House Bill No. 450

Introduced By _______________________________________________________________________________



A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act generally revising the subdivision and platting act; amending sections 76-3-103, 76-3-104, and 76-3-401, MCA; and providing an immediate effective date."



Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:



Section 1.  Section 76-3-103, MCA, is amended to read:

"76-3-103.   Definitions. As used in this chapter, unless the context or subject matter clearly requires otherwise, the following words or phrases shall have the following meanings:

(1)  "Certificate of survey" means a drawing of a field survey prepared by a registered surveyor for the purpose of disclosing facts pertaining to boundary locations.

(2)  "Dedication" means the deliberate appropriation of land by an owner for any general and public use, reserving to the landowner no rights that are incompatible with the full exercise and enjoyment of the public use to which the property has been devoted.

(3)  "Division of land" means the segregation of one or more parcels of land from a larger tract of record held in single or undivided ownership by transferring or contracting to transfer title to or possession of a portion of the tract or properly filing a certificate of survey or subdivision plat establishing the identity of the segregated parcels pursuant to this chapter.

(4)  "Examining land surveyor" means a registered land surveyor duly appointed by the governing body to review surveys and plats submitted for filing.

(5)  "Final plat" means the final drawing of the subdivision and dedication required by this chapter to be prepared for filing for record with the county clerk and recorder and containing all elements and requirements set forth in this chapter and in regulations adopted pursuant thereto to this chapter.

(6)  "Governing body" means a board of county commissioners or the governing authority of a city or town organized pursuant to law.

(7)  "Irregularly shaped tract of land" means a parcel of land other than an aliquot part of the United States government survey section or a United States government lot, the boundaries or areas of which cannot be determined without a survey or trigonometric calculation.

(8) "Legal description" means:

(a) a metes and bounds or quasi metes and bounds description;

(b) an aliquot part or government lot created in accordance with the United States rectangular survey system;

(c) a small tract, such as a homestead entry survey or mineral survey, as defined by the bureau of land management manual of surveying instructions;

(d) a lot or lot and block created by and shown on a platted subdivision;

(e) a parcel, tract, or lot created by and shown on a certificate of survey; or

(f) proportional, area, residual, or exception parcels referenced in a deed of record.

(8)(9)  "Planned unit development" means a land development project consisting of residential clusters, industrial parks, shopping centers, or office building parks that comprise a planned mixture of land uses built in a prearranged relationship to each other and having open space and community facilities in common ownership or use.

(9)(10)  "Plat" means a graphical representation of a subdivision showing the division of land into lots, parcels, blocks, streets, alleys, and other divisions and dedications.

(10)(11) "Preliminary plat" means a neat and scaled drawing of a proposed subdivision showing the layout of streets, alleys, lots, blocks, and other elements of a subdivision which furnish a basis for review by a governing body.

(11)(12) "Registered land surveyor" means a person licensed in conformance with Title 37, chapter 67, to practice surveying in the state of Montana.

(12)(13) "Registered professional engineer" means a person licensed in conformance with Title 37, chapter 67, to practice engineering in the state of Montana.

(13)(14) "Subdivider" means a person who causes land to be subdivided or who proposes a subdivision of land.

(14)(15) "Subdivision" means a division of land or land so divided that creates one or more parcels containing less than 160 acres from a tract of record that cannot be described as a one-quarter aliquot part of a United States government section, exclusive of public roadways, in order that the title to or possession of the parcels may be sold, rented, leased, or otherwise conveyed and includes any resubdivision and further includes a condominium or area, regardless of its size, that provides or will provide multiple space for recreational camping vehicles or mobile homes.

(15)(16) (a) "Tract of record" means:

(i) a parcel of land, irrespective of ownership, that can be identified by legal description, independent of any other parcel of land, using documents on file in the records of the county clerk and recorder's office or federal repository and includes a quarter quarter section or government lot created by an approved survey conducted under federal law;

(ii) each individual parcel of land identified by a legal description unless the parcel has been joined with one or more other parcels has a legal description that describes the resulting single larger parcel; and

(iii) a single larger parcel created pursuant to subsection (16)(a)(ii) that is shown and described on a certificate of survey on file in the office of clerk and recorder setting forth the single larger parcel.

(b) The term does not apply to multiple parcels shown on a single deed or other instrument."



Section 2.  Section 76-3-104, MCA, is amended to read:

"76-3-104.   What constitutes subdivision. A subdivision comprises only those parcels containing less than 160 acres that cannot be described as a one-quarter aliquot part of a United States government section that have been segregated from a tract of record when the parcels have been segregated from the original tract. The subdivision plat must show all the parcels whether contiguous or not. A survey or transfer of one of several contiguous quarter quarter sections or government lots does not constitute a subdivision."



Section 3.  Section 76-3-401, MCA, is amended to read:

"76-3-401.   Survey requirements for lands other than subdivisions. All divisions of land for sale other than a subdivision after July 1, 1974, into parcels which that cannot be described as 1/32 1/16 or larger aliquot parts of a United States government section or a United States government lot must be surveyed by or under the supervision of a registered land surveyor. Surveys required under this section must comply with the requirements of 76-3-406."



NEW SECTION. Section 4.  Effective date. [This act] is effective on passage and approval.

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