Fred Van Antwerp wants to walk his neighborhood in peace and out of the way of traffic.
In the Broadmoor area of Colorado Springs where he lives, that’s a trick because there are no sidewalks and few curbs and gutters.
Fred Van Antwerp stands on the spot where his property ends and the city's 9-foot public right-of-way begins outside his Broadmoor neighborhood home.
So Fred walks on the grass along the streets. Lots of people in his neighborhood do the same thing.
In many places, as on Oak Avenue in the photo above, folks respect the public 9-foot right-of-way that runs along every street in Colorado Springs. Their landscaping and fences set back from the road.
But more and more homeowners are laying claim to the right-of-way, Fred says.
It’s getting hard to stay out of the street because he encounters so many fences, or large boulders or hysterical homeowners all intent on shooing him off “their” property.
Some even erect walls and thick shrubs to keep people off the right-of-way.
Often, the landscaping looks very nice. But is it legal for homeowners to take control of the right-of-way?
No, says Ken Lewis, city code enforcement administrator.
He said the adjacent property owners are responsible for maintaining the adjacent right-of-way in what the city code calls an “aesthetically pleasing” manner. But they don’t own it and can’t keep people off it.
Some even try to control the street in front of their homes. They put up fences to discourage walkers from straying on the grass and motorists from parking on the streets.
Nice try. But definitely not legal.
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Mr. Antwerp is obviously enjoying irritating his neighbors. I live fairly close to the area mentioned and also have no sidewalks. There is not enough traffic to make walking on the streets dangerous. I put a fence up because people like this tend to not have courtesy. The fact that this is in the paper proves that this man is one of them. He’d probably love to live in a socialist country.
Michelle,
“In many places, as on Oak Avenue … folks respect the public 9-foot right-of-way that runs along every street in Colorado Springs. Their landscaping and fences set back from the road.” If, as you appear to claim, public right-of-way is your personal property, the County Assessor needs to amend your lot line and add it to your taxable land area.
The stated 9′ clearance is wrong, however. Roads aren’t built from an imaginary centerline between properties and it’s impractical to maintain an asphalt curve around angled property corners. Thus, the street surface wanders and meander, always within the R-O-W. In a typical 2-lane, that is roughly 30′ asphalt somewhere within a typical-minimum) 60′ space between exact property lines. The best way to find your front lot line, is to measure from your back fence along the side lot line, toward the street. So if your deed shows your lot is 125′ deep, at 125 feet from the back fence should put you well short of the pavement . That gap allows for pedestrians, drainage ditches, shoulder gravel or curb and gutter.