California Surveyors Forums

I have a survey I did where a house built in 1950 lies partially within an 80' wide fee strip granted to the County in 1959 (area is now incorporated as a city). The house, at most, extends about 20' into the strip from the north side of it.

The county constructed a road over only the south half of the strip and if the city were to ever construct the full width of the street with improvements, there would be countless fences, walls and other items that fall within this area along with huge fills and slopes required. This is in a somewhat rural area where parcels are 5 to 10 acres on average and traffic is not heavy as the street eventually dead ends. I doubt there are plans to widen the paved area because the costs involved with design and construction for a dead end.

I guess my question is how would you approach the city regarding this? Is there any risk to my client being proactive and contacting the agency? I would think they would not want any liability with that much, or any, of the building extending into the strip. Any advice or thoughts are appreciated.

Did the County accept the entire fee strip in the Grant Deed? If so, then I can see some of the possible outcomes being: (1) The City asks for some kind of Temporary Encroachment Permit to formalize the arrangement that the house stays within the ROW until such time as the ROW is needed. (2) The City is willing to consider abandonment of the excess ROW. (3) The City requests an easement for an alternative alignment that avoids the house and then processes abandonment of the portion that the house encroaches on. (4) City asks themselves why they are maintaining this rural dead-end road and processes abandonment, leaving property owners to maintain it.

Yes. There is an acceptance resolution of the Board of Supervisors attached to the deed.

80' wide fee strip??? That implies the County, now City owns the underlying fee title beneath the 80' ROW. If that's the case then the City would have to transfer ownership too. And for many Cities, they can't just give it to your client, but would have to sell it to them.

If it is just an easement, here are some things to chew on....

See if you can get a copy of the staff report when the County accepted it. Maybe it explains why they wanted 80 feet in the first place...

How does the City classify the street? collector, local, etc. It might explain why it is 80 feet wide.

Where would you establish the new property line, and what is the setback for the property. Give yourself enough room for the setback, otherwise it could require a planning/zoning variance.

The City/County would rather vacate.

Explain the issue to a DPW LS. I bet they know about your issue.