tree lawns; was Re: Off and on

[victor steinbok]

My message came out incomplete because Google servers crashed for a few
minutes. No, not my server or my connection--Google's. No Gmail, no G+, no
Google Translate. Only search was untouched.

The rest of the message was a description of who has the belief (people who
take care of their portion of the "berm") and what mistaken beliefs they
hold (dog urination causes brown spots and they own the lot with no
restriction, so they can tell other people what they can and cannot do).

Cul-de-sacs are almost never owned by the town in any part--usually, the
developer buys the whole subdivision, divides it into lots, then grants the
town the easement on the street they build, before selling the lots along
with the easement. Major roads and numbered routes are different--that's why
town actually needs eminent domain claims to widen most roads, as they need
to convert nearby property from private to public. On a small street, a town
may just regulate the sidewalks (as they did in our neighborhood). If you go
to the original drafts filed with the town/local court, you are more than
likely to find the lot extending to the middle of the street, with the
street marked on top of it. It's not always the case, of course. If the land
is purchased from the state, county or municipality, it may well include
only lots off the street. My parents' house on the Cape only goes up to the
public street on one side and on two other sides it bounds private
properties that /include/ the entire street--the way the lots were divided,
the two streets were carved out entirely from lots on one side, rather than
from the middle. One of those streets is public, the other private--the
difference is that the town has easement on one but not on the other. The
latter actually runs along a course that is completely different than one
marked in town maps. Some of these things are important for insurance
purposes, most are not--if you have no control of the property, you won't
get charged for it (or be insured on it).

VS-)

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:

>
>        The usual situation is that the town (or other governmental
> authority) owns the street and some distance to the side of the street.  At
> my last home, the town property extended half-way into my yard.  Presently I
> believe that the curb is the property line, but I live on a small cul-de-sac
> and there are no sidewalks.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of victor steinbok
> Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 2:41 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: tree lawns; was Re: Off and on
>
> I may be wrong, but except on major streets, where the town or state owns
> the road, I thought, the homeowners own the lot to the middle of the
> street,
> but sidewalk, "berm" and pavement are a public easement. Some people in my
> neighborhood get quite touchy if a dog craps on the "berm"--well, at least
> those who t
>

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