§ 26-3. General provisions.

(a)

Approval of abutting property owners. As part of the submittal process, documentation is required that there are no objections from abutting property owners. In the event that such an objection occurs, then the Petitioner may further petition to be heard by the City Council in a review which would require a super majority vote if approved.

(b)

Access to water. No right-of-way, road, street, or public accessway giving access to any publicly accessible waters in the City of Marathon, Florida, shall be closed, vacated or abandoned unless:

(1)

The City Council determines at a public hearing that the petitioner meets all of the review criteria of this article; and

(2)

Only in those instances wherein the petitioner(s) offers to trade or give to the City comparable land or lands for a right-of-way, road, street or public accessway to give access to the same body of water, such access to be of such condition as not to work a hardship to the users thereof, the reasonableness of the distance and comparable land being left to the discretion of the City.

(c)

Result of approved petition for abandonment.

(1)

Upon approval of a request for abandonment of City right-of-way, the petition site shall be surveyed so as to divide equal interest in area among abutting property owners based upon the front footage of respective abutting properties. As is customary for City right(s)-of-way with abutting owners on opposite sides of said City right-of-way, the right-of-way is "split down the middle" to be dispersed in equal area to the abutting properties on opposite sides. In situations with more complex geometries, an equitable share shall accrue to abutting owners using common survey criteria such as the centroid, center line, or other focal point or line which characterizes the petition property.

(2)

Reversionary provisions of plat. Should the petition site be subject to such reversionary clauses as prescribed under Fla. Stat. § 177.085, "Platted streets, reversionary clauses," then the equitable division of the petition site shall be determined based on the reversionary provisions of the plat from which the City right-of-way was originally derived.

(Ord. No. 2015-08 , § 2, 9-8-2015)