1984-09-05 Regular Meeting and Public Hearing

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P"::: .. " . "it... Honorable Mayor and City Council La Porte, Texas Page 2- 9/5/84 In my opinion, the City has no constitutional, charter, or statutory duty to pol.ice and remove any and every encroachment from public right-of-way, no matter how minor or trivial it might be. To do so would be costly in terms of surveying and manpower cost to remove. On the other hand, the City should not, and has not, hes i tated to immediately summarily remove any encroachment which is a hazard. . The above policy has worked well over. the years in the City of La Porte, as well as in most other cities, and I recommend that it be continued in the future. Matters of this type rareily come before City Council, because, in the past, if the encroachment was a problem, it was immediately removed. Council has been advised that the dispute presently before Council, involving alleged fence and tree encroach- ments in Oak Hurst Subdivision, does not, in the opinion of City Public Works Department, affect City or utility company operations. City Council may, nevertheless, secure an up-to-date survey of the area involved by a licensed Texas public surveyor, and summarily remove the encroaching trees and fences. This is a policy decision for City Council to make. However, I would emphasize that the City has no affirmative obligation to investigate, survey, or remove minor encroachments. To do so in this instance will undoubtedly unleash numerous requests from citizens in other parts of the City to arbitrate what are essentially neighborhood disputes, and have the City bear the cost of the survey and removal of minor encroachments. Yours very tr=;;LlY' c.. . (;X:d?d Knox W. Askins City Attorney City of La Porte KWA:kr A/f-