I'm gonna lead with the typical, "The rules in your state are different than mine" speech.
Now, that said, I had a very similar situation here (Virginia) a couple years ago. Town lots got sold off until there was nothing left of the original tract, except for a 40' wide section of "street" only one block long. This is currently the last block ending at town limits. The adjoiner is a 1200 acre tract. The owner of the 1200 acres was speculating development. After a lot of research, title examination, lawyers fees, etc. it was determined the 40' by 800' strip belonged to the heirs. There is actually a paved "street" in the strip, and has been my entire life. The final results were:
1. The heirs own it, but no one can find any of them to offer to purchase the property.
2. Only lots fronting on this section of street have legal access (prescriptive) by using it. Also, the owners of these lots have been pooling funds to maintain the pavement. It is not state maintained. Though interestingly enough VDOT named it and placed a street sign there.
3. The street there can not be extended, and no new street with in the 1200 acres can be tied in to it. (To prevent through traffic.)
Not sure if this is any help to you, but that's how the cookie crumbled in rural Virginia.
Chris, assuming it is a Filed Map street and any lots were sold it is doubtful the heirs still have full rights to it. It extended to the 1200 acres most likely with full intent of granting them access to public roads.
Even if had no lots fronting it and was in full control of the heirs there is still a remedy in PA. A landlocked party can sue for access. If the heirs don't show up in court they lose. Plus preventing through traffic may be against the public interest. Also Spite Strips to prevent access by others is not in the public interest.
Lastly if the heirs cannot be found how are they paying the taxes on all this variety of strips? I would say they have defaulted to the taxing authority.
Paul in PA
Paul,
The last I heard of it, was the plan was for a tax sale of the strip due to unpaid taxes like you said. The 1200 acres has over 1000 feet of state road frontage another road, so it isn't land locked. The developer wanted as many access points as possible, which makes sense. But it never got resolved, because the developer went bankrupt before he really even got started. A man a knew owned the 1200 acres, had made a deal to sell to the developer owner financed. The developer made payments for several years, defaulted on the loan, and the land reverted back to the owner. After that the whole argument was put on hold.
The owner died about 4 months ago, leaving his entire estate to Liberty University which is about an hour and half away from here. They have done nothing with it yet. Maybe we will get a college! If so, I'm sure the battle will continue.?ÿ
Don't know the laws there, but does derelict fee come into play, and maybe the abutting lots own the street-shaped parcels?
?ÿ
