Driveway Access to Property - Texas
I am looking for help finding a code or law to back-up what I am being told is "common practice".
I have a piece of property in Texas that has a ditch at the front of it between the property and the road. Over that ditch is an existing culvert + driveway. This culvert/driveway is the only way for me to access the land by vehicle. The culvert and driveway are on the survey and appraisal (appraisal has it marked as an off-site improvement).
The city indicated that they were going to remove that culvert while doing other work and not put it back. Talking to a few people (county code guys), they all said "you can't deny or change someone's access to their property", but none of them could point to a code or regulation that explicitly states that.
I have tried searching "driveway access", "utility easement" and others through Texas law, but I have not found anything concrete. I am looking for a statute or case that I can have on me to explicitly shut that down during my next discussion with the city.
Posted Jan 15, 2023, 10:15 PM UTC
Is the ditch/culvert on your property (including a part of your property for which an easement is granted to the city or others), or are they on property owned by the city?
If the city is going to modify your property to make it less useful to you, then you may have a claim to require them to either put that part back or pay you the cost of putting it back. Either way, if it's your property with an easement for the city on it for the ditch/culvert, then they can't stop you from building a bridge over the ditch to access it.
Assuming this is all on your land, the city's easement entitles them to something, likely to build and maintain the ditch/culvert. The closest I could find with a quick search was https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.254.htm which deals with counties, not cities, although presumably the city is acting under the same/similar authority. It does specify that they need to reimburse you for any damages, and your new need to build a bridge to your property because of their drainage ditch work would likely apply.
My suggestion would be to either plan to build your own bridge over the ditch, or else consult with a real estate attorney, but either way getting an estimate for someone to replace the culvert with a new bridge of some kind might be a useful bargaining chip with the city officials.
Edited to add: Look on your county's website for their culvert policies. You may need to figure out how the city interacts with the county's policies, but based on what I can see, you may actually be the owner of the culvert and the city only the ditch, so they'd need to pay you the cost of replacing it if they remove it.
I appreciate this. I found a line on damaged in that link. I also found a Texas Property Rights Law of 2007 that indicates similar.
All of the county codes have to do with me building a culvert and restrictions therein. I.e, regulations on my ability to put in a culvert.
Between your link and this property rights law, I feel that I have sufficient documentation. I appreciate you