Over the last few years the vacant, wooded property surrounding our little neighborhod of 16 houses has been annexed by the city, rezoned to multifamily, and bought up by devolpers for new apartments. The property to my north is all commercial and developed so that area is safe. Grande Communcations is next to me.
My property backs up to the RR tracks andthe first devlopement was to the north starting about even with the corner of my property. The next area built was on the south side of the neighborhood. Two huge complexes were built and caused us some major runoff flooding problems. The land is higher than ours and after they stripped the folage, made some minor changes to the contour, and started paving the runoff was too fast for natural drainage and absorbtion. My new storage barn took on about 1/2" of water and the back porch was under about 4'. First time I had had water on the porch since the floods in '98. The area slopes down toward the interstae and several houses at the other end flooded. The city stopped construction until the developers reworked the drainage system to chanel the water away from us.
The last of the vacant property, directly accross the tracks and extending south from me, is now under developement. To avoid the same problems from happening again the city planning office, an engineer from the developers, and the railroad maintenance supervisor for the area met with me a couple of months ago to discuss putting a drainage ditch across the back of my property. There is a 3' drrain pipe adjacent to the south corner of my property to keep water from building up on the other side of the tracks. The only thing resulting from that meeting was my giving them verbal permission to survey the area.
Yesterday morning I got a call from the city planning office wanting send someone out to discuss getting access to the area through my back yard. Access from Grande's prporty is blocked by a telephone pole and some large trees. The man the came out is a project manager with a consulting firm. I;m not sure if he works with the city or the developer.
During the discussion he asked where my property line was. When I stepped up the slope toward the tracks to the survey stake he said he thought the work was all to be done on RR property, not just the right of way. The drain pipe is on my neighbors prpoerty and he said they will have to meet with him before any work can be done.
When I asked him about compensation for access to and use of my property, I got a 'deer in the headlights' look. The money is not really a major concern to me but I am going to try for it, especially since I will probably have to keep the ditch mowed so the water will flow prporly. I did tell them during the initial meeting that a precondition to any work would be to clean up the rock that washed down when the track berm broke through in the '98 floods and level the area so I can keep it mowed without damaging my lawn tractor. Right now I have to cut the area with a weed eater. This is about 245' long and 30- 40' wide.
Before any work is allowed I will insist on everything being in put in writing. If they say it is RR right of way and they don't need my permission for the work, they still have to deal with me for access. I also know from the initial meeting that the RR is going along with this on an unofficial basis.
Besides, I am an A**h**e and love screwing with the big guys!
My property backs up to the RR tracks andthe first devlopement was to the north starting about even with the corner of my property. The next area built was on the south side of the neighborhood. Two huge complexes were built and caused us some major runoff flooding problems. The land is higher than ours and after they stripped the folage, made some minor changes to the contour, and started paving the runoff was too fast for natural drainage and absorbtion. My new storage barn took on about 1/2" of water and the back porch was under about 4'. First time I had had water on the porch since the floods in '98. The area slopes down toward the interstae and several houses at the other end flooded. The city stopped construction until the developers reworked the drainage system to chanel the water away from us.
The last of the vacant property, directly accross the tracks and extending south from me, is now under developement. To avoid the same problems from happening again the city planning office, an engineer from the developers, and the railroad maintenance supervisor for the area met with me a couple of months ago to discuss putting a drainage ditch across the back of my property. There is a 3' drrain pipe adjacent to the south corner of my property to keep water from building up on the other side of the tracks. The only thing resulting from that meeting was my giving them verbal permission to survey the area.
Yesterday morning I got a call from the city planning office wanting send someone out to discuss getting access to the area through my back yard. Access from Grande's prporty is blocked by a telephone pole and some large trees. The man the came out is a project manager with a consulting firm. I;m not sure if he works with the city or the developer.
During the discussion he asked where my property line was. When I stepped up the slope toward the tracks to the survey stake he said he thought the work was all to be done on RR property, not just the right of way. The drain pipe is on my neighbors prpoerty and he said they will have to meet with him before any work can be done.
When I asked him about compensation for access to and use of my property, I got a 'deer in the headlights' look. The money is not really a major concern to me but I am going to try for it, especially since I will probably have to keep the ditch mowed so the water will flow prporly. I did tell them during the initial meeting that a precondition to any work would be to clean up the rock that washed down when the track berm broke through in the '98 floods and level the area so I can keep it mowed without damaging my lawn tractor. Right now I have to cut the area with a weed eater. This is about 245' long and 30- 40' wide.
Before any work is allowed I will insist on everything being in put in writing. If they say it is RR right of way and they don't need my permission for the work, they still have to deal with me for access. I also know from the initial meeting that the RR is going along with this on an unofficial basis.
Besides, I am an A**h**e and love screwing with the big guys!
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