Can I Landscape in an Easement?

[Dave Stevens]

What is the name of your state? CA

I recently bought a parcel of land that has a 25 foot wide strip of land that leads through a small neighborhood to my house, which is at the very end. There are six houses along the road and they each have an easement for "ingress and egress" only. The paved portion of the road is only about 10 feet wide and the 7 or 8 feet of shoulder on either side is dirt.

The shoulders of the road are really ugly since it was poorly maintained by the previous owner and it gives the feel of a junky alleyway instead of a nice country road. I would like to improve the look of the road (because I have to drive down it every day and for resale value) and I would like to landscape a portion of the shoulders: Maybe some small trees and shrubs on the outside edge of the shoulders. It would be done in such a way that ingress and egress, whether by driving, walking, biking, kids playing, etc, would not at all be interfered with.

Is this permissible if it does not interfere with ingress/egress? Can the neighbors stop me even if they can't demonstrate that the landscaping interferes with ingress/egress? If it is not permissible, would they have to sue me to stop me? Are they allowed to just cut the trees and shrubs down etc if it came to that?

 

[lcannister]

Something makes me ask

What is the real story here?

But let's play what if, what if someone needed to bring in a large piece of machinery for work on their property or some such would your restriction (by planting) of the 25 ft come into question?

 

[Dave Stevens]

Oh boy can you read between the lines! There is much more to the story. Briefly, my neighbors are all pretty trashy in the way they maintain their yards and the manner in which they deal with use of the road. The history of the use of the road has been quite contentious between the previous owner of the road and neighbors. It has been somewhat contentious since I bought it too, but I have managed, through polite yet unrelenting diplomacy and enforcement, to get things under control and keep people reasonably happy. The problems are mostly how the neighbors park on the road. They basically think that they have unrestricted right to park whatever they want (including broken down autos, camper shells, boats with holes in them, etc) wherever they want for as long as they want. It is unlikely that they are totally correct, but I acknowledge they probably do have some rights for "transitionary" (e.g. very short term) parking. However, I would have to sue them and my wife really isn't in the zone to do that just yet.

Regardless, the road does look like gasoline alley and some minimal landscaping would really improve things. To answer your "what if" question, I would only do something like this in such a way that it does not interfere or if it eventually did, that I would gladly rip the stuff out to accommodate a legitimate request. I know I would lose that court fight if push came to shove. I guess my question is really whether or not a neighbor would be required to demonstrate a need to have the landscaping taken out to force me to do so or if they can just say "its an easment" and a judge rules in their favor.

 

[lizjimbo]

Plant in easement at your own peril

Just check to make sure one of the neighbors doesn't actually own the land that is encompassed by the easement. Although it is an ingress/egress easement somtimes these are created across someones land in which case you would want to get actual permission from the land owners. Another problem you have is that "nasty neighbors" may be within their right to drive across the new azaleas or shrubs. Every one has the right to ingress/egress utilizing the entire easement so don't spend a fortune on plants. You can certainly plant but they can drive across them as long as they stay within the easement.

 

[Dave Stevens]

Oh thanks for that sound advice.

I was also thinking about putting in rock curbs - maybe like 10"-12" in size along the edge of the asphalt to create a sidewalk - with the idea that a sidewalk could be justified as protecting pedestrian ingress/egress, but also for the purpose of protecting any planting.

 

[seniorjudge]

https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=335307

Stop double posting.

 

[Dave Stevens]

I was unaware that asking two different questions seven months apart about two different legal issues in two different forums concerning a conflict I have with the same individual would violate double-posting etiquette. Am I missing something? If so, my humblest apologies.

Senior Judge, I have actually always been impressed by your knowledge and was hoping specifically for a comment from you on my situation. but alas...