Land survey related question

You have one chance to use the right sign... make it count.

 

The photo in post 12 shows what looks to be a 3 phase feeder, not just a branch line to serve the buildings in the photo.

Regardless, in my world a line like that would at minimum be on an fee owned easement if private land, or potentially ROW purchased by the utility. Reading either document that the land owner or adjacent land owner should have would show that mowing/clearcut would be SOP for both access to the line and reliability of the customers served by it. The ROW or easement would be recorded, showing a distance each side of the centerline of the power line.

I once had a customer plant Christmas trees in his easement, because he claimed they'd never reach the power lines. Which was true, but they restricted access. I visited him one day and told him this would be a good year to harvest those, because spring would be the time of cyclical clearing of the easements for this line. He chose not to do so, and greeted the tree crew the next spring with a shotgun.

I rounded up the sheriff, gave him copies of our documents, and two days later the easement was safely cleared by our crews.

Since he was the local small town pharmacist, I had to find a new place to buy meds for my family.

Point being, if your area is anything like ours, you may, or may not get some power company assistance. But it is worth a phone call to the area engineer.

 

You're right, there is a ROW easement for the power company. I have no issue with them doing what it is reasonable to maintain and change the poles and do what they need to to access their equipment.

My issue is that the easement agreement says "... and cut down from time to time all dead, weak, leaning or dangerous trees that are tall enough to strike the wires in falling." I eliminated some wording in the quote about structures, which I have none of there. They clear cut the land 40' from the centerline between the poles and cut down trees that were maybe15'-20' tall tops at the far edge of the clear cut. If those trees fell over, they would fall 20' short of the centerline. I personally feel like 80' easement is quite excessive and since there is no definition of the actual easement distance beyond "extent necessary" I'm not sure I have a real complaint.

My real concern is the extent and how far out from the centerline of the poles they cleared. They did cut a couple of Sycamores down which could fall and strike the line, so I have no issue with that. Disappointed for sure, but I bought the land knowing the easement and the rules, so no point crying about it. Then my neighbor stole the wood they had stacked by the tree lol. So I lost 2 trees and then the firewood haha. Weirdly, I feel like they could've cut down a few more that are still clearly capable of falling and striking the line, so I'm hesitant to complain too much, because they might come back lol.

Good news is the brush will be back next year and I'll have my natural barrier to the neighbor back, but man they bushwhacked the hell out of it IMO.

On properties with structures, homes and ground cover like mine, they simply replaced the poles, on my vacant land they did the above.

I honestly have more of an issue with the trespasser and wood thief.

 

I should add that I plan on flagging the edges of where they worked and just knowing anything beyond that point towards the power line is temporary at best.

Also, this weekend is the last 2 days of gun season for Deer here, so I'm going to wait until next weekend to look for my pin.

 

I assume the power company contracts with another company to do the clearing on a fixed year cycle. Easier (and safer) to cut down a 20' tree that isn't close to the lines than an 80' one that could hit them.

 

Yeah I believe they contract it out.

https://www.buckeyerec.coop/index.php/row-management/

This is where I have been checking for info on it.

 

In that case I would plot an accurate compass course and use a rolling-wheel distance meter to walk off the distance while following the compass course. With an assistant holding an accurate compass about 50' behind me directly guiding my path.

When I crossed the two lines I would install a 2" galvanized pipe, with a galvanized pipe cap on the top, and surround it with a 2' square of concrete. And that Would mark My Corner - until somebody Else paid to dispute it. <g>

Which reminds me of a funny story. I wanted to build a shed next to a tree but the shed would have

Maybe I better check the statute of limitations before I go further. <g>


PHM
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Unfortunately with the ground cover and terrain, I can't use a wheel.

But I should be able to work around that. I plan on heading to my cabin this weekend so we will see how it goes. Once I find the pin, I plan on permamarking it somehow, I have some 8" sonotubes that I could sink and fill.

 

My experience may apply...........

Had a neighbor with similar claim on my property. I knew he was overstepping the property boundary but couldn't locate the pins defining that border. It got fairly heated, so he "said" he'd hired a surveyor to locate pins and mark them with lath. There were pins when I came home alright, and they were marked with lath and measurements. But they were about 15' too far inside my property. He wouldn't provide any info on his surveyor and pins/lath didn't identify. Next weekend he starts taking down trees. I end up having the surveyor who platted the development come out and find the actual pins (they were 4" - 5" deep) that were within a foot of where I'd estimated they were. If memory serves, cost four hundred bucks for the surveyor. Cost my neighbor several times that to stay out of court and produce his "surveyor".

Surprisingly, we still don't send each other Christmas cards.

 

God I hope it doesn't go that way for me lol. Luckily he's trespassing across my other neighbors property to trespass onto my property, so if all else fails, I'll have someone to split the cost of a survey with lol.

I actually have a third neighbor who thought he owned part of my property, but showing him the survey I had in hand seemed to set him straight. He's cool anyways so I don't expect any issues. If all else fails, I'll have a third neighbor to split the cost of a survey with I guess.

When I bought my land, the only 2 things I really cared about was the survey and Mineral rights, it's gonna pay off now.

 

Well, here's the conclusion.

So I went armed with my GPS, Compass, metal detector, gun, shovel, and various other things prepared for a fight with this stupid missing pin. So I had an overlay of my property on Google Earth Pro and using the measurement tool and distances from my survey plat, I drew a circle in the general area it should have been and saved that to my phone. Given the inaccuracies of google earth, I didn't want to pin point the exact spot, just the area. I knew it was in one area using the road as my starting point I just saved the long. and lat. and then using my GPS went to that area and started searching. 2 minutes later I found it lol. The power co. did mangle it, but it was still visible with the survey flag even at ground level. If I had any idea on where to start looking, I never would have had to ask in this thread.

I ended up marking a few other areas along the property line just incase the pin gets thrashed again as the power people are still working in the area, and if my neighbor's neighbor gets testy.

The firewood he snagged from my property is about 20' inside my line. Clearly.

So the plan now is to talk to my other neighbor who is cool and let him know where his property line is next to mine so we can all be on the same page. Then wood stealing guy will be his neighbor, not mine. I plan to put something up, or dig a trench once the power co. leaves.

 

There's that old saying "Fences make good Neighbors"

 

You sir are in the sticks! I went to school down in Rio. Good luck with your pin.

 

That's my thinking.