Hill Ave. easement vacated

A 115-year-old road easement at the southern end of Hill Ave. has been vacated.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0, with Ron Roberts in Washington as part of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce delegation, to vacate the easement. The vacation returns the land rights, as well as the maintenance responsibility, to property owners Robert and Shirley Fender and also removes the vacated area from setback requirements.

“This was kind of an onerous restriction on the use of their property,” said Tom Harrington, the senior general surveyor for the county’s Department of General Services.

The easement just south of what is now Hill Court was dedicated with Road Survey Map Number 116 and adopted by the Board of Supervisors in 1897. “It was originally the wagon road coming into town,” Harrington said.

As development occurred around that section of Hill Ave., the road as recorded on the easement map was no longer perceived as necessary. Once Hill Court was built, the constructed segment of Hill Ave. south of Hill Court became a “knuckle” road.

The legal easement became a problem for the Fender family when they sought a county permit for an outbuilding structure and were informed of the setback. The Fender family requested the easement vacation and placed a $2,500 deposit with the county to cover the processing costs. The vacated area is approximately 200 feet long and 20 feet wide.

County staff determined that the road has not been used by the public for travel purposes, that it will not be useful as a non-motorized transportation facility, and that it is not on the county’s bicycle network plan or needed as a bicycle path. All of the utility providers in the area were notified of the plans to vacate the easement, and none of the utilities requested reservations or indicated that any public utilities would be adversely affected.

Harrington lives in Morro Hills and is also a member of the Fallbrook Community Planning Group. He abstained when the planning group endorsed the vacation, but all of the planning group’s other 13 board members (there was one vacancy at the time) voted to recommend vacating the easement.

To comment on this story online, visit http://www.thevillagenews.com.