80 La Canada residents OK with easements

Marshall Allen

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- About 80 sewer district 2 respondents were

favorable to a city letter assessing their willingness to grant

easements, giving city officials hope that access to private property

won’t create problems if sewer district 2 is approved by voters.

Ballots will be sent to the residents of district 2 on Wednesday and

they’ll have 45 days to cast their vote. Sewer district 2 includes 1,352

homes north of Foothill Boulevard, bookended by Gould Avenue and La

Canada Boulevard.

The district has 170 property owners who the city hopes will grant

easements if the sewer vote passes. An easement allows sewers lines to be

installed on private driveways and gives the L.A. County Sewer

Maintenance District the right to enter onto driveways to service the

sewers. An easement is recorded against the title of the house and all

future owners will have to recognize it, City Engineer Elroy Kiepke said.

If the city doesn’t get easements, “it would slow up the process,”

City Manager Jerry Fulwood said. “It would create added challenges for

those property owners who didn’t grant them.”

If one or more residents on a private driveway don’t grant an

easement, then lateral sewer lines couldn’t be run up driveway to connect

to homes, Kiepke said. Instead, residents would each run individual pipes

the length of the driveway, Kiepke said.

Another possible solution for rejected easement requests would be for

sewer engineers and designers to work around the properties where

easements were refused, Fulwood said.

Fulwood said he’s encouraged by the response to the letter, which was

sent to gauge whether easements might become a problem if sewers are

approved. The letter was mailed to 170 residents on April 5. Only two of

the 80 responses were negative, he said.

“With any type of mailing, to receive 50% response is exceptional,” he

said.