A. Any plat may be vacated by the owners or proprietors thereof at any time before sale of any lots, or before any substantial improvements have been made in the subdivision, by submitting a copy of the plat to the city council along with a written request for a vacation. In cases where lots have been sold, the written request shall be by all of the owners of lots within the plat. The planning and zoning commission shall make a recommendation on the vacation to the city council, and the city council shall approve or disapprove the vacation. The recording of an instrument vacating the plat shall operate to destroy the force and effect of the recording of the original plat and to divest all public rights in the streets, alleys, common and public grounds laid out or described in such a plat.
B. Streets and alleys platted and laid out under the provisions of these regulations or laid out under any prior law of the state of Arizona may be altered or vacated in the manner provided by law for the alteration or discontinuance of streets and highways.
C. Any part of a plat may be vacated under the provisions and subject to the conditions of this section and Section 16.12.110, provided such vacating does not abridge or destroy any of the rights and privileges of other proprietors in said plat and provided, further, that nothing contained in this section shall authorize the closing or obstruction of any public highways laid out according to law. The request for vacation shall be made by all of the owners of lots within that portion of the overall plat sought to be vacated.
D. When any part of a plat shall be vacated as aforesaid, streets, alleys, and other public grounds shall be assigned to all lots or parcels adjacent to the public area being vacated in equal proportions.
E. The county clerk shall write in plain, legible letters across that part of said plat so vacated, the word “vacated” and also make reference on the same to the volume and page in which said instrument of vacation is recorded.
F. Land covered by a vacated plat may be replatted as described in these regulations. Any replatting of an area already platted and not vacated shall be construed to be a request for the vacation of the original plat or portion thereof. Any such plat, once approved and recorded, shall act to vacate the original plat which it replaces.
(Ord. 1179 § 3.3(G), 1987)