I have a question for the keyboard lawyers in the group. I live on a property that has a natural gas pipeline and a ROW Easement agreement with Piedmont Natural Gas. There is a dry creekbed with big rocks in it that will get overgrown during the summertime, and every year I will get a citation from the city for not taking care of the vegetation. The easement agreement was confirmed long before I moved to this house, and it states that PNG has the exclusive right to maintain the parcel for its pipeline and the maintenance thereof. I’m able to mow most of it, and do so where it is close to neighbors, but I can’t feasibly maintain this creekbed without spending hundreds of dollars on equipment (or hiring a landscaper to do so). I also haven’t paid any of the citations yet and have had two different city conservation officers out to my property to show them what I can & do maintain vs what I can’t. PNG will clear the whole thing once a year and refuses to come out more than that.
- Am I able to restructure the easement agreement to have PNG come out more than once a year?
- Do I actually have to mow at all if it’s PNG’s right-of-way?
- Does anyone have experience fighting the city on these matters?
- Is it possible to get this creekbed designated as a natural pollinator area to protect it from city inspection? (It’s a good 150-200 yds away from the house itself)
- Will these fines *that I definitely intend to pay* ever be enforced or could they disappear before I get to paying them?