 Greg_ZPremium join:2001-08-08 Springfield, IL | reply to richgel77
Re: Time Warner Cable pedestal fire pics Looks to me that some sort of accelerent was used to ignite the fence. Wood does not just "Burst" into flames without some assistance. Also it appears that your fence is actually on the Utility Easement, which means that they could remove it, and charge you for the cost of labor to take it off of the Public Right of way. -- I threw out the map a long time ago. Now I follow my own direction! |
 NoVA_CoxUserStand back from the cage -- The RF bitesPremium join:2004-07-06 Alexandria, VA 4 edits | said by Greg_Z: ... Also it appears that your fence is actually on the Utility Easement, which means that they could remove it, and charge you for the cost of labor to take it off of the Public Right of way ... That could be misconstrued by some readers ... although the details would depend on the verbiage of the easement.
First ... it's not a "public right of way" ... it's a and utility easement which by definition is across somebody's private property.
That means that while "Mr Utility" can gain reasonable access to the easement when necessary on/across the private property ... it doesn't give license to "Joe Q. Public" to do the same.
Easements also generally spell-out restrictions. These usually do prohibit big permanent structures (e.g. buildings) ... however, they generally do allow fences, sidewalks, driveways, landscaping, etc. with the caveat that if they need to be removed to gain reasonable access for system maintenance it's at YOUR expense.
The flip side is that utility gear in the utility easement shouldn't cause damage to the private property. This would certainly seem to be one of those cases and the fence owner's case would seem to have some merit. |