State stole my property...

[wakal]

San Angelo started that last year. Added the kicker that you could ONLY park in a "driveway" on your property.

My evil business partner dumped and spread two truckloads of gravel over his entire front yard, after a hearty dose of industrial weed killer. He still parks where he likes, whenever he likes. He did sink a row of drill pipe into the ground along the front of his yard, a foot off the easement, as a "fence" and capped the sides with 4' boulders. He says the rocks are to catch Crown Vics, which seem to be able to take out two parked cars, demolish a porch, and come to rest against the house next door (knocking it off its foundations) while doing triple digits, no wait, since a cop was driving the official report said "45mph"...

Not that he is bitter


Alex

 

[majormadmax]

Laws still apply in a cul-de-sac and the police gave out correct info about blocking a sidewalk.

Now tell me what the problem is again?!?

 

[cajunautoxer]

Usually it's the HOA behind the tickets

 

[Greg_TX]

If anyone is using a sidewalk in a cul de sac, they're doing it for the exercise and not because they're going somewhere, or they're kids on tricycles probably. People still have a right to the sidewalk and I'm not saying that being in a circular dead-end necessarily changes that, but it's not the same as blocking a well-traveled thoroughfare. Right or wrong, this sounds like the kind of thing HOA Nazis would agitate about, not the PD.

 

[vmax]

reason number 54 NOT to live in a town.

read my sig line ......

 

[CanTex]

Comes down to one law for all. If it is against the law to park across the sidewalk on the most busy street in your city, why would it not be against the law on the quietest?. It could just be that someone has started to complain about having to walk their stroller or kids around a car or two and a smart police officer, made sure to identify and warn everyone. This way no one can whine about it being unfair.....

 

[Bithabus]

Why is there a sidewalk across your driveway?

 

[Younggun]

It might help if we knew exactly how it is set up. Seems as long as the sidewalk is on the cities easement your hands are tied.


Otherwise, this has been a fun little read. I'm not so sure that the state has "stolen" your property though. Unless your property lines actually extend to the edge of the road.

 

[TxDad]

What does your deed/survey say?

I haven't seen an answer to this Renegade. I too am curious if the OP has read his deed and paid close attention to the exceptions to conveyance at the end of the legal description. I am willing to bet that if the sidewalk was there at the time of the house built, it certainly isn't the homeowners property.
Look at your survey that you had done prior to closing. Find the pins indicating your property. That will help answer this.

 

[stdreb27]

Dude, I'll bet you a dollar to a donut, that it's been a law forever, and they're just now enforcing it.

 

[London]

Aren't you supposed to be compensated for imminent domain land seizures?

 

[mosin]

Aren't you supposed to be compensated for imminent domain land seizures?

Extremely doubtful it was/is his property among other issues with this statement

It has nothing to do with easement rights.

It's liable not to even be in an easement either.

Onward from the fact it is generally illegal to park blocking a sidewalk whether it is enforced or not and on to the notion of them stealing your property.

Typically a Sidewalk is in the right-of-way. General practice at least in Georgia & Florida, yet to deal with surveying here in TX, is the back of the sidewalk(ie. closest to your house) is typically going to be within an inch or two of your property line. Not a hard and fast rule but that's how most modern subdivisions are laid out.

If you want a quick and dirty check. Go online typically to your county property appraiser or clerk of circuit court, pull the plat of your subdivision. Look for the right of way width and pull half that from the center of the asphalt. In this case you will want to look at the radius of the cul-de-sac and pull that full distance. Most of the time the road (this case the Cul-de-Sac) is centered in the right of way so these measurements will get you close. Always a real survey is needed to determine exactly but what i stated is a decent rule of thumb for the average home owner.

Typically from the right of way you often have either a 5' or 10' utility easement as well. Technically if you have a fence, tree or garden, in that easement a utility company can plow it over and not compensate you for it but if say your neighbor salted your garden you could sue them for compensation.

To be clear when talking of "right-of-way" it is not an easement it is property that is granted to the city(public) or HOA etc. (Private) when the subdivision and engineering plans are completed, signed and recorded. A Right of way is not an easement, it is it's own property and it always gets its share.

Say farmer joes' property is per plat 200'x200' and a it is subdivided into to two 75'x200' parcels with a 50' right of way through the middle. That 50' strip is granted from Farmer Joe to the city and never passes to either of the two parcels at any point. If a later ground run survey measures an overall width of only 198 feet then the right of way is till 50' but each property on the side now has a depth of only 74'.

States vary in their land laws but the above is all pretty universal.

 

[XinTX]

Agree that you're not supposed to block the sidewalk. Only gripe I have with that is that there area a LOT of folks in our neighborhood who go for their morning walk but walk on the street and not the sidewalk. If I can be fined for blocking the sidewalk, they should get fined for blocking the street.

 

[Younggun]

They couldn't walk on the sidewalk, there was a car blocking it

 

[ZX9RCAM]

They couldn't walk on the sidewalk, there was a car blocking it

lol

 

[CZ guy]

Yeah, for a long time it has been against the law to park and block a sidewalk but that is normally one of those laws that the PD only responds to after a complaint was called in.

Had a buddy that got so mad about being cited after parking across the sidewalk for a dozen years, he stopped mowing the grass between the city sidewalk and the street. He reasoned that if the city wanted to regulate the use of the easement, they could maintain it also. Not only did it look stupid, the homeowners association took offense to the neglect and had a company start trimming it......to the tune of $30 a trip in a lien against his property. He is not going to be quite so smug when he sells the house someday and sees the total bill.

 

[Shorts]

People block the sidewalks in a culdesac and on regular straight blocks. I jog and I often have to go around vehicles that are parked across the sidewalk. It happens. I don't think our PD worries too much about it unless there are complaints. And they'll try to take care of it by talking to the owners first. I also live on a culdesac, right smack in the middle at the end of the road. People walk by. I walk by. Most often it is the kids who live on the street that ride by on bicycles or scooters. Folks try not to block the sidewalk out of courtesy. It isn't always possible because the size of the driveway for the vehicles in it.

 

[mortdooley]

Sorry to hear about your sidewalk issue, when you have an HOA or a city that nitpicks those things happen.

http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-apartment-building-tells-tenants-rid-guns-leave-131100598.html

Just be glad you don't live here!

 

[TX69]

People do not walk on cul-de-sacs?

I believe that the ADA has had a big impact on these laws as well. Having been handicapped from several hip and knee surgeries I know wheelchair mobility first hand. Jut because he lives in a "cul-de-sac" does not alleviate him from the standing laws for pedestrian mobility.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Wow, I didn't think this would blow up quite like it did.

Let me clarify first of all, I live on a radiused corner not a dead end. Seems like people were a bit confused over this, my bad on terminology. Second of all this is the first time I've lived in a subdivision with sidewalks since I was 12 and I honestly didn't know there was a law against this. I understand the accessibility/right of way concerns, I remember hitting someone's bumper on my bike when I was a kid and racking myself really bad on my bike frame. Then again I've done the same thing going strait into a neighbors garage door once. That was back in the days though when kids took their bruises and parents didn't sue though.

Honestly my biggest gripe was that we have been there over a year and never heard a peep about this when most of our neighborhood violates this. I mean it's actually in our hoa that we do everything possible to keep the streets clear. That and the fact that our driveways should have been made a foot longer or so lol.

Also my roommate clarified that PD told him that the city recently adopted the law. Are cities allowed to ignore state laws until they get adopted by the city? I actually wonder if this is the case as in my line of work I know that the state says (since almost 2 years ago) all jurisdictions are supposed to abide by the 2009 iecc energy standard for all new residential construction. Currently only about half the cities in Travis/Williamson have implemented this.

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