City Attorney Robert Snyder is putting together a proposal to sell a small piece of city-owned property to an adjacent landowner who mistakenly built a garage in the old railroad right-of-way off Highway 228.
Leonard Deardorff started the garage about four months ago at 331 West Holley Rd. He has owned the half-acre property since 1993. Much of the property is covered by access easements for neighbors.
When he decided to build a garage to store small equipment, he decided to dig into the hillside behind his house, just below the old railroad line that ran from the current McDonald’s location through school property, Sankey Park, the Elm Street area on out to “Dollar Camp” west of Sweet Home.
He built the garage based on what his neighbor told him were the property stakes. He went through the permitting process and received approval for the project. The City of Sweet Home doesn’t require surveys for such projects. In this case, it could have added $1,000 to a $3,000 project.
Deardorff’s contractor finished the roof and was on the ground about 20 minutes before the windstorm hit Sweet Home on Feb. 7. A tree went down through the roof.
Deardorff called the City of Sweet Home and told staff that a bunch of its trees had fallen onto his property.
“They wanted to find out whose trees were whose,” Deardorff said. “So they came down and surveyed it.”
That’s when the city discovered the garage was actually on city property. A map of property lines around the area shows some eight buildings over property lines, including Deardorff’s neighbor.
The city would never have known the garage, built at the base of a hill below the old railroad, was on city property had it not been for the storm, City Manager Craig Martin said.
The council agreed earlier this month to consider a deal to adjust the property line. The council asked Snyder to draft a proposal.
The city came into possession of the old right-of-way in 1974 apparently as part of a “rails to trails” program. The property is outside of the city limits, like other city facilities, such as the city’s water reservoirs.
Groups, over the years, have discussed and planned turning the right-of-way into a trail as part of the parks system.
“They’ve been pretty good as far as I’m going,” Deardorff said, but the incident raises some concerns, in particular, the number of buildings that sit across property lines.
“As long as they allow me to finish this, I’ll be glad to pay for any right-of-way I’ve taken.”
The right-of-way used by Deardorff would never be used as part of the trail, which would run atop a steep hillside above his home.