A. Any plat filed in the office of the county clerk may be vacated or a portion of the plat may be vacated provided:

(1) the owners of the land in the territory proposed to be vacated sign a statement, duly acknowledged, declaring the plat or a portion of the plat to be vacated; and

(2) the statement is endorsed "Approved" by the planning authority of the municipality within whose platting jurisdiction the subdivision lies.

B. In approving the vacation or partial vacation of a plat, the planning authority of the municipality shall consider if the vacation or partial vacation of a plat will adversely affect the interests or rights of persons in contiguous territory or within the subdivision being vacated. In approving the vacation or partial vacation of a plat, the planning authority of the municipality may require that streets dedicated to the municipality in the original plat shall continue to be dedicated to the municipality. The owners of lots on the vacated plat or on the portion of the plat being vacated may enclose in equal proportions the adjoining streets and alleys which are authorized to be abandoned by the planning authority of the municipality.

C. The statement declaring the vacation or partial vacation of a plat and having the proper endorsements shall be filed in the office of the county clerk wherein the original plat is filed. The county clerk shall mark the applicable words "Vacated" or "Partially Vacated" across the plat and shall refer on the plat to the volume and page on which the statement of vacation or partial vacation is recorded.

History: 1953 Comp., § 14-19-11, enacted by Laws 1965, ch. 300; 1973, ch. 348, § 35.

"Planning authority" synonymous with planning commission. — Where a city has created a planning commission pursuant to 3-19-1 NMSA 1978 and delegated to it the powers necessary to carry out the laws relating to planning and platting, the planning commission and not the city itself is the "planning authority" referred to in Subsection B and that commission must approve any statement declaring certain property to be vacated before the requirements of this section are met. Sprague v. City of Las Vegas, 1984-NMSC-052, 101 N.M. 185, 679 P.2d 1283.

Modification by dedicator. — A dedication once effectively made by the owner bound him and neither he nor his successors in title could thereafter impair it by filing an amended plat. Statute prescribed the only manner in which a dedication might be vacated. State ex rel. Shelton v. Board of Comm'rs, 1945-NMSC-027, 49 N.M. 218, 161 P.2d 212.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — Validity and construction of regulations as to subdivision maps or plats, 11 A.L.R.2d 524.

62 C.J.S. Municipal Corporations § 77.