So lets pretend you have a County Road the runs N/S with the section line, the center of said road is concurrent with the section line. Said road is say, 80' wide, and was granted/transferred as so. Utility company "A" has an existing easement running N/S along the East side of said Road. Utility company "B" want to place a new 20'w easement in the same area as Company "A" easement. Also Company "B" want to just extent the easement to the section line so they can cross the road.
Thoughts?
Easements are not like properties, they can and often do overlap each other. I assume you are working for company "B"? Just write their easement as they need it.
And the extension to the CL of the Road/Sec Line..
Tricky subject.
In a nutshell, the titled owner of the underlying fee can grant additional easements that do, in some cases, overlap. While easements sometimes are written for one specific use; that user cannot exclude the use by others, unless by agreement or a safety issue.
Example:
Transmission line has a 100' RW...50' either side of the centerline. Telephone company, for design criteria reasons, needs a 10' easement just inside the 50' power easement. The owner of the property may grant that 10' inside the power easement. Power companies don't like it, but unless there is a safety issue they are powerless (no pun intended).
There are lots of cases where safety, clearances and vertical and horizontal separation require the use of an area that is already under someone else's existing easement. Now if use of the junior easement will require the owner of the senior easement to relocate or adjust their existing appurtenances; the cost will be covered by the junior owner.
Owners of easement rights are constantly required to "play nice with others".
I don't survey in MO. but here in CO. the public right-of-way is already an easement for utilities.
I agree that the public ROW is fair game for the utility folks, but I don't have a warm fuzzy showing the additional area on our exhibit since our work is for the adjacent property owner. Am I wrong for thinking this?
Also this problem is not in MO, or CO - IL
> So lets pretend you have a County Road the runs N/S with the section line, the center of said road is concurrent with the section line. Said road is say, 80' wide, and was granted/transferred as so. Utility company "A" has an existing easement running N/S along the East side of said Road. Utility company "B" want to place a new 20'w easement in the same area as Company "A" easement. Also Company "B" want to just extent the easement to the section line so they can cross the road.
>
> Thoughts?
Around most parts it seems a "county road" would be public, thus no separate easement would be needed, just a permit from the county for their plans.
In terms of multiple utilities in the same easement, again they generally are "public utility" easements so all utilities can use it. They just need to coordinate their locations. If it is named specific to, lets say electric, then yes phone & cable would need to negotiate with them. No different than ingress/egress, drainage, or any other specific easement.
$0.02
sounds good. Thanks for the replies
> I don't survey in MO. but here in CO. the public right-of-way is already an easement for utilities.
You probably can't just go installing a utility in a public right-of-way. Whoever "owns" the right-of-way (is it a State highway, a county road or a city street?) might require a "permit" to install a utility. They often don't write easement documents, and the utilities are there by permission only, and are subject to having to move it or other requirements as needed.
You should probably check with whatever agency maintains that roadway, and provide whatever they require. (Maybe they will grant an easement, or they don't care, or they require a permit.)
FYI
Utilities in the road or highway right of way, if they have to be moved, are moved at the expense of the Utility owner. It the utility is in an easement and has to be moved it is at the expense of the developer, county, state or whoever needs it moved. As a General rule anyway. We do work for utility companies and always try to get an easement instead of using a road or street right of way.
DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!!!!!!! (from the old Lost in Space television show)
This is one of those cases where IT DEPENDS can make a huge difference. Numerous issues arise here. That is partially because it has been interpreted within certain jurisdictions that a county road easement/right-of-way is only for roadway purposes. In other jurisdictions the opposite opinion exists, saying that the county can do virtually anything they wish within that area, including granting easements to other entities to use the same area. One example that comes to mind is a case where an underground line of some sort was to be installed between City A and City B. Landowners were negotiating fees to allow said line to cross their properties. The County steps in and demands a huge fee for every crossing of their turf. (Case 1) Or, the County lets the line be laid in their easement at no fee whenever the adjacent landowner's fee demand exceeds some limit determined by the company installing the line. (Case 2) In Case 1 the County has a stranglehold on whether or not the line ever gets installed. In Case 2 the landowners are beyond furious. Lawyers buy luxury second homes in resort locales when such arguments are pursued "to the death".
