AUBURN — Councilors will decide this month whether changing a Pownal Road lot’s zoning will fix a flawed survey.

Planning and Code Enforcement Deputy Director Eric Cousens said staff is recommending rezoning 1863 Pownal Road from Agriculture and Resource Protection to Country Residential. That would allow new owners to fix up the property and make repairs to the house on the lot.

The Planning Board discussed the matter last month, ultimately voting against the rezoning, Cousens said.

“It was a concern that the Planning Board had that rezoning would allow too many house lots out there,” Cousens said.

Councilors will vote at their Oct. 17 meeting.

Auburn’s agriculture zone requires lots be a minimum of 10 acres before they can have single-family houses on them. The ordinance is meant to protect Auburn’s historic farm and ranch land from urban sprawl and from being endlessly subdivided into smaller and smaller house lots.

The Pownal Road lot had been split off from a 70-acre parcel that originally included the house years before. However, a botched survey left the house lot a little more than an acre short of 10 acres. That made the lot nonconforming, according to Auburn’s Agriculture and Resource Protection Zoning District.

According to city rules, nonconforming lots cannot be redeveloped.

However, the original 60-plus-acre lot was also made nonconforming by the botched survey. Cousens said one way to fix it was to have the owners of the two nonconforming lots work together to make the properties conform and allow development. Previous owners were unable to reach an agreement.

City Councilor Leroy Walker said the city should have gone after the original owners.

“I think we have tiddly-winked around too long with this property,” Walker said. “It should have been rezoned or changed. But the biggest thing, this city should have gone after the person who split this land up, and something should have been done then.”

[email protected]