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Staff REPORT
ITEM
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| | | | | | | | SUBJECT:
| Easements for Capital Projects-West End Gravity Sewer
| DATE OF MEETING:
| May 23, 2023
| | Staff CONTACT(S): | Dale Lehnig, Director of Engineering, Planning & Development
Jessica Keller, Capital Projects Coordinator
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SUMMARY and RECOMMENDATIONS:
The West End Gravity Sewer project began in 2018, following a 2017 Preliminary Engineering Report completed by CHA recommending the construction of a new pump station on the Ball Property (Blue Ridge Estates) to replace the existing West End Pump Station. Through a cost sharing agreement between the Town and the developer of Blue Ridge Estates, the new pump station was constructed and placed into service. In order to abandon the West End Pump Station and connect to the Blue Ridge Estates Pump Station, new gravity sewer must be constructed. Permanent utility easements are needed on four properties, and two of the four easements were acquired in 2021. The Town has encountered great difficulty in acquiring the final two easements and directed the design engineer to revise the alignment of the gravity sewer so that the proposed easements would be more agreeable to the property owners. Cedar Lane Bibleway Church has accepted the new design and has signed a deed of easement granting the needed easements to the Town.
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 deeds of easement submitted to Town Council for approval with this agenda item are routine. The land subject to an 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.
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[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 Deed of Easement submitted for approval with this staff report furthers the following capital project:
(a) West End Gravity Sewer
In order to connect to the new Blue Ridge Estates Pump Station, the Town needs to abandon the existing West End Pump Station and construct new gravity sewer to connect to the sewer installed by the developer of Blue Ridge Estates. Easements are needed from four property owners. The deed submitted for approval and attached to this report is:
- Cedar Lane Bibleway Church
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BUDGET IMPACT:
Acquisition of easements is negotiated between Town Staff and the property owners. 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 deed of easement, the negotiated deed, which has already been budgeted and appropriated as part of the capital cost of the project, will be recorded.
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MOTION(S):
“I move that Town Council approve and accept the easements offered in the Deed 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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