Free Republic

I went to our yearly HOA meeting last night. Some consultant with GBM Associates in Bryant, AR said that he is proposing a "Neighborhood mitigation bank" where we buy "credits" for letting the Corps of Engineers (COE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) get deeded our "wetlands", which are really 2 creeks, and dry tributaries. The consultant was honest. He said, no federal law dictates it, just a 1983 guidance. NO promises of making money, no guarantees that COE/EPA will do anything. Fines are possibe, like if my kid catches crawfish, or throws rocks in the lake/stream. Anyways, my wife and...

Help please. I have done research and I'm stymied. Simple question for the forum... Can I replace a fence that is on my property, which is covered by an ingress/egress easement, if the fence will in no way impede the intended use of the easement? The fence has been in place for 15 years, needs replacement, neighbor is objecting. I have been getting two answers from the interwebs.

The Adirondack Park in upstate New York, with its 3,000 lakes and ponds and 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, is nothing short of nirvana for paddlers. But often, rivers that start out on state forest land eventually flow onto private property, given that the six-million-acre park is a patchwork quilt of private and public land. A result is no-trespassing signs that force paddlers to turn around or make frustrating portages — detours on dry land with their canoes or kayaks overhead. Late last week, a state appellate court ruled in favor of a journalist who set out in 2009...

BOERNE — The developer of Stone Creek Village apartments didn't heed warnings in 2006 about encroaching on a neighbor's easement. Now, parts of seven occupied buildings have been ordered removed. The problem must be remedied in 180 days, state District Judge Keith Williams said in a judgment filed last week in a lawsuit by John and Nelda Vogt. “The Vogts are entitled to undisturbed possession of their easement and their possession has been invaded without any semblance of right,” Williams wrote. Williams also ratified a jury award last May exceeding $1.5 million in damages for the Vogts, who own the...

The dream house — for that’s what it was — has commanded a bit of high ground in rural Cass County for eight years. Four levels, not counting the basement, 10,000 square feet, a deck reaching toward the 25-acre lake, much of it built by the hands of Dick and Joyce Robinson. But the size of the Robinson place is not what awes. It’s that no one has ever slept in it, and, quite possibly, no one ever will. Look out a window to the west. Just over a ridge you see what appears to be a typical Missouri timber...

Jeremy Engelking will appear in Douglas County court this afternoon to face a trespassing charge. But here’s the kicker: The Superior man allegedly trespassed on his own property. Engelking, 27, aimed to hunt deer Wednesday morning when he noticed a pipeline crew on his land. He hopped on his ATV and told workers they had no right to be on his property because he had received no compensation from Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. for an easement. Engelking said workers told him he was in an unsafe place and asked him to come to an equipment staging area, where he continued...

By Jerd Smith Nonprofit land trusts charged with overseeing thousands of acres of scenic lands will have to be state certified next year in order to continue accepting lands, under a new review process. Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, the Colorado Conservation Easement Oversight Commission will begin reviewing dozens of nonprofit trusts to ensure they are qualified to monitor lands and have the financial resources to defend the easements against development or misuse.

Easement acquisition stirs anger By RITCHIE E. STARNES - WEDDINGTON Several property owners in Weddington are still fuming about how Union County officials seemingly fast-tracked the condemnation of their land to help build a sewer-trunk line for developers in 2002. Exercising eminent domain typically strikes an emotional chord among most property owners, but mix in what the residents see as poor communication, insulting compensation and allegations of conspiracy theories, and the result is raw feelings. That's the situation for the majority of 40 land owners who had swaths of their land condemned to make way for the West Fork Twelve...