Agenda Information Sheet
DEPARTMENT: Engineering Services
ACM: Jon Fortune
Date: February 13, 2017
SUBJECT
Title
Consider recommending the adoption an ordinance defining a 0.084 acre portion of a 9.5 acre blanket electric easement recorded in Volume 357, Page 48, Deed Records, Denton County, Texas, and located in the R.B. Longbottom Survey, Abstract No. 775; providing for severability and an effective date. [Blanket electric easement description refinement to provide for specific location of electric infrastructure]
Body
BACKGROUND
The property owner, Victory & 288 LLC., has made a formal request for the City of Denton to abandon a blanket electric easement as it encumbers their property at 3012 E. University, Denton Texas 76209. In 1947, Brazos Electric Cooperative was granted a blanket electric easement, subsequently assigned to the City of Denton. As was common practice during that time, especially regarding rural lands, electric companies acquired easements to allow electric facilities to traverse a particular overall property tract, primarily to forgo the expense of boundary survey work and the preparation of specific legal descriptions of where the electric facilities would be constructed. Blanket easements also gave field installation crews some latitude to adjust alignments as terrain and conditions warranted, on a tract by tract basis. It was simple practice and simpler times. A consequence of blanket easements are that, upon strict interpretation, the easement holder does have the right to place electric facilities at any location upon a property tract subject to that easement. The subject abandonment request will define the electric easement boundaries on the subject property. Currently located on the property is an electric line that provides service to the property. The electric facilities on the property have been located and defined by the attached survey exhibit referenced below. The subject abandonment request will also aid the property owner’s future plans to redevelop the property, by formally defining the location of the electric easement.
The subject abandonment request was reviewed by The Development Review Committee, and staff recommends the approval.
Staff performs an analysis on the request for abandonments as follows:
§ Is the easement tract requested for abandonment considered “excess easement”?
§ Does the easement tract requested for abandonment have a continued public use?
§ Is it in the best interest of the general public to abandon the government’s rights in the subject abandonment tract?
§ Would the granting of this request establish a precedent for future abandonment requests?
Staff findings on this analysis are as follows:
1. The requested easement abandonment tract fits the criteria of “excess easement.” Excess easement is defined as: Property rights acquired or used by the City for easement subsequently declared excess (not needed for any public project, the continuation of operation and maintenance of public facilities, and/or no foreseeable utility application in the future).
2. The easement abandonment tract is not slated for utilization for any future electric facilities.
3. The easement abandonment is in the public interest, because the area for the subject abandonment are no longer needed by the public and/or have not been utilized for the public.
4. These abandonments will not set precedent, because the above three standards have been met.
OPTIONS
1. Recommend approval of the Ordinance.
2. Do not recommend approval.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends approval of the Ordinance.
PRIOR ACTION/REVIEW (Council, Boards, Commissions)
Development Review Committee recommended approval on November 18, 2016.
STRATEGIC PLAN RELATIONSHIP
The City of Denton’s Strategic Plan is an action-oriented road map that will help the City achieve its vision. The foundation for the plan is the five long-term Key Focus Areas (KFA): Organizational Excellence; Public Infrastructure; Economic Development; Safe, Livable, and Family-Friendly Community; and Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship. While individual items may support multiple KFAs, this specific City Council agenda item contributes most directly to the following KFA and goal:
Related Key Focus Area: Public Infrastructure
Related Goal: 3.4 Encourage development, redevelopment, recruitment, and retention
EXHIBITS
Location Map
Site Map
Survey Exhibit
Property Boundary Survey
Respectfully submitted:
John T. Davis, PE
Director of Engineering Services
Prepared by:
Mark A. Laird
Real Estate Analyst