Mapping easements and rights-of-way

Our GIS division is tasked with redrawing every parcel (~40k) and all roads (~1500 miles, incl interstates, state highways, county routes, and township roads) in the county, due to inaccuracies over the years of the mylar-to CAD-to GIS conversions done by our predecessors.  Parcels in themselves are a monumental task, and we're 60% done with that project, begun in Aug 2011.

Our biggest issue is in drawing road right-of-way.  It seems, on the surface, that the original road records are good - interpretation of some documents, but otherwise the basis to establish a centerline and in most cases, the width of the established road (most of which were done in the 1860's-on).  In addition, there are also some more recent roadway, culvert, and bridge projects that required additional right-of-way by instrument easements, documented and recorded with the register of deeds office; these easements are almost always based on the PLSS.

What do you do when the road was not built (or is no longer) centered upon the PLSS or otherwise-intended road centerline?  Example: the original road record says the road was opened from section corner to section corner, 1 mile (though they may state 5289 feet), 50 feet in width.  Upon drawing this simple centerline and offset, the roadway deviates say, 5-10 feet in one direction or another, but basically starts out and ends at the intended section corners/intersection of other roads.

Our public works department seems hellbent on wanting us to show both the original road record and the prescriptive easement based upon the current road centerline (using the aerial photo).  Draw two easements?  Please say it isn't so... Understanding that a prescriptive easement protects our roadways regardless of where it is located, we are beginning to think that, in events like the above, we should draw the road record down the center of the current road (as shown on the aerial), but only if there is confidence that the roadway doesn't deviate more than say, a +/- 5% of the overall width in one direction or another (this level of acceptable deviation hasn't yet been established).

Knowing that individual surveys will acknowledge road RoW as being a true offset from the section line, what about where property owners believe their property line (ownership by deed) to be, which is the center of the road, that is what they used to put in their fences?  Any deviation in the center of the road as constructed has obviously caused an offset deviation...

I'm rambling, but where would you draw the right-of-way lines?  I'm torn between these schools of thought... strict adherance to the road record, or use what is there as we speak... what are your thoughts?  Keep in mind that we haven't come across any RoW by deed, only original road records and easements for highway purposes.

Your question is very complicated. But you need to remember GIS Rule Number One: "You are NEVER going to please everyone". Being a GIS Guy is like being a politician, or for that matter an NFL Referee. You are underappreciated until you are "replaced" by the well meaning incompetent.

The answer to the question "Where do you draw the Right of Way lines" is, you don't. A properly managed GIS has a designated Subject Matter Expert for each layer or category. If Public Works wants a Right of Way layer they need to give it to you. In my state, California, only persons certified or licensed to determine these issues can render them and refer to them as boundary items.

If they want it displayed they need to give you a an authoritative data set. And whoever gives it to you needs to be listed as the contact person in the metadata. It won't take long to realize that roadwidths and other particulars are best dealt with in the tabular data.

Easements in a GIS are a slippery slope in a GIS for a variety of reasons. The chief reason is usually that there is no uniform method for creating them or entering them into the public record.

GIS is not something you can do alone. Individual responsibilities must be assigned for an enterprise system to be a viable tool.

Edit: if you can find this paper on line it may be of some help.
Migrating a Road Register to a Modern Asset Management System
(Paper UC1790 for the 2008 ESRI International User Conference)
 MLB

I would not show the alleged "prescriptivve easement"  unless they have been defined and awarded.   The easement may exist in the way as located on the ground but the rights don't until granted.

Is it clear that if any prescriptive rights exist that they would exist in a full 50' right of way, or just the travelled surface?

Just be glad you're not a surveyor!   That simpifies your job quite a bit.

I've interpreted road ROWs both ways, and there's no hard and fast rule to this for me, despite arguments from GIS types and tax listers.

Even width is a tough call; I weigh field evidence (fences) before I presume that it's a 4 rod road. I've seen 2 rod roads. Wisconsin state law from 1839-40 & 1849-63 called for 4 rod roads, but sometimes towns laid out 3 rod roads anyway. BTW, while some roads may be 50', many more around here are 3 rods. I've never seen a 50' road, although the DOT listed them as 50' on their old database because their software didn't do decimals. That didn't make them 50' though. And there were a lot of them.

Keep in mind what a judge would say if brought to him. Don is right on prescriptive easements; don't go there.

r/w thru federal lands were often written as Special Use Permits or Highway Easement Deeds, these often move when the roads move as their descriptions read something like this: "a roadway r/w, being 132' in width, 66' on each side of the centerline of the road". or something like that. In such cases, the r/w does indeed move when the roadway moves. be diligent in your reseach, and be sure to read ALL adjoiners to r/w.

 

As MLB pointed out this shouldn't be your decision.  Sounds like a little more direction may be in order or you're just going to end up with a pile of data that no on in the future can make sense of. If you must draw both they NEED to be on separate layers.  While I see no problem with drawing both I would be up to date on your states laws regarding prescriptive right of way as each state is different. Just because it looks like a road and acts like a road doesn't necessarily mean its a road.

Are your GIS data based on real data, surveyed monuments for example? How is your aerial imagery rectified?  How are your parcel records being researched? Just curious...as I have seen many instances of the work you're doing end up as a disaster in the end.

I have been involved in creating documents to acquire right of way for public utilities and roads. Inevitably these right of way projects encountered existing road right of way. Many of these roads were “opened” along section lines by a statutory process. The record of these openings was recorded in the county offices and summarized in “The County Road Book”. There were several actions that needed to be taken for the road to be legally opened. One of the steps was to have the county surveyor recover the section corners and “flag” the centerline of the road so it could be graded…….the notes of this survey were often filed with the road opening….these notes could help substantiate  that the location of an obliterated GLO corner.  

Local landowners often petitioned to have these roads opened and maintained. For a variety of reasons the locations of these roads shifted to make them passable during the winter or the raining season.
In some instances two neighbors might simple erect fences where they wanted the road to be located.     

A jurisdiction that simply asserts the land that is being used for a roadway is a prescriptive easement has not yet completed the legal requirements to establish this fact. They may often prevail in court when the road way has been in place for many years and no one can offer evidence of how the roadway came in to existence. In the work that I have done, I attempted to obtain the road records. I examined the deeds of the properties adjoining the road. I also mapped the apparent road right of way based on grading and fences. In many cases it was a time consuming process that yielded little more than uncertainty.       

Can you share the upcoming dates and events with us? Thanks in advance.
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laser mapping