The Sweet Home City Council agreed to sell a small piece of the former Oregon Electric Railroad right-of-way to Leonard Deardorff for $1,750.
The council held a public hearing on the sale at its regular meeting on July 23 and followed a recommendation from the council’s property committee to sell the .071-acre parcel. Deardorff also must pay paperwork, property transfer and sale expenses.
Deardorff of 331 Hwy. 228 had partially constructed a garage on a part of the railroad right-of-way, which is now a city-owned lot running from the Sankey Park area past the southwestern city limits. The lot extends along the city limits next to Deardorff’s and other residents’ property lines along Highway 228.
Deardorff started the garage early this year at 331 Hwy. 228. He has owned a half-acre property there since 1993. Much of the property is covered by access easements for neighbors.
When he decided to build a garage to store small equipment, to make enough room around the easements, 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 from city property 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.
The council agreed in May 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. Groups, over the years, have discussed and planned turning the right-of-way into a trail as part of the parks system.
The right-of-way used by Deardorff, at the bottom of a steep hillside, could never be used as part of the trail, which would run along a trail at the top of the hill. That trail was used by trucks and heavy equipment to log areas of the hill following the storm.
When people come to the city for development permits, Councilman Tim McQueary said, the city and developers need to make sure they know where property lines are.
“It’s (this situation) not pleasant for Mr. Deardorff or anybody,” McQueary said.
The city doesn’t require surveys normally unless an applicant comes to the city and says he doesn’t know where property lines are, City Manager Craig Martin said.
“On this particular concern, there was no question on where marker pins were,” Craig Fentiman said.
The surveys are not cheap, but if the city started requiring property line surveys on some, it would need to require them on all development permits, adding some $1,000 to $1,500 to development costs, Martin said.