Tell me about septic easements.
A portion of the town site was laid out in lots that are too small for a septic. The original 1960s plat says those lots are "only to be used for mobile homes and RVs", with a length limit of 55 feet. What happens is that people buy them ambitiously, find out they can't get city water without approved septic, find out they'd have to buy an adjacent parcel to have enough room for a pair of septic drainfields (the built one and the equal-sized reserved area for the replacement septic), and abandon the lot to the county. Someone else buys it at a tax auction and holds it in the hopes that another sucker will come along and buy an adjacent lot and pay $5K for a $500 lot so as to have room for septic. And it happens about once a decade. Meanwhile that whole section of town has entire blocks vacant and undeveloped.
Seems like with the right septic easements, one of those tax auction lots could provide enough space for a community septic system and drainfields for the rest of the block.
Are septic easements generally across private property, do cities or counties ever allow them in the right of way?
How is it any different from city sewer easements?
Years ago a parcel that my father and I owned, was laid out for lots per zoning that required connection to the town sewer system. The town had not yet built said sewer system. Houses were built on every other lot and the septic systems in easements on the in between lots, which the developer retained. 10 years later than anticipated the sewer system was finally built, the existing houses connected and the remaining lots developed. A septic system in an easement is allowable in PA. I believe you could put access to a remote system within a right of way but not the system itself.
Community septic systems require more complicated construction and maintenance and the paper work is not usually worth it except for projects specifically designed for community systems.
Paul in PA
In my corner of the world you can sometimes find part of a drainfield on neighboring land; it does not have to be adjacent. However, I have never seen such thing permitted inside public property. I work in a private lake community where the septic systems are failing and the solution is to provide a space on community owned land sometimes several hundred feet from the property for the drainfield. It works there because the roads are private and the public space being community owned allows for it.
I have created many septic and leach field easements, it all depends on what the local agencies will permit.
Sometimes with swampy land a sump and pump to upland area works real well.
In NJ there are required set backs for septic system installation, and therefor minimum lot sizes are required.
In 30 years I have never seen an easement for a system of leach field, but that does not mean they do not occur here.
In a north Jersey town they have regular tax sales on lots that do not perc and every few years someone buys one and later has it tested and confirmed that the land is worthless and the township ends up with the property again.
28 feet of clay in many locations does not allow for much development
I appreciate everyone's wisdom on this topic. I asked our county planning director if I could get a septic easement from a neighbor and he lit up like a light bulb. Seems they never thought of that here, and it's the obvious solution to developing most of the small town lots.
The key knowledge is that other municipalities generally allow septic lines in the right-of-way, and that a tank and drainfield can be hundreds or possibly thousands of feet away from the dwelling.
There are a couple other tax auction parcels nearby. If the county likes my plan, I'm inspired to buy another and put a large communal septic on it and go into the effluvia business, or start a community septic association.
One of those practical things about surveying that I didn't learn while I was memorizing all that case law ... 🙂
