This ROW is gonna be fun to explain, since everyone thinks they own to the street. Where my finger is pointing is the corner. People never understand nor do they want too. I don’t Goto McDonald’s, library, car dealer,& the list goes on with places that I don’t goto to tell or explain to them how to do there jobs wether I want to or not you just don’t doit or shouldn’t. Another Friday rant but it happens when you love your job but see dumb sh!t on ur way home.
This ROW is gonna be fun to explain, since everyone thinks they own to the street. Where my finger is pointing is the corner. People never understand nor do they want too. I don’t Goto McDonald’s, library, car dealer,& the list goes on with places that I don’t goto to tell or explain to them how to do there jobs wether I want to or not you just don’t doit or shouldn’t. Another Friday rant but it happens when you love your job but see dumb sh!t on ur way home.
To be really picky, "thinks they own to the street."
Rather "thinks they own to the hard surface improvements of the street"
They do own to the street, not necessarily to the pavement section, unless the improvements fill the street width.
Of course, there are volumes of court cases explaining the bundles of estate ownership of streets/roads.
ROW line and Street line should be the same. And the lot owner often owns to the centerline the public has the dominate ownership.
Karen out!!! 😉
@mightymoe on this property where I’m pointing is where they own to. Yes there fence and other stuff extends to the street but they do not own from the front pin to the street. Will anyone ever know? Probably not but if they wanna do any construction and it doesn’t match with what on record then what happens?
Had a crazy lady come running out of her house one day and run up to my rodman. I was 150 feet away at the time so I was laughing my butt off because I knew he was going to point at me in about five seconds. Sure enough, she headed towards me. She was furious, out of her mind furious, that we had cut divots in HER yard to expose bars about two inches deep in the grassy area. I calmly explained what we doing and why we were doing it plus introducing her to the concept that just because part of the street has grass on it, it is still street and not private turf, even though the adjacent land owner must mow it. She was hopping up and down and pointing to the nearby asphalt and telling me "THAT's THE F%$#ING STREET OVER THERE!" I continued playing nice and polite while explaining more about streets versus "streets". I then asked if Casey was around to discuss this subject with him. She was shocked that I knew her husband's name. Then I explained how I had lived next door to Casey's grandparents and uncles for many years and had met Casey when he was just a boy. I added that Casey's father had worked for me surveying in 2001 doing the very same thing we were doing that day. Then I told her that I knew where the bars we were finding were because I had put them there for Wilma. That cooled her down. Wilma was her landlord. The crazy lady didn't own a single blade of grass and I knew that from the get go. I suggested she return to the inside of Wilma's house while we finished our work. She should have been greatful that I didn't tell her that I was a very close friend of Jeff. Casey was a long haul truck driver. Jeff was a local fellow who sort of filled in to help her keep her bed warm when Casey was out of town. And, that's the truth!!!!
Doing utility surveys for something like 17 years, I ran into this all the time. People haven't got a clue what they have or where it is and I could show them the plat, walk them up to their pins, explain until I'm blue in the face and they would still insist they owned up to the edge of the pavement. It could get really confrontational at times. Staking the back of a 15' utility easement which is 15' into their property beyond the ROW, especially on a 60' wide ROW, back of that easement might be 30-40' back from the pavement running through middle of their yard. Had one guy come flying out of his house and tackle me from behind knocking the wind out of me. Another time this guy comes rushing out, tatoos from head to toe, screaming at me 'somebody is about to get hurt'. His wife follows him out, not more than 5' tall and 350 pounds, missing half her teeth. I just told him I was leaving. Back at the office told the VP of construction what happened and he went out to talk to them and ended up in a fist fight in the middle of their drive way. Then there was the guy that sicked his 90 pound pit bull on me while screaming he was going to kill me if I hurt his dog. Troopers got involved in that one.
Good times!
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
There is no doubt that we are on the front line when it comes to stories like those above. Assuming everyone we might encounter is completely sane and thoughtful is a very bad assumption. I have had workers who simply couldn't get over what they were exposed to in the line of duty. I couldn't really blame them. $X per hour seems like nothing all of a sudden.
I may be prejudice, but Surveyor stories are the best!
Especially you Mr. Cow 🍺
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Typing class 9th grade!
@mightymoe on this property where I’m pointing is where they own to. Yes there fence and other stuff extends to the street but they do not own from the front pin to the street. Will anyone ever know? Probably not but if they wanna do any construction and it doesn’t match with what on record then what happens?
Are you saying that it's a different ROW than the one containing the improvements?
I'm doing some construction staking for about 6,000 feet of new curbs and sidewalk along an hold highway what is now a swanky part of town. In the last 20 or 30 years the adjacent owners have spent a fortune on real property and landscape improvements well within the right-of-way. Hardly a survey filed (in a recording state) for any of these places. Obviously, they spent a pretty penny on architects and even structural engineers but none to fine out what they actually own. The City did the initial survey and engineering. For the most part they designed around the real property features close to the R/W but the landscaping is another story. The contractor is getting a lot of angry feedback from the affected parties. On Monday I start setting clearing limit offsets. Should be fun.
Doing utility surveys for something like 17 years, I ran into this all the time. People haven't got a clue what they have or where it is and I could show them the plat, walk them up to their pins, explain until I'm blue in the face and they would still insist they owned up to the edge of the pavement. It could get really confrontational at times. Staking the back of a 15' utility easement which is 15' into their property beyond the ROW, especially on a 60' wide ROW, back of that easement might be 30-40' back from the pavement running through middle of their yard. Had one guy come flying out of his house and tackle me from behind knocking the wind out of me. Another time this guy comes rushing out, tatoos from head to toe, screaming at me 'somebody is about to get hurt'. His wife follows him out, not more than 5' tall and 350 pounds, missing half her teeth. I just told him I was leaving. Back at the office told the VP of construction what happened and he went out to talk to them and ended up in a fist fight in the middle of their drive way. Then there was the guy that sicked his 90 pound pit bull on me while screaming he was going to kill me if I hurt his dog. Troopers got involved in that one.
Good times!
Did you go talk to these people before you started working? I can't imagine people acting like this after they've been informed.
Did you go talk to these people before you started working? I can't imagine people acting like this after they've been informed.
Once upon a time I might have agreed with you, not anymore. I just had some entitled lady let one of her beagles, on a short lead, lift a leg on my tri-pod while she watched. When I politely confronted her she just said, "dogs pee on everything". Not a bit of apology. In my younger days I might have followed her home and relieved myself on her front door.
@john-putnam I think there's a difference between poor or non-existent manners and people screaming and being violent for no apparent reason.
Doing utility surveys for something like 17 years, I ran into this all the time. People haven't got a clue what they have or where it is and I could show them the plat, walk them up to their pins, explain until I'm blue in the face and they would still insist they owned up to the edge of the pavement. It could get really confrontational at times. Staking the back of a 15' utility easement which is 15' into their property beyond the ROW, especially on a 60' wide ROW, back of that easement might be 30-40' back from the pavement running through middle of their yard. Had one guy come flying out of his house and tackle me from behind knocking the wind out of me. Another time this guy comes rushing out, tatoos from head to toe, screaming at me 'somebody is about to get hurt'. His wife follows him out, not more than 5' tall and 350 pounds, missing half her teeth. I just told him I was leaving. Back at the office told the VP of construction what happened and he went out to talk to them and ended up in a fist fight in the middle of their drive way. Then there was the guy that sicked his 90 pound pit bull on me while screaming he was going to kill me if I hurt his dog. Troopers got involved in that one.
Good times!
Did you go talk to these people before you started working? I can't imagine people acting like this after they've been informed.
I suspect there is something in the water in Mr. williwaw's bailiwick.
@john-putnam it seems like people buy properties without knowing there limitations it crazy.
Sematics mean so much. Never refer to the pavement section as the street. It's only a part of the larger street. The street fills up the entire ROW. The lot line does terminate at the street, not to the pavement section. When discussing it with the landowner call the ROW the street.
@john-putnam it seems like people buy properties without knowing there limitations it crazy.
$600k for a house and bitch about $2k to tell them where the property is.
@gary_g Well, to be fair I wouldn't really want to cough up several grand for a survey and then potentially not buy the property either.
Knowing what I know now if I were a non-surveyor shopping for a house I'd ask the seller provide a survey. Whether that would work or not I don't know, but that would be my attempt to handle the situation.
Yea, I agree, but I have seen that attitude after the purchase.
@bstrand Of course. I routinely walk up driveways past signs ‘Trespassers will be shot’. If I’m leaving the road and think someone might see me through their back window, you bet, knock on the door. Staking along road past dozens of homes, the utility is suppose to send out mailers but often it didn’t happen. If I’m in the ROW, in truck with flashing lights with the company on the truck, do I knock on every door in the neighborhood? Would you? It’s Alaska. There’s a subset of people who live in Alaska because they don’t fit in and don’t play well with others. We got our share of nut jobs. Some of these areas are straight out of Deliverance.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
Alway liked the door mat at the front door that reads, Come Back with a Warrant.