How to Apply for Dedication and Vacation of Public Right of Way

Dedication of Public Right-of-Way (ROW) or Public (City owned) Utility Easements   

Certain development projects may require the dedication of private land for City public rights-of-way or public (City owned) utility easements to fulfill a public need. Dedications are memorialized in an easement agreement between the property owner and City. The agreement is recorded with the Los Angeles County Recorder. For example, a dedication may be required to ensure an ADA compliant sidewalk and adequate space for underground public (City owned) utilities in front of a property. Jurisdictions rarely require that the ownership of the underlying fee-simple interest also be dedicated, which means that in the event an easement or Public ROW is vacated, ownership is retained by the abutting property owner(s) without payment of fair market value to the jurisdiction.  Dedications are governed by California Government Code section 66475. 

*Please note, other public utilities, such as Southern California Gas (SCE), Southern California Edison (SCE), telephone, cable etc. have separate requirements for processing easements (as required) when affecting private land ownership and are not covered under this section. These utility companies will request specific easements directly with the property owner. 

When a dedication is required, please submit the Easement Dedication Application linked below along with required documents for review.

Documents

• Easement Dedication Application
• Template Easement Dedication Agreement
• Easement Title Block

Vacation of Public Right-of-Way (ROW) or Service Easements

In the context of public right-of-way, a vacation is the act of a legislative body that completely or partially abandons the public right to use a street (which includes alleys) or public service easement (e.g., an easement for sewer, water or other public utility purposes). For example, if an alley was vacated, that alley would cease to exist as a legal street. Vacations are governed by California Streets and Highways Code (CSHC) sections 8300 through 8363. Nearly all streets and public service easements in the City of Santa Monica are controlled by easement, meaning that the City doesn’t actually own the land but rather has an easement to use it for a specified purpose (e.g., as a street). When the City vacates a street controlled by easement, the vacated area is now free of the easement, meaning that the original property owners regain control of the area for their own use. These property owners are usually those that surround the vacated area. For example, if an alley is vacated, the property owners on each side of the alley would regain control of that portion of the alley adjacent to their parcel up to the centerline of the alley. It is usually necessary for a property owner to update their title to reflect a vacation once it has been recorded with Los Angeles County. The City has no involvement in the adjustment of titles after recording a resolution of vacation.

Public Rights-of-Way. 

Some of the public rights-of-way, which are defined in Section 8308 of CSHC that can be vacated by the City, are all or part of, or right in any of the following:

• Street, road, avenue, lane and place
• Alley, court, trail and driveway
• Other public right-of-way or easement
• Purported public streets
• Restrictions of access or abutter’s rights
• Slope easements
• Other incidents to a street
• Airspace and/or subsurface portions of the public right-of-way such as streets, alleys and walks.

Public Service Easements.

Under the category public service easements which are defined in Section 8306 of CSHC, any right in the following types of easements can be vacated:

• Sewers, storm drain and drainage
• Pole lines and electrical transmission lines
• Pipelines, canal and water transmission lines
• Pathways, light and air
• Other limited use public easements other than for a street
• Easements reserves on a previous vacation, including future streets

Summary Vacation.

The City may summarily vacate the public rights-of way detailed in the following subsections. Under the Summary Vacation process the City Council can approve a vacation request without a public hearing. Therefore, City staff will not recommend the Summary Vacation process if the request is controversial or objections from the community were received.

• Superseded Street:  A superseded street is one that has been superseded by relocation except when access to other properties would be cut off (Section 8330(a) of CSHC).
• Excess Right-of-Way:  An excess right-of-way of a street is one that is not required for street purposes (Section 8334(a) of CSHC). The interpreted practice is excess means excess in width.
• Street Serving One Ownership:  A street serving one ownership is a portion of a street that lies within property under one ownership, does not continue through such ownership and does not end by touching property of another ownership (Section 8334(b) of CSHC).
• Paper Street:  A paper street is one that has been impassable for vehicular travel for a period of five consecutive years and for which no public money was expended for maintenance during that period (Section 8331 of CSHC).
• Street Closed by Freeway Agreement:  A street closed by a freeway agreement is one that is covered by the freeway agreement for closure at or near the point of its interception with a State freeway (Section 8332 of CSHC).
• Service Easement Not Used For Five Years:  A public service easement not used for five years is one that has not been used for the purposes for which it was dedicated or acquired for five consecutive years immediately preceding the proposed vacation (Section 8333(a) of CSHC).
• Service Easement Never Used:  A public service easement never used is one for which the date of dedication or acquisition is less than five years and more than one year, immediately preceding the proposed vacation and where the easement was not used continuously since that date (Section 8333(b) of CSHC).

General Vacation & Requirement for Public Hearings.

Section 8320(b) of CSHC  requires public hearings to be set for all persons interested in the proposed vacation.  City Clerk will establish the date, hour and place of the public hearing. The requirement of holding a public hearing may be waived if the application qualifies under Summary Vacation process listed below. General Vacation procedures shall adhere to Section 8320-8325 of CSHC. 

• Posting of Notice:  Pursuant to Section 8323 of CSHC, at least two weeks before the day set for the public hearing, notices of vacation must be posted along the street or public service easement proposed to be vacated. 
• Council Finding at Public Hearing:  Pursuant to Section 8324 of CSHC, City Council shall hear evidence offered by interested persons at the above required public hearing. If the City Council finds, from all the evidence submitted, that the public street or public service easement is unnecessary for present or prospective public use, the City Council may adopt the City Engineer reports and findings to vacate.
• Resolution to Vacate:  When all the conditions established for vacation approval are complete, City Engineer shall prepare and transmit a Resolution to Vacate to the City Council for adoption.  This is considered an administrative action and therefore no posting or notification of the meeting is required.  Upon recordation of the Council adopted Resolution to Vacate with the County Recorder, the vacation is complete, according to Section 8325(b) of CSHC.

Description of Vacation Area.

Pursuant to Sections 8335(b)(2) of CSHC, the recital of the area to be vacated in the Resolution to Vacate may be by either precise legal description of the area or by a precise map which is recorded or to which reference is made in the resolution and which is permanently maintained by the City.  At the City's discretion, the City may require both legal description and precise map of the vacation area. 

Description of Vacation Area thru the Subdivision Map or Lot Tie process.

Pursuant to Section 8335(a)(2) of CSHC, no street shall be vacated unless a legal description or a map to absorb the vacated area is prepared, executed and approved in the manner required by law for the preparation, execution and approval of maps and/or legal descriptions for subdivisions of tracts of land through the Subdivision Map Act. If a subdivision map is not required to absorb the vacated area, a lot tie agreement condition should be imposed to tie the vacated area to the adjoining parcels to preclude the creation of substandard or land locked parcels. 

Pursuant to Section 66499.20 of the California Government Code, a public right-of-way may be merged upon the recordation of a final subdivision tract map or parcel map without going thru vacation proceedings. 

Reservation of Easement.

Pursuant to Section 8341 CSHC, the description of the easement shall be recited in the Resolution of Vacation, which is a written description and described by reference to a map. Pursuant to Sections 8340(a) and (b) of CSHC, the City or any other public utility company as goverened and regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) may reserve from the vacation easements for the following types of uses:

• Sanitary Sewer
• Storm Drain
• Gas
• Telephone
• Railroad lines
• Electric energy
• Petroleum
• Ammonia
• Water
• Incidental purposes
• Access to protect these uses
• Future street

Non - Reservation of Easement.

Pursuant to Section 8340 (c) CSHC, the City may elect not to reserve an easement for in-place public utility facilities that are in use if the City Council determines the public convenience and necessity require such non-reservation.

Notification to Public Bodies or Public Utilities

A “public body” means a city or special district as defined in Section 54775 of the California Government Code. Pursuant to Section 8347 of CSHC, the City must give written notice of the vacation to those public bodies and public utilities requesting such notification. The notification is to be given within 30 days after the filing of an application to vacate.

Public Body May File Notice of Easement

Pursuant to Section 8348 of CSHC, a public body may record a notice of a public easement of its existing works in the vacation area within the following time periods:

• Within 30 days after receipt of the notice of the vacation proceedings.
• If no notification is sent by the City within 180 days after the recordation of the resolution of vacation. The failure of the public body to record its notice within these time periods extinguishes the right of the public body to a public easement over the vacated street or highway.

City Authority to Vacate.

Pursuant to Section 8312 of CSHC, the Council shall have the power to vacate streets, avenues, alleys, lanes, boulevards, crossings, courts, and other public places and rights-of-way by way of resolution.

Application Process.

When a vacation is required, please submit the Street Vacation Application linked below along with required documents for review.

Documents.

Click the links below for more information regarding vacations.

• Information Regarding Vacation of the Public Right-of-Way
• Street Vacation Application
• City Title Block for Vacation Exhibits