Compliance officer Emma outlines volunteer event March 28 to scan 6,000+ city plats

Compliance Officer Emma told the commission on a project update that the commission’s plat amendment (spot amendment) work is progressing and that a volunteer event to help digitize and review historic plats will be held Saturday, March 28, from 10 a.m. to noon at the downtown library.

“Basically, what we've talked about is, all of these plots are publicly available, but they're in PDFs, and they're very old documents,” Emma said. “It just takes a lot of people power to scan through them and identify language.”

The compliance officer said the four-plot pilot will help staff understand the workflow before scaling up. Emma said there are more than 6,000 plats in Oklahoma City and that the pilot and volunteer work will inform how much staff time and printing/mailing resources are required.

Emma also described required next steps under a state law enacted in 2024, which requires mailed notice to residents before a planning commission meeting; after planning commission and city council review, the item must be filed with the county clerk. She said staff recently met with Oklahoma County Clerk Richard Treat to coordinate logistics.

Emma and other participants described community outreach tied to the project: staff intend to ask each commissioner to identify one or two organizations (HOAs, neighborhood groups, etc.) they can present to, distribute flyers and electronic takeaways, and schedule presentations so outreach does not cluster.

Emma said the project has received local media attention and encouraged commissioners and residents to share the March 28 volunteer event with their networks. She emphasized that volunteers will receive a brief training on site and can come and go during the event.

The commission did not take a formal vote related to the plat project at the meeting; staff asked commissioners to provide organization suggestions before the next meeting so outreach can be scheduled.