MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2015 Regular Session
To: Judiciary B
By: Representative DeLano
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 17-1-23, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT FILINGS FOR NEW SUBDIVISIONS IN MUNICIPALITIES AND COUNTIES MAY BE IN A DIGITAL MEDIA FORMAT BY A CERTAIN DATE; TO AMEND SECTION 25-58-21, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE THE MISSISSIPPI COORDINATING COUNCIL FOR REMOTE SENSING AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO CREATE THE STANDARD FORMAT FOR DIGITAL PLAT SUBMISSIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 17-1-23, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
17-1-23. (1) When new subdivisions are laid out, the governing authority of each municipality or county may, before allowing dedication, impose such terms as may be deemed necessary to make the provisions of Sections 17-1-1 through 17-1-27, inclusive, effective, and such governing authorities may receive easements in the land affected whereby such sections may be made effective. From and after January 1, 2016, the governing authority of each municipality or county may require each filing for a new subdivision to be submitted in digital media format that is prescribed by the Mississippi Coordinating Council for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems.
(2) The board of supervisors of any county may order that no plat of a subdivision shall be recorded until it has been approved by the board of supervisors, and the board of supervisors shall have power to require the installation of utilities and laying out of streets in subdivisions or to accept performance bonds in lieu thereof; the board of supervisors of any county bordering on the State of Tennessee having a population of more than sixty-seven thousand nine hundred (67,900) but less than seventy thousand (70,000) according to the 1990 federal census and having a land area of more than four hundred seventy (470) square miles but less than five hundred (500) square miles may also, in lieu thereof, require the deposit of monies with the county which shall be placed in a special interest-bearing account in the county treasury, and such board of supervisors at the appropriate time shall spend monies from such account solely for the purpose of constructing or improving the roads and other infrastructure within the subdivision with respect to which the deposit or deposits were made.
(3) The governing authorities of a municipality may provide that any person desiring to subdivide a tract of land within the corporate limits shall submit a map and plat of such subdivision, and a correct abstract of title of the land platted, to said governing authorities, to be approved by them before the same shall be filed for record in the land records of the county; and where the municipality has adopted an ordinance so providing, no such map or plat of any such subdivision shall be recorded by the chancery clerk unless same has been approved by said governing authorities. In all cases where a map or plat of the subdivision is submitted to the governing authorities of a municipality, and is by them approved, all streets, roads, alleys and other public ways set forth and shown on said map or plat shall be thereby dedicated to the public use, and shall not be used otherwise unless and until said map or plat is vacated in the manner provided by law, notwithstanding that said streets, roads, alleys or other public ways have not been actually opened for the use of the public. If any easement dedicated pursuant to the provisions of this section for a street, road, alley or other public purpose is determined to be not needed for the public purpose, the easement may be declared abandoned, and ownership of the fee underlying the easement shall revert, regardless of the date of dedication, to the adjoining property owner or owners at the time of abandonment. Ownership of such easement shall extend to the centerline of said abandoned street, road or public way. Such abandonment and reversion shall not affect any private easements which might exist.
(4) If the owner of any land which shall have been laid off, mapped or platted as a city, town or village, or addition thereto, or subdivision thereof, or other platted area, whether inside or outside a municipality, desires to alter or vacate such map or plat, or any part thereof, he may petition the board of supervisors of the county or the governing authorities of the municipality for relief in the premises, setting forth the particular circumstances of the case and giving an accurate description of the property, the map or plat of which is to be vacated or altered and the names of the persons to be adversely affected thereby or directly interested therein. However, before taking such action, the parties named shall be made aware of the action and must agree in writing to the vacation or alteration. Failure to gain approval from the parties named shall prohibit the board of supervisors or governing authorities from altering or vacating the map or plat, or any part thereof. Any alterations of a plat or map must be recorded in the appropriate location and a note shall be placed on the original plat denoting the altered or revised plat. No land shall be subdivided nor shall the map or plat of any land be altered or vacated in violation of any duly recorded covenant running with the land. Any municipality which shall approve such a vacation or alteration pursuant to this section shall be exempt from the sale of surplus real property provisions as set forth in Section 21-17-1.
(5) Subdivision regulation under this section shall not conflict with Article VII of the Chickasaw Trail Economic Development Compact described in Section 57-36-1.
SECTION 2. Section 25-58-21, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
25-58-21. (1) There is established the Mississippi Coordinating Council for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems, hereinafter referred to as the "council." The council shall set and assure enforcement of policies and standards to make it easier for remote sensing and geographic information system users around the state to share information and to facilitate cost-sharing arrangements to reduce the costs of acquiring remote sensing and geographic information system data. The council shall not oversee or regulate the activities of higher education entities where it relates to the fields of teaching or research; however, the council shall be informed of these activities for the purpose of coordinating these higher education activities with other public remote sensing and GIS initiatives to achieve the maximum benefit for the State of Mississippi and its taxpayers. The council's responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
(a) Coordination of remote sensing and geographic information system activities within Mississippi;
(b) Establishing policies and standards to guide Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (MDITS) in the review and approval of state and local government procurement of both hardware and software development relating to remote sensing and geographic information systems;
(c) Oversight of MDITS' implementation of these responsibilities;
(d) * * * Preparing a plan with proposed state funding
priorities, for Mississippi's remote sensing and geographic information system
activities, including development, operation and maintenance of the Mississippi
Spatial Data Infrastructure;
(e) Oversight of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's development and maintenance of the Mississippi Digital Earth Model, including establishing policies and standards for the procurement of remote sensing and geographic information system data by state and local governmental entities and establishing the order in which the seven (7) core data layers shall be developed;
(f) Designating Mississippi's official representative to the National States Geographic Information Council and to any other national or regional remote sensing or geographical information system organizations on which Mississippi has an official seat;
(g) Establishing and
designating the members of an advisory committee made up of * * * technical users
from major state, local, regional and federal agencies, including, but not
limited to, the National Association of Space Administration, the Mississippi
Institute for Forestry Inventory, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife,
Fisheries and Parks, the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff, the Department of
Marine Resources, the county E911 coordinator, the State Health Officer, the
Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, the * * * Council of Consulting
Engineers and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, as well as members of
the private sector;
* * *
( * * *h) Coordinating with the * * *
Department
of Revenue to assure that state and local governmental entities do not have
to comply with two (2) sets of requirements imposed by different organizations.
(i) Creating and designing the approved digital plat submissions standards, which include, but are not limited to, the file format, media format, data standards, layer names, feature types and descriptions that are necessary for digital media format submissions to municipalities and counties when filing new subdivision plats as required by Section 17-1-23; and
(j) Providing municipalities and counties with the approved digital plat submissions standards.
(2) The Mississippi Coordinating Council for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems will be composed of the following members:
(a) The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality;
(b) The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services;
(c) The Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation;
(d) The Executive Director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency;
(e) The Executive Director of the Mississippi Development Authority;
(f) The Secretary of State;
(g) * * * The State Auditor;
(h) * * * The Executive Director of the Department
of Marine Resources;
(i) The Executive Director of the Department of Revenue;
( * * *j) A representative from the
Institutions of Higher Learning, appointed by the Commissioner of the
Institutions of Higher Learning;
( * * *k) One (1) mayor, serving a municipality,
appointed by the Executive Director of the Mississippi Municipal League;
( * * *l) The Executive Director of the
Mississippi Municipal League or his designee who will serve as the member;
( * * *m) One (1) county supervisor appointed
by the Executive Director of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors;
( * * *n) The Executive Director of the
Mississippi Association of Supervisors or his designee who will serve as the
member;
( * * *o) A member of the Tax
Assessors/Collectors Association or the executive director of the association,
to be appointed by the president of that association;
( * * *p) A representative of the Planning
and Development Districts, appointed by the Governor;
( * * *q) A senator, as a nonvoting member,
appointed by the Lieutenant Governor;
( * * *r) A representative, as a nonvoting
member, appointed by the Speaker of the House;
( * * *s) A county surveyor who is a member
of the Mississippi Association of Professional Surveyors, appointed by the
president of the association; * * *
(t) Three (3) At Large members from the GIS community as selected by the Governor's office; and
(u) The State E-911 coordinator, "as designated by MEMA director."
The members listed in
paragraphs (a) through * * *
(i) may appoint a designee, but the designee must be the head of an
office, bureau, division or branch within the member's agency.
The members of the council shall serve for a term concurrent with their service as an elected or appointed official or concurrent with the term of the appointing official.
* * * The council shall elect from its members a chair and
vice chair, * * * who each shall serve a two-year
term. The chair shall not vote.
With regard to the designee chosen by the Executive Director of the Mississippi Municipal League or the Executive Director of the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, the designee shall become a permanent member of the council for a term concurrent with the term of the appointing executive director.
(3) At the direction of the
chairman of the council and contingent upon the availability of sufficient
funds, each member may receive reimbursement for reasonable expenses, including
travel expenses in accordance with rates established pursuant to Section 25-3-41,
incurred in attending meetings of the council. Any member of the council who
is also a state employee may not receive per diem compensation for attending
meetings of the * * * council, but may be reimbursed in accordance with
Section 25-3-41 for mileage and actual expenses incurred in the performance of
the duties, if authorized by vote, at a meeting of the council, which action
must be recorded in the official minutes of the meeting. Legislative members
of the council will be paid from the contingent expense funds of their
respective houses in the same amounts as provided for committee meetings when
the Legislature is not in session.
(4) The council may accept money from any source, public or private, to be expended in implementing the duties under this section.
(5) The council may utilize staff employed by the agencies affected by this section and any other assistance made available to it.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2015.