There's a utility easement on my lot — what can I do in it?

**Check your subdivision's width first.**

Woodland Heights, Woodland Heights II - **5 feet**
The other seven - **10 feet**

The easement runs along and within that distance of the **rear line and sideline** of all original lots. On fractional lots it also extends along the owner's side and rear property lines.

**What it is for.** Construction and perpetual maintenance of conduits, poles, wires and fixtures for electric light, telephone and other public and quasi-public utilities, and for **drainage**.

**It includes tree trimming.** The easement permits trimming any trees that interfere, or threaten to interfere, with maintaining those lines.

**It includes access.** Utility employees have the right of ingress to, egress from, and passage across the property.

**What that means for you.** Do not build in it, and think carefully before planting trees or installing anything permanent there — a fence, a shed, landscaping. If a utility needs access, the easement entitles them to it.

**One thing that is not a violation.** Where wires or cables carried by pole lines pass over part of the property outside the easement, that is not a breach — as long as they do not hinder construction of buildings.

**If you own adjoining lots**, the easement can become inoperative along the shared line in certain circumstances — see the article on building across a lot line.

**Before digging or building near a boundary**, contact the office and call MISS DIG.

*Source: Restrictive Covenants, Article VII, Section 4, all nine declarations.*