THE POLITICS OF LAW; THE LAW OF POLITICS
What You Need to Know When Developers Come to Call:
You have just learned that a developer has submitted plans for a 1200 unit development on the old dairy farm. You’re outraged that a neighborhood greenbelt will now be covered with Mc Mansions. You worry about traffic impacts and the fate of the historic oak trees that cover the property.
Is there anything you and your neighbors can do?
You might call your County Supervisor. You might write letters to the editor or chain yourself to a fence in front of the site. You might bring in the Ruckus Society to lead a protest march. Or hire a pit bull attorney to sue everyone in sight.
You might simply tear your hair out in frustration.
Or you could bring on board a seasoned land use lawyer who is also versed in grassroots political action and lobbying techniques. Someone who can draft an effective legal response to an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and represent you and your neighbors before the Planning Commission. Someone who can also help your group organize, build support for the cause and let the local politicians know you mean business.
A Mutli-modal Approach to Environmental Problems:
You’ve heard the term multi-modal in the context of technology and transit planning. But it applies just as well in the community environmental arena. Let me explain.
Community groups shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a developer or big box retailer comes calling. A multi-modal approach using law and political action can provide you time proven techniques to help you win your environmental battles.
Over the years, I have learned techniques for working with neighborhoods and community groups beyond legal representation. My practice has grown as a result into three distinctive realms:
1) Public Interest Law: representing citizen and environmental groups in public hearings, reviewing and commenting on EIR’s and litigating environmental cases; advising clients in First Amendment petition rights and election law; drafting initiatives and referenda.
2) Campaign Consulting for Candidates and Issues: strategic campaign planning, reviewing issues and crafting a message for voters and ensuring the message is delivered effectively
3) Activist Training: providing the tools necessary for your group to influence public opinion, lobby elected officials and wage an effective campaign for your cause
In the context of a community environmental issue, these three realms all contribute to a successful outcome. Having someone who understands both the law and the politics involved early on in the process is crucial.
Using a multi-modal approach allows you to tackle the issues of strategic planning, coalition building and fundraising while addressing the fine legal points in the environmental review process. Lobbying officials and “speaking truth to power” are also crucial in waging a battle that will affect your community and quality of life.
Remember, an environmental legal battle IS a political campaign.
The Advantages of Multi-modal Environmental Action:
Using a multi-modal approach can avoid unnecessary litigation by involving an experienced land use attorney who is also skilled in campaign and lobbying techniques. In this way, you magnify your clout and make the decision-makers sit up and take notice of your cause. In preventing a planned doubling of San Quentin Prison, an ad hoc group deposited thousands of signatures on the desk of the President of the Board of Supervisors demanding the EIR be reopened for failure to properly notice the local community (a legal position).
The result was a withdrawal of County support, which caused the State to abandon its plans altogether (a political outcome). Using grassroots techniques to take the message to both the public and the decision-makers avoided costly litigation.
This approach also offers opportunity for collaboration between grassroots activists and legal professionals to strengthen the position of both. A successful lawsuit to stop local jail construction led to a successful campaign to preserve the land from future construction in Marin County.
Citizens used a lobbying and public relations campaign to piggyback on their legal arguments to derail piecemeal construction of cell phone towers in rural Mendocino County.
In McCloud, California, a successful lawsuit challenging the legality of a contract with the giant Nestle Corporation for sale of water rights dovetailed with Citizen action to keep the project in the public’s eyes and wage a strong grass roots campaign.
This office has been working with community groups, training activists and waging legal battles for more than 15 years. Many of the candidates I have helped elect have come from these environmental campaigns. When environmental and community activists run for office, the effects of this work are far reaching and very rewarding for all concernmed.
Dotty E. LeMieux
Dotty E. LeMieux practices public interest environmental, land use and election law in Mill Valley, California, along with advising candidates for elected office. She offers activist trainings for citizen groups and teaches “Practical Politics” through the College of Marin Community Education program. You may reach her at coastlaw@earthlink.net
A newsletter on land use, tree law, property and boundary issues and general environmental topics. What's new in CEQA, neighbor law and beyond.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Friday, June 10, 2005
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT EASEMENTS
EASEMENTS ARE TRICKY BUSINESS FOR UNWARY PROPERTY OWNERS
Derived from the Old French aisement, ‘convenience or accommodation’
Don’t Block that Easement!
Often the first time an easement becomes an issue for a property owner is when he finds it blocked in some way. Have you always used the narrow driveway that runs alongside your neighbor’s property to get to and from your own home? It’s likely what you have is an easement over a portion of his property. Looked at your deed lately? Occasionally, the owner of the property over which the easement runs will encroach into it, sometimes in all innocence. If the easement isn’t regularly used, or only a portion of it is used, the property owner may think it has been abandoned or isn’t needed.
Most easements homeowners deal with have to do with getting into and out of landlocked property. Say you buy a piece of land on the side of a beautiful hill in somewhere like Nicasio, but there’s no access road to the property. How do you get to the land? Where do you build your road? These are questions you need answers to before planning your dream house. Besides the cost of building a hillside driveway, you will probably need to obtain an easement across the downhill neighbor’s property. This kind of easement is often created at the time of subdivision, but if you are buying land that is not part of an existing subdivision, there may not be an easement in place.
You need to find out if the neighbor will grant you as easement for ingress and egress and if so, what will it cost you?
Often easements are reserved from property carved out of a larger lot, to allow the original owner or those coming after him access to their land. Make sure you know if land you buy has an easement on it for back lot neighbors.
No one may unreasonably interfere with the purpose for which an easement has been created. That means you can’t put up a locked gate across the driveway your neighbor uses to access his home. Nor can you build a fence so far into the easement that it blocks the way or creates a hazard.
The question that faces courts when these disputes escalate into litigation is what is reasonable? Is it reasonable to put a fence two feet into the easement but not three? Is an easily opened gate across the drive ok, if it serves the function of keeping livestock in?
Often these disputes arise because no one knows exactly where the easement is located. Or it appears to have been abandoned because it’s rarely used or not used for its intended purpose. A new road may now provide access and the old easement may no longer be needed.
Is an Easement Forever?
Some easements are hard to get rid of. If you notice there’s one in your deed, and no one’s been using it for years, don’t stop there. If you have questions about whether it’s ok to block off a long overgrown roadway, or move your garden into the easement way, you better consult an attorney first. If the neighbor objects, you could find yourself in court while a judge and jury sort out the property issues.
Even if the easement hasn’t been used for years, it doesn’t automatically revert to your use. Even if they start using it for another purpose altogether, so long as that purpose is not result in “a physical change that permanently and materially prevented [the easement holder] from using the easement or made his use of the easement severely burdensome….” The easement will not be extinguished. (Reichardt v. Hoffman (1997) 52 Cal.App.4th 754.) In fact, even after twenty years of disuse, the easement holder may be able to reclaim the easement by filing a “late notice of intent to preserve easement” pursuant to California Civil Code section 887.070.
Overburdening the Easement
An easement may have been created for one use and now be used for another. For instance, what was once a wagon trail used to alfalfa to a head of cattle that is now long gone may now see several hundred car trips per day as new owners of the now subdivided land pass through your property.
Courts will evaluate the issue of whether a change in use of an easement is consistent with the purpose for which it was created. Does the use by the subdivision homeowners comport with the earlier use by the farmer to carry food to his cattle? If the change in use is one of degree instead of kind, the easement will be allowed to continue.
This change “includes normal future development within the scope of the basic purpose [citations], but not an abnormal development, one which actually increases the burden …. (Wall v. Rudolph (1961) 198 Cal.App.2d 684.) In the case of a farm being subdivided, the court will look to the reasonableness and forseeability of the new use.
If the new owners continue to use the easement for long enough, they may acquire a right to continue using it through prescription, or it may even be seen as a public right of way.
Conservation Easements
Often jurisdictions require conservation easements when granting a conditional use permit for agricultural land. These can either be public or private easements. Lucas Film property was created out of historic dairy ranches and contains many thousands of acres of agricultural land preserved in private easements as well as miles of public access trails as part of its deal with the county for development on the north side of Lucas Valley Road, just west of Big Rock.
The Marin Agricultural land Trust acquires easements from West Marin farmers to ensure the land stays in agriculture. To date more than 32,000 acres or one quarter of all Marin’s agricultural land has been protected in this way.
The Marin County Open Space District holds easements more than another 2500 acres.
If you have questions about an easement of your own that your deed description or parcel map can’t answer, consider consulting a land use or real estate attorney for help unraveling the problem.
Dotty E. LeMieux is a land use, tree and property law attorney in Mill Valley and can be reached at coastlaw@earthlink.net. A version of this story appeared in the Marinscope newspapers in Marin County, California.
Derived from the Old French aisement, ‘convenience or accommodation’
Don’t Block that Easement!
Often the first time an easement becomes an issue for a property owner is when he finds it blocked in some way. Have you always used the narrow driveway that runs alongside your neighbor’s property to get to and from your own home? It’s likely what you have is an easement over a portion of his property. Looked at your deed lately? Occasionally, the owner of the property over which the easement runs will encroach into it, sometimes in all innocence. If the easement isn’t regularly used, or only a portion of it is used, the property owner may think it has been abandoned or isn’t needed.
Most easements homeowners deal with have to do with getting into and out of landlocked property. Say you buy a piece of land on the side of a beautiful hill in somewhere like Nicasio, but there’s no access road to the property. How do you get to the land? Where do you build your road? These are questions you need answers to before planning your dream house. Besides the cost of building a hillside driveway, you will probably need to obtain an easement across the downhill neighbor’s property. This kind of easement is often created at the time of subdivision, but if you are buying land that is not part of an existing subdivision, there may not be an easement in place.
You need to find out if the neighbor will grant you as easement for ingress and egress and if so, what will it cost you?
Often easements are reserved from property carved out of a larger lot, to allow the original owner or those coming after him access to their land. Make sure you know if land you buy has an easement on it for back lot neighbors.
No one may unreasonably interfere with the purpose for which an easement has been created. That means you can’t put up a locked gate across the driveway your neighbor uses to access his home. Nor can you build a fence so far into the easement that it blocks the way or creates a hazard.
The question that faces courts when these disputes escalate into litigation is what is reasonable? Is it reasonable to put a fence two feet into the easement but not three? Is an easily opened gate across the drive ok, if it serves the function of keeping livestock in?
Often these disputes arise because no one knows exactly where the easement is located. Or it appears to have been abandoned because it’s rarely used or not used for its intended purpose. A new road may now provide access and the old easement may no longer be needed.
Is an Easement Forever?
Some easements are hard to get rid of. If you notice there’s one in your deed, and no one’s been using it for years, don’t stop there. If you have questions about whether it’s ok to block off a long overgrown roadway, or move your garden into the easement way, you better consult an attorney first. If the neighbor objects, you could find yourself in court while a judge and jury sort out the property issues.
Even if the easement hasn’t been used for years, it doesn’t automatically revert to your use. Even if they start using it for another purpose altogether, so long as that purpose is not result in “a physical change that permanently and materially prevented [the easement holder] from using the easement or made his use of the easement severely burdensome….” The easement will not be extinguished. (Reichardt v. Hoffman (1997) 52 Cal.App.4th 754.) In fact, even after twenty years of disuse, the easement holder may be able to reclaim the easement by filing a “late notice of intent to preserve easement” pursuant to California Civil Code section 887.070.
Overburdening the Easement
An easement may have been created for one use and now be used for another. For instance, what was once a wagon trail used to alfalfa to a head of cattle that is now long gone may now see several hundred car trips per day as new owners of the now subdivided land pass through your property.
Courts will evaluate the issue of whether a change in use of an easement is consistent with the purpose for which it was created. Does the use by the subdivision homeowners comport with the earlier use by the farmer to carry food to his cattle? If the change in use is one of degree instead of kind, the easement will be allowed to continue.
This change “includes normal future development within the scope of the basic purpose [citations], but not an abnormal development, one which actually increases the burden …. (Wall v. Rudolph (1961) 198 Cal.App.2d 684.) In the case of a farm being subdivided, the court will look to the reasonableness and forseeability of the new use.
If the new owners continue to use the easement for long enough, they may acquire a right to continue using it through prescription, or it may even be seen as a public right of way.
Conservation Easements
Often jurisdictions require conservation easements when granting a conditional use permit for agricultural land. These can either be public or private easements. Lucas Film property was created out of historic dairy ranches and contains many thousands of acres of agricultural land preserved in private easements as well as miles of public access trails as part of its deal with the county for development on the north side of Lucas Valley Road, just west of Big Rock.
The Marin Agricultural land Trust acquires easements from West Marin farmers to ensure the land stays in agriculture. To date more than 32,000 acres or one quarter of all Marin’s agricultural land has been protected in this way.
The Marin County Open Space District holds easements more than another 2500 acres.
If you have questions about an easement of your own that your deed description or parcel map can’t answer, consider consulting a land use or real estate attorney for help unraveling the problem.
Dotty E. LeMieux is a land use, tree and property law attorney in Mill Valley and can be reached at coastlaw@earthlink.net. A version of this story appeared in the Marinscope newspapers in Marin County, California.
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