So what's the deal with the first 10 or so ft of your lawn from the road(in Cape Coral)? (Fort Myers: power lines, insurance)

[juntjoo]

Is it yours or the city's? I've got neighbors who love to park on this supposed city grass and tell me it's not mine, even though I'm supposed to mow it. Is that the case? I've agreed that if it were, and there was a party or some reason everyone else's city owned land was taken up, THEN they could park there but everyone parks on my side before parking on theirs, which I've yet to see. Do I have a reason to complain or not? If not, not sure I'll keep mowing it.

[LifeIsGood01]

I think it's the cities but you have to take care of it. You should want to anyway to keep your home looking nice.

I just bought a home in North Fort Myers and the surveyor marked the two front points with and orange flag, the back has neighbor fences to mark it, anyway it's about 15 feet back. Some of it is a little ditch like trench to collect water to keep your property from flooding.

[snookfan]

Originally Posted by juntjoo

Is it yours or the city's? I've got neighbors who love to park on this supposed city grass and tell me it's not mine, even though I'm supposed to mow it. Is that the case? I've agreed that if it were, and there was a party or some reason everyone else's city owned land was taken up, THEN they could park there but everyone parks on my side before parking on theirs, which I've yet to see. Do I have a reason to complain or not? If not, not sure I'll keep mowing it.

It is my understanding that this strip of land is to be maintained by you as if it is yours, however the city retains power of your rights of usage, i.e. no constructing cement ponds in this area, tree planting is ok as long as they do not interfere with the overhead wires. So people who are parking on your lot presuming that this is anybody's is incorrect. You have reason to complain about people parking on your lot that you have no idea who they are. Nobody can just park on your grass, whether the city claims it or not. Only with your permission can they do so. So next time call a tow truck and have them towed off your property, after you contact the city police to report it.

[Kim in FL]

Originally Posted by juntjoo

Is it yours or the city's? I've got neighbors who love to park on this supposed city grass and tell me it's not mine, even though I'm supposed to mow it. Is that the case? I've agreed that if it were, and there was a party or some reason everyone else's city owned land was taken up, THEN they could park there but everyone parks on my side before parking on theirs, which I've yet to see. Do I have a reason to complain or not? If not, not sure I'll keep mowing it.

If they are parking in your front yard call a tow truck and have them removed.


You own the whole lot (say 80x125) but the city does have rights x amount of feet in from the road.


You have to mow it or faces fines...it's your property so go ahead and own it.

[juntjoo]

Originally Posted by snookfan

It is my understanding that this strip of land is to be maintained by you as if it is yours, however the city retains power of your rights of usage, i.e. no constructing cement ponds in this area, tree planting is ok as long as they do not interfere with the overhead wires. So people who are parking on your lot presuming that this is anybody's is incorrect. You have reason to complain about people parking on your lot that you have no idea who they are. Nobody can just park on your grass, whether the city claims it or not. Only with your permission can they do so. So next time call a tow truck and have them towed off your property, after you contact the city police to report it.

Thanks. Hmm, don't like that rule. Fine, it's yours and you want me to now it, then you make it easy enough for me then. #1 make sure it's mowable absent of tire -made trenches, and #2 make sure no one parks there during my mowing schedule.

[juntjoo]

Originally Posted by snookfan

It is my understanding that this strip of land is to be maintained by you as if it is yours, however the city retains power of your rights of usage, i.e. no constructing cement ponds in this area, tree planting is ok as long as they do not interfere with the overhead wires. So people who are parking on your lot presuming that this is anybody's is incorrect. You have reason to complain about people parking on your lot that you have no idea who they are. Nobody can just park on your grass, whether the city claims it or not. Only with your permission can they do so. So next time call a tow truck and have them towed off your property, after you contact the city police to report it.

Originally Posted by Kim in FL

If they are parking in your front yard call a tow truck and have them removed.


You own the whole lot (say 80x125) but the city does have rights x amount of feet in from the road.


You have to mow it or faces fines...it's your property so go ahead and own it.

Thanks for the confirmation. Any of you know where this info is? I've looked a bit on the county/city websites without luck. I'll probably get it figured out by tomorrow(monday). Just wanna confirm that indeed these patches of grass they're smashing are indeed my personal property -that the gov't so gov't-like squeezed their rights into. No I get it. They need access to stuff. Didn't know you could plant trees there if not interfering with power lines. I'll need to confirm that as I've been planning tree planting around my property. Can't say I've noticed any neighbors with threes in the front tho. Thanks all for your responses!

[Compression]

Originally Posted by juntjoo

Thanks for the confirmation. Any of you know where this info is? I've looked a bit on the county/city websites without luck. I'll probably get it figured out by tomorrow(monday). Just wanna confirm that indeed these patches of grass they're smashing are indeed my personal property -that the gov't so gov't-like squeezed their rights into. No I get it. They need access to stuff. Didn't know you could plant trees there if not interfering with power lines. I'll need to confirm that as I've been planning tree planting around my property. Can't say I've noticed any neighbors with threes in the front tho. Thanks all for your responses!

You might want to peruse your 'title insurance" policy that you (should have) got when you closed the purchase of your home. Refer to the section that references "easements". If you had a survey done at the time of purchase, the drawing will typically show you where that easement(s) is on your property. Often, power lines are along the rear of the property, so there is typically an easement there as well.

In simple terms.......It's your property, subject to some (not very) limited rights that the city/ county government, and utility companies have to make necessary repairs if and when the need arises. You can do what you want, but they have the right to remove, or undo whatever, without your permission, if they need to.

That does not give anyone the right to park on your lawn, without permission. Unless, of course, it is a govt, or utility vehicle, in an official role.

Go park on their lawn. If they complain, tell them you would gladly park on your lawn, if they were not parking on it already.


CN.......

[TerraDown]

Posters here are correct, I just wanted to add this because we fenced in our property and here were the details laid out by the city.
Measuring 14 feet from center of road, back to our 'property' is where we can begin placing fence posts. As others mentioned, the grass part that remains unfenced towards road must still be maintained by us, but the city has the right to place utilities, poles, underground cable, etc. there. Where we are, the city has a wide, deep ditch outside our fence, and all the utility poles and cables. We could not plant a tree (nor have a car park in front as you are dealing with) there if we wanted to.
And even though we are responsible for mowing, the city comes through about once every three months with special equipment and mows that very deep ditch.
Same thing goes for back of property. Even though it has a county accessible dirt road and canal, we still had to measure 14 feet inwards to begin fence.
But technically, we have to maintain it. It is city accessible, but owned by us. I would think as others mentioned, you could have the cars towed.

[wellsme]

We have a corner lot in the NW Cape. Our corner is a major Lee School bus pickup/dropoff stop. When we first purchased the property we noticed some parents parking on that "10' grassy area" around our house and not on the grass of the three other corner lot properties which are vacant. This caused severe damage to the lawn. We spend very little time at our place since we are not retired as of yet. We do spend a bit of our money maintaining our lawn which included the "10' grassy area." We were not able to approach the individuals so we had to find another way to do it.
What solved our problem was to place medium size rocks 18" in from the pavement every 10' along the property. We realize that if someone should damage their vehicle we may be liable, but that's a chance we are willing to take.

[LifeIsGood01]

If it's a public street and since most in south Florida don't have sidewalks and curbs and street parking I think you are allowed to park in front of someone's home, just not for an extended period of time like for a week in a row without moving.

One solution may be to place your mailbox in the middle of the lot, I think there is a rule that you can't block a mailbox with a parked car.

It is annoying to have someone park in front of your home since most areas have driveways, but you have to get over it and stop being miserable. it's the same as the lady in my neighborhood who tells me not to let the dogs pee on the grass in front of her home because she planted some dry twigs and she says she wants those plants to grow. Then a week later she puts up a sign, she's a miserable childish person and always will be.