City of Ludington Property Grab

[XLFD]

Do you own land in the City of Ludington?  Chances are you may have your title deed handy, if not, you should be able to look it up  when you click on "Assessment Tax Roll information" here.  You can look under your name, or by address.  You can also do this for any other Ludington property.  But be careful that you don't do so for 201 N. Washington, or you could soon be a fugitive, LOL. 

 

Inside each property, after you click a parcel, you will see a note that there are images and or sketches at the top.  If you click that, the last sketch usually corresponds to a sketch of your lot(s).  If you live on a corner lot you will see it goes to both streets.  Your lot is actually likely to extend all the way to the middle of the street. 

 

Each street, with few exceptions, allow for 66 ft. or 70 ft. to go between you and your across-the-street neighbor.  The general street which allows for parking is only about 28 ft. wide between the curbs, meaning there is still about 20 ft. available on the sides of most streets.   If you have sidewalks, they usually fall within here, but either way, people who wish to pass through this area have an easement to use this area to do so.

Two weeks ago, I had a conversation with the City Code Enforcer and his proxy, Selective Encroachments.   Since I hadn't heard anything more in two weeks, I thought we were in a good understanding of each other's position.  But this is the City of Ludington, and we know their people are never wrong, even when they are.

 

This really ticks me off, they believe that the City owns that 35 feet between the middle of the street and into your yard.  They don't, it is private property with easements.  But how often do I have to point that out before they concede the point.  Oh well, here's the correspondence between me and the City's proxy, City Clerk Deb Luskin.  She's a good person, but she can't give in without making her City masters upset.

 

 

 

Park ROW Forest

School Camper

 

Newspapermen or Clerk/Code Enforcers arguments:  they sure don't make it easy to follow the laws of our city

[Willy]

You have raised a very good question. If a person's property extends to the center of the street then of course it belongs to that person. Most citys have lots that do not extend to the roads center. The city is declaring that portion of the road  from it's center onto the property as "right of way". Where the city is mistaken is that they are claiming ownership. If the city were to delete "private property" from the ordinance describing "right of way" they could have legal standing to have the signs removed. What they have done is to create a conflict in the ordinance which you have correctly pointed out to them and which they are refusing to adress. What the ordinance should say is that signs are not allowed in the 66 foot  "right of way" of any city lot but are allowed from the edge of the "right of way" to the rear of the property line.

[Eve Alone]

If you want an admission from the City that this land does not belong to the City, just go over to the front yard of any City Official with some friends, park all along the street in front of their house with your vehicles, and start treating the 20 or so feet into their private property as if it were public property.

 

But be prepared for the consequences!