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<br />- ~.- <br /> <br />p--'"- <br /> <br />.... . ,6". <br /> <br />.JOHN D. ARMSTRONG. .J.D. <br />ASSOCIATE <br /> <br />KNOX W. ASKINS,.1. 0., P. C. <br />AlIORNEY AT LAW <br />702 W. "AIRMONT PARKWAY <br />P. O. BOX 1218 <br />LA PORTE. TEXAS 77571-1218 <br /> <br />TELEPHONE <br />713 471.1880 <br /> <br />September 5, 1984 <br /> <br />Honorable Mayor <br />and City Council <br />CITY OF LA PORTE <br />Ci ty Hall <br />La Porte, Texas 77571 <br />. <br /> <br />Dear Ladies and Gentlemen: <br /> <br />Mayor Virginia Cline has requested my opinion as <br />obligations, if any, concernIng encroachments onto <br />rights-of-way in the City of La Porte. <br /> <br />Public street and alley-ways, as indicated by recorded plats of <br />subdivisions within the City of La Porte, and other dedicated public <br />ways, are within the jurisdiction of the City, as to whether or not <br />they are to be built, maintained, and operated as public streets and <br />rights-of-way, or not. Once built, maintained, and operated as public <br />right-of-way, the City has a duty to exercise ordinary care in main- <br />taining streets and sidewalks in a reasonably safe condition, for <br />travel by those using them in a proper manner. In building, main- <br />taining, and operating streets, cities are engaged in a proprietary, <br />as opposed to a governmental, function. <br /> <br />to the <br />public <br /> <br />City's <br />street <br /> <br />Ordinarily, any house, building, fence or vegetation, constructed or <br />allowed to remain in a street or alley, constitutes a nuisance that <br />may be summarily abated by the City. Summary abatement means that <br />the City may remove the encroachment without necessity of court <br />action. <br /> <br />As you know, the City of La Porte, as is the case in many older <br />communities, has extensive encroachments of buildings, fences, and <br />vegetation, into street and alley public rights-of-way. The vast <br />majority of such encroachments are of a minor nature, and are of <br />no consequence to the City, nor to public utilities holding franchises <br />from the City, in their use and operation in City rights-of-way. <br /> <br />The City of La Porte has, in the past, follo~ed the general pOlicy <br />which is recognized by most cities, which IS to summarily abate <br />encroachments in pubTic rights-of-way which it deems to be a hazard <br />to the traveling public, or which it deems to be an obstruction to <br />the use of the rights-of -way by itself or other franchised public <br />utilities, while tolerating minor encroachments which do not interfere <br />with the traveling public or with utility operations. <br /> <br />A/3 <br />