We, as professional land surveyors and engineers, are always asked what the Right-of-Way is. On every job, no matter the size or scale, the Right-of-Way will impact you.

Originally, road Right-of-Ways were created as easements across a property, commonly centered on the title line. This would mean you would own to the center of the road, and the public would have a certain width area for throughfare. As time progresses, there has been a continuing need to expand the width of roads due to the size of vehicles or to add more lanes. This even led to the Right-of-Ways no longer being treated as easements but taken in fee title to the controlling jurisdiction. Over time, this has brought some confusion as to what the existing “legal” Right-of-Way really is. Through research, sometimes extensive, we can determine what can be truly called the Legal Right-of-Way.

The bigger issue I want to bring up is the fee-title Right-of-Way and how it is being handled today. Increasingly, there is a clouded title to these lands because of the nature of how they are being created. The problem lies within the subdivision and land development ordinances within almost all municipalities in PA that require you to dedicate additional Right-of-Way widths, known as Ultimate Right-of-Ways.

When it comes to municipally owned roads, there are usually no issues, as the recorded plans will normally suffice as fee title taking if no dedication deed was filed. The issue primarily concerns state- and county-owned roads. We had a recent lawsuit involving a tree fall. The tree was located between the ultimate Right-of-Way and the PennDOT legal Right-of-Way, and they wanted to know whose land it was on… the problem was that it was on nobody's land.

The issue mainly lies in municipalities' need to take additional land along major roads, but the county or state does not want it, so it never takes dedication. Plus, when the developer sells off the lots, they are required to do so to the ultimate Right-of-Way, creating the gap of land I call no man's land.

So now, anytime I am in front of a planning commission, Board of Commissioners/Supervisors, or Borough Council, I always bring up the fact that it is not necessary to widen, as there is no current need, and that it will only create title issues for those around it. It could also potentially bring the municipality into a future lawsuit due to the no-man 's-land areas they are requiring developers to create.

Ultimately, the Right Way is the Simplest.