Who Can Use a Public Right of Way
My property is at the corner of two publically maintained roads. The plot shows a ROW of about 10 feet along the road and turning the corner. I have had incidents in the past where people posted signs or parked vehicles on the ROW. These are not government or utility vehicles. The signs and vehicles were removed when I requested. At that time my local PD would not issue No Parking signs (they control code enforcement) saying that it was too burdensome.
Yesterday a man claiming to be a P.I. was parked there and was surveilling my neighbors. He refused to leave until the police 911 dispatcher told him to. A patrolman came out after he left and said that the trespass enforcement could only happen if the alleged trespasser was present when the PD arrived. He said that if this happened again not to confront the person, just call 911 and the police would handle it.
My impression from reading FL law (704.01 znd 704.05) is that easement is for utilities, government vehicles or mineral exploration if that right does not belong to the property owner. Note that this not the classic easement of "landlocked" property, the ROW in question is along the edge of the property I hold. Thanks!
Re: Who Can Use a Public Right of Way
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Who Can Use a Public Right of Way
the public. that is why they call it a public right of way.
you need to research if there are any parking laws or sign laws applicable to the ROW of concern. If there are none, then it is perfectly legal to park in the ROW or post a sign.
for all practical purposes, the ROW is part of the road and you have no effective control over it with the exception of; if the gov only claims and maintains a portion of the ROW, you can maintain the remainder of the the ROW as long as it is allowed by the gov. If somebody were to damage your improvements (grass generally is about all you can have there) you generally can seek compensation for that damage although even that is not a sure fire claim and would vary with the exact circumstances.
Re: Who Can Use a Public Right of Way
Thanks. BTW, I had approached my local PD about putting up No Parking signs after a couple of incidents of heavy trucks tearing up my lawn, but they declined, saying they did not believe it was worth enforcing. In our community, Code Enforcement is a police dept. function, which is a mixed blessing. If this P.I. (if that's who he was) clown had simply told me what he was doing before hand, I would have been OK with it.