (2/3) of its entire membership. The acceptance, widening, removal, extension, relocation, narrowing, vacation, abandonment, change of use, acquisition of land for sale or lease of any street or other public facility is subject to similar submission and approval, and the failure to approve may be similarly overruled. The failure of the Commission to act within sixty (60) days after the date of official submission to it shall be deemed approval.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.110; Ord. No. 65-9 §§ 11, 12]
A. 
After the Planning and Zoning Commission of the City adopts a City plan which includes at least a major street plan or progresses in its City planning to the making and adoption of a major street plan, and files a certified copy of the major street plan in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of the County, no plat of a subdivision of land lying within the municipality shall be filed or recorded until it has been submitted to and a report and recommendation thereon made by the Commission to the Board of Aldermen and the Board has approved the plat as provided by law.
B. 
Before adoption of any subdivision regulations, or any amendment thereof, by the Board of Aldermen, a duly advertised public hearing thereon shall be held by the Board.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.120; Ord. No. 65-9 § 13]
Within sixty (60) days after submission of a subdivision plat to the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Commission shall approve or disapprove the plat. Otherwise the plat shall be deemed approved by the Commission; except, that the Commission, with the consent of the applicant for the approval, may extend the sixty-day period. The grounds of disapproval of any plat by the Commission shall be made a matter of record.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.140; Ord. No. 65-9 § 15]
No owner, or agent of the owner, of any land located within the platting jurisdiction of the City, knowingly or with intent to defraud, may transfer, sell, agree to sell or negotiate to sell that land by reference to or by other use of a plat of any purported subdivision of the land before the plat has been approved by the Board of Aldermen or Planning and Zoning Commission and recorded in the office of the County Recorder unless the owner or agent shall disclose, in writing, that such plat has not been approved by such Board of Aldermen or Planning and Zoning Commission and the sale is contingent upon the approval of such plat by such Board of Aldermen or Planning and Zoning Commission. Any person violating the provisions of this Section shall forfeit and pay to the municipality a penalty not to exceed three hundred dollars ($300.00) for each lot transferred or sold or agreed or negotiated to be sold, and the description by metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transferring shall not exempt the transaction from this penalty. The City may enjoin or vacate the transfer or sale or agreement by legal action, and may recover the penalty in such action.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.150; Ord. No. 65-9 § 16]
Upon the adoption of a major street plan and subdivision regulations, the City shall not accept, lay out, open, improve, grade, pave or light any street or lay or authorize the laying of water mains, sewers, connections or other utilities in any street within the municipality, unless the street has received the legal status of a public street prior to the adoption of a City plan, or corresponds in its location and lines with a street shown either on a subdivision plat approved by the Board of Aldermen or the Planning Commission, or on a street plan made by and adopted by the Commission. The Board may locate and construct, or may accept, any other street, if the ordinance or other measure for the location and construction or for the acceptance is first submitted to and approved by the Commission or, if disapproved by the Commission, is passed by the affirmative vote of not less than two-thirds (2/3) of the entire membership of the Board of Aldermen.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.160; Ord. No. 65-9 § 17]
After the adoption of a major street plan, no building permit shall be issued for, and no building shall be erected on, any lot within the territorial jurisdiction of the Planning and Zoning Commission, unless the street giving access to the lot upon which the building is proposed to be placed, conforms to the requirements of Section 400.150.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.170; Ord. No. 65-9 § 18]
Whenever a plan for major streets has been adopted, the Board of Aldermen, upon recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Commission, is authorized and empowered to establish, regulate, limit and amend by ordinance building or setback lines on major streets, and to prohibit any new building being located within building or setback lines. When a plan for proposed major streets or other public improvements has been adopted, the Board of Aldermen may prohibit any new building being located within the proposed site or right-of-way when the center line of the proposed street or the limits of the proposed sites have been carefully determined and are accurately delineated on maps approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission and adopted by the Board.
[R.O. 2013 § 400.180; Ord. No. 65-9 § 19]
Any person violating the provisions of this Chapter shall be deemed guilty of an ordinance violation and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less that one hundred dollars ($100.00) nor more than five hundred dollars ($500.00), or shall be confined in the County Jail for not more than one (1) year, or shall be both so fined and imprisoned.