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BNSF land survey shows garages on RR property
Can anyone illuminate what this project is?
People will never learn, dont move next to tracks, airports, etc. then turn around and complain about noise or expansion. Is it cool to be dumb?
Gee, where is mudchicken?
Article says: " to reconfigure tracks in Minneapolis " in " BNSF 's second effort to address congestion in the area. "
Doesn’t sound like the (five) property owners are complaining much, and that the BNSF is being quite reasonable.
A worthwhile lesson learned here might be: to be sure of your property boundaries before you erect a fence, shed or garage. Land surveys can be very helpful !
Residents, residents, residents!
“Residences” is the proper plural form of residence, place to live. That said, where are these residences where this improvement by BNSF is proposed?
I don’t suspect that the " property owners " are living in their garages or sheds !
How does the saying go, possession is nine tenths of the law. Why would anyone go out of the way let alone pay for a property survey when you could just go ahead and plop down a shed without a peep.
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I still can’t believe the Minnesota legislature embraced NIMBYISM to its fullest. I thought the initial plan of utilizing the underused existing CP rail line made tremendous sense and an example of how capitalism works for the better or at least how it can work better then government. But then again, politicians will embrace populism for votes no matter what political background.
If you want to believe that " ole" saying, you go right ahead ! Have you ever been forced to move a FULLY loaded storage shed, let alone a garage ? I suspect it’s not an easy task, so have the damn survey done !!
The NIMBYs may lose their BYs. How ironic. A nice Cat D-9 will do the job.
Wee bit of over-kill for the likes of just a " retaining wall ", I would be inclined to suggest !
Moral: if you buy property near a rail line, rail-banked trail or utility easement, caveat emptor!
Wow !! If you had scrolled down further, you would have read my previous comments which had suggested the same thing ! That you should be sure of your property boundaries and the best way is to spend a few bucks and " get a damn survey !!!
Back in the 50s, the Pacific Great Eastern decided to extend their line south from Squamish to West Vancouver using their right away that had been abandoned some decades earlier.
Lots of people in West Vancouver, a very wealthy neighbourhood, were surprised to find out that a large portion of their back yard was actually the PGE right of way and was going to become part of an active railroad.
I’m about two thousand miles away so I can only speculate, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the fences, garages and such were built decades ago by previous owners. I will assume here that BNSF’s surveyor is correct. Given that five or more homes are involved, I can imagine two possibilities (there could certainly be others.). One, it could be the first owner of one house simply decided to extend his fence to make his yard bigger and hoped the railroad wouldn’t notice, and his neighbors later followed suit. Two, the surveyor who first laid out the housing lots screwed up and put the markers in the wrong place. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Now you have later homeowners who understandably feel indignant when the big railroad next door come along and says their property isn’t their property. Often there’s no way to fix a mess like this in a way that satisfies everyone. There are all sorts of ramifications. If the surveyor screwed up, does that mean the residents and the railroad both been paying property taxes on the same land for the past 80 years? Ugh.
But has been stated, a lesson here is before you build anything on your property, have the property line surveyed. Many towns today require this before you can get a building permit, specifically to prevent this sort of thing.
I had to chuckle on the words “While BNSF surveys match existing county property records, one resident says that does not necessarily mean those records are correct.” What that really should say is that “one resident says that does not necessarily fit what delusional opinion he has”.
There are many times when platted boundaries do not match actual usage. GET A SURVEY before you buy!
Anyone who works for a railroad can point out where adjacent property owners have “extended” their property onto the railroad ROW. Once while operating a train up Madeira hill outside Cincinnati, coming around the curve we witnessed a backhoe operator doing his best to clear the main. We of course reported what we saw to the dispatcher. The railroad investigated and a business next to the tracks was in the process of expanding their parking lot right out onto the ROW. The backhoe had been on the tracks moving dirt!!!. My dad bought some former railroad property for his business and ended up owning a street, several front yards and part of a back yard!
The I&O in Cincinnati runs a separate line in Blue Ash and Mason, OH that used to be connected. When you follow the old ROW you find that some builders put in a subdivision right over the old ROW. I have always wondered how this could have happened as it seems that any surveyor’s maps should have shown the ROW location. It makes you wonder if some builders just figure “build first then fight it later”, assuming that few courts or railroads would force a homeowner out in order to reclaim “abandoned” ROW. This lack of just a short section of connecting track forces the I&O to take a circuitous route over other rail lines to get to it’s Mason operation.