66Mibl•1N COMMISSIONERS' COURT AGENDA REQUEST PLEASE FURNISH ONE ORIGINAL AND ONE (1) COPY OF THIS REQUEST AND DOCUMENTS TO BE REVIEWED BY THE COURT MADE BY: Bruce Oehler OFFICE: County Commissioner MEETING DATE: June 14, 2010 TIME PREFERRED: 10:00 AM SUBJECT: Public Hearing to rescind Court Order regarding Cummings Lane; currently being maintained partially by the County and partially by the Residents. EXECUTIVE SESSION REQUESTED: (PLEASE STATE REASON) NAME OF PERSON ADDRESSING THE COURT: Comm. Oehler ESTIMATED LENGTH OF PRESENTATION: IF PERSONNEL MATTER - NAME OF EMPLOYEE: Time for submitting this request for Court to assure that the matter is posted in accordance with Title 5, Chapter 551 and 552, Government Code, is as follows: Meeting scheduled for Mondays: 5:00 PM previous Tuesday THIS REQUEST RECEIVED BY: THIS RQUEST RECEIVED ON: @ .M. All Agenda Requests will be screened by the County Judge's Office to determine if adequate information has been prepared for the Court's formal consideration and action at time of Court Meetings. Your cooperation will be appreciated and contribute towards your request being addressed at the earliest opportunity. See Agenda Request Rules Adopted by Commissioners' Court. ** *PORTION OF TRANSCRIPT FROM MARCH 8, 2010 ** JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. Let's go to 8 Item 12; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 9 rescind court order regarding Cummings Lane currently being 10 maintained partially by the County and partially by the 11 residents. Commissioner Oehler? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Ms. Bailey? I think I gave 13 you all the documentation on this. 14 MS. BAILEY: Yes. I don't have the diagram with 15 me, but essentially, Cummings Lane consists of some deeded 16 property that goes almost to the end of Cummings Lane, and 17 then there's a short piece of property which was at one point 18 deeded separately and identified as private. That private 19 area then goes off into another -- another area which has 20 public access to it. The conflict has arisen because 21 apparently back some time ago, there was a hearing at which 22 that -- that small portion was declared private. And since 23 that time -- actually, I thought it was the owner of that -- 24 that sliver, but it's actually the tenant of the adjacent 25 property has placed an obstruction on that, therefore keeping 3 -8 -10 36 1 people from being able to access the whole public area. 2 We -- there are two issues. One is that we've done the 3 research that would indicate to me that that area, which some 4 people believe to be private, has actually become public, 5 either by prescription or by dedication, so it's actually not 6 a private road. Secondly, there was a hearing before this 7 Court at some time in the past, and you may know the dates, 8 where there was a declaration that that was a private -- a 9 private area. However, apparently proper notice was not 10 given to all the adjacent landowners, so that declaration of 11 it being private is presumptively ineffective to declare that 12 private. 13 So, the bottom line is that we have Cummings Lane 14 that connects up to another public area, that -- partly a 15 road and partly a large kind of parking /driving area. That 16 should be open; should not have that obstruction for those 17 two reasons. And in order to clarify the issue, 1 think we 18 need to have the Court review that prior order that public 19 notice was not given for, and to declare it invalid, and then 20 to also direct my office, or maybe the Sheriffs Office or 21 whoever's appropriate, to require the obstructions that are 22 on that to be removed. There was actually a big tank of some 23 kind that was placed right in the middle of the road so that 24 you couldn't get around it, but I've been told now that that 25 tank is removed. 3 -8 -10 37 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's gone. 2 MS. BAILEY: But that the person who put the tank 3 there is now parking a vehicle across that, so that's still 4 inaccessible to the public. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What this is, is whenever the 6 subdivision Walter Masters put in years ago, you know, where 7 Blue Ridge is on one end, then Cummings goes straight across 8 over by the storage buildings. Somehow or another, the part 9 between the end of where A -1 Transmission is and those 10 storage buildings, that was changed to private somehow or 11 another, and from what I've been told, sometime in 2000, 12 early 2000. And there's a property owner that has land in 13 there that was never notified that that was going to become 14 private, and she's kind of upset about it. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't blame her. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, she is. She happens 17 to be a neighbor of them. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And I don't blame her a bit. 19 You can't close somebody's access, and it being a 20 County- maintained road all those years. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, this particular court 22 order that we -- that we want to rescind talks about 23 notifying everybody and -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We haven't really found a 25 court order. 3 -8 -10 38 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Ah. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Cheryl has looked for it. 3 Now, I saw something that resembled one, but I don't know -- 4 MS. BAILEY: Yeah, its not exactly clear. But 5 regardless of whether or not that order was ever issued, I 6 think that what trumps it is, number one, that proper notice 7 wasn't given, and then number two, that since then there have 8 been other activities which make that road public. One is 9 that one or more transfers of property with that deed have 10 made it subject to any and all apparent public easements. 11 Clearly, that road being across there is a public easement. 12 So, I think that if there was any division of the property 13 making it private sometime in the past, that has been changed 14 by -- by actions subsequent to that. But it needs to be 15 cleared up, because there are arguments either way. Now, 16 since we don't want to get into the same difficulty that 17 were in right now, I think probably, number one, we need to 18 issue some kind of an order declaring whether it is public or 19 not, but it might be a good idea also to have a public 20 hearing so that all the current property owners have the 21 opportunity to come in to put their two cents in, and then 22 you can make that determination. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Settle it once and for all. 24 MS. BAILEY: Yeah. So, you might not want to make 25 that order today, but you might want to set a public hearing. 3 -8 -10 39 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Because there's another issue 2 that goes with this, but this is the first one. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The agenda item is styled to take 4 appropriate action to rescind court order regarding Cummings 5 Lane. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The appropriate action could be 7 to set a public hearing. 8 MS. BAILEY: That's exactly my point, yeah. 'Cause 9 we can't -- I think that maybe, if we can't do it till we 10 have the public hearing, then that's an appropriate action. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. And what prompts my question 12 is, we don't even know whether we got a court order with 13 regard to it. 14 MS. BAILEY: Correct. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So, we need to pass on this 17 until we -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we set a public hearing. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can set a public hearing. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, are we going to do that 21 in 30 days? That would be the -- 22 MS. BAILEY: The 22nd is the next -- the next -- 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Be the first meeting in 24 April? 25 MS. BAILEY: April. 3 -8 -10 40 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What's the date on that, 2 Cheryl? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The 12th. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thirty days. Otherwise, it's 5 pretty short notice to get it in the paper. 6 THE CLERK: April 12th would be the first meeting. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The 12th? 8 THE CLERK: Mm -hmm. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move we set a public 10 hearing for the 12th of April regarding Cummings lane, at 11 10 o'clock. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 14 indicated to set a public hearing for 4 -12 -2010 at 10 a.m. 15 MS. BAILEY: And does that motion include to send 16 out notices to all property owners? 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: And to notify the appropriate 19 landowners as required by law that are within the appropriate 20 statutory distance from that roadway. Further question or '.. 21 discussion on the motion? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1 have a question. It says 23 "partially maintained by the County," I think is what this 24 says. Maintained up to this water tank, or vehicle sitting 25 in the road? Or -- 3-8-10 41 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It had been maintained even 2 back when you were on the Court before down here. It had 3 been maintained all the way through. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And then, somehow or another, 6 about half of it has been made private. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But -- so, by prescription, 8 we really -- we could -- 9 MS. BAILEY: That's the problem with not knowing -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- do the whole thing. 11 MS. BAILEY: -- not knowing what the original order 12 is that we've been talking about, because I don't think if 13 you have a road that was originally public, I don't know that 14 you -- you could have made it private to start out with. I 15 mean -- 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You couldn't have made it 17 private without all the landowners agreeing. 18 MS. BAILEY: Correct. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There's one landowner that 20 was not contacted. That's where we are. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm there. Got you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion? 23 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 24 hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 -8 -10 42 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carried. A .+ ,c t1 �, s s ; U z i .o� -. ,,•17.i.?,-;, r a $ • f . ��\SE r S rc+3P �, 4 ` -r J. ,1:-;.•..,-;11; A g5 f :6bS ' ,561 u�2 �Yda` r � ooz o X 0 1 Q �2�'Z X81 5vZ M ��. _o - 1 \ a. 1 Z Q mc + Q o } N r vN • �\ W _ v . r w 1 M $D1 f9 :� \ i 5 o- k ^j1 ea . 'l L � 'n ! i 9. r n �S 1 Q 6 - ' V> '3N 6 66r . .. 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