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Staff REPORT
Action ITEM
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| | | | | | | | SUBJECT:
| Approval of Easement Agreements (D. Lehnig)
| DATE OF MEETING:
| October 12, 2021
| | Staff CONTACT(S): | Dale Lehnig, Director of Engineering, Planning and Development
Jessica Keller, Capital Projects Coordinator
Sally Hankins, Town Attorney
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SUMMARY and RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Town’s Engineering, Planning & Development Department has undertaken several Council-approved construction projects, the completion of which require that easements be granted to the Town by private property owners. This agenda item seeks Council approval of numerous such easements. For efficiency, these deeds of easement can be approved collectively, in a single motion.
The easements submitted to Town Council for approval with this agenda item are routine. The land subject to the easement remains owned by the private property owner, and not the Town. As such, it is not truly a conveyance of real estate requiring Council approval. Nonetheless, the Town’s long-standing practice has been to treat such easements as conveyances of real estate, requiring approval by the Town Council[1] and signature by the Mayor.
[1] § 15.2-1803. Approval and acceptance of conveyances of real estate.
Every deed purporting to convey real estate to a locality shall be in a form approved by the attorney for the locality, or if there is no such attorney, then a qualified attorney-at-law selected by the governing body. No such deed shall be valid unless accepted by the locality, which acceptance shall appear on the face thereof or on a separately recorded instrument and shall be executed by a person authorized to act on behalf of the locality. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any conveyance of real estate to any locality under the provisions of Article 6 (§ 15.2-2240 et seq.) of Chapter 22 or prior to December 1, 1997.
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BACKGROUND:
The Deeds of Easement submitted for approval with this staff report further the following capital projects:
(a) Main Street & Maple Avenue Intersection Improvements Phase 2
This is a VDOT federally funded project on S. Maple Avenue, which includes sidewalk, curb & gutter, drainage and entrance improvements, and signalization improvements to add a left turn arrow for NB Maple Avenue traffic. Easements are needed from nine property owners.
(b) West End Gravity SewerIn order to connect to the new Blue Ridge Estates Pump Station, the Town needs to abandon the existing West End Pump Station and construct the new gravity sewer to connect to the sewer installed by the developer of Blue Ridge Estates. Easements are needed from four property owners.
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BUDGET IMPACT:
There is some expense associated with acquiring easements, which expense is negotiated between the Town Staff and the property owner. All such negotiations relative to the easements before Town Council for approval with this Staff Report have been concluded. If Town Council approves and accepts the attached easements, those negotiated prices, which have already been budgeted and appropriated as part of the capital cost of the project, will be paid.
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MOTION(S):
“I move that Town Council approve and accept the easements offered in the Deeds of Easement attached to this Staff Report, and authorize the Mayor to sign all such deeds on behalf of the Town.”
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