Spite Strips

For some reason doing this work will lead you into weird areas. I had to become somewhat of an expert concerning vacations because of a few clients and jobs I've been involved with. Now it seems spite strips entered the room. We are doing a subdivision with some special circumstances. The subdivision has a north-south strip layout for the lots. To the west is a state highway, to the east is a developed paved street and to the south is a cul-de-sac. The lots will lay between the State Highway and the street with the back yard towards the State Highway, no access is allowed to the State Highway and there already is a spite strip blocking access that direction. 

Since the area has been developed with streets, the cul-de-sac has become a bit of an anachronism for access. The developer doesn't want give access to the south lot into the cul-de-sac. The cul-de-sac can't be removed because one existing property uses it for access and that property lies to the south and west side of the cul-de-sac. The developer wants the south lot to only use the existing street to the east for a driveway, however, since the lot will abut the cul-de-sac the regulations are that any building needs to be 25' from the right of way of the cul-de-sac. Also there is an existing irrigation line running just north of the cul-de-sac and out of the right of way. 

So we had a meeting with the developer, the engineer, and decided to use the spite strip blocking access to the state highway (called an outlot on the existing plat) wrap it around the south lot thereby extending the outlot to the street to the east and blocking the south lot from the cul-de-sac. Now the 5' wide strip captures the existing irrigation line, blocks the lot building a driveway that direction and allows a house to build within 10' of the cul-de-sac right of way, since it's now considered a side yard offset instead of street access. 

Sometimes it pays to use all the tools available.