Water Rights and Deeded Access to move livestock questions.

[ultrarunner]

Has anyone gone up against the park system regarding water and access rights?

A good friend of mine has deeded rights going back to the 1800's to move livestock... all was well until the park took over large portions of land that his deed covers... way back when, all the land was part of a large land grant.

Anyway, he has repeated cut locks so his livestock and pass... he was advised to do nothing would eventually mean losing access by abandonment.

Over the last 15 or so years letters going back and forth are the extent of it.

The reason I asked is my brother is in contract to buy a pioneer homestead with water rights... the ranch has been in the same family going back to Statehood and over the years much of the land surrounding has been picked up by the parks... the sellers had been approached by the park and found the offer to be very little and basically all traces of the ranch would be removed.

Under the deed... the park must continue to furnish 2500 gallons per day from a spring several miles away... the park has been trying to get out of this deal since the about 1980...

Is my brother getting into a no win situation here?

 

[EddieWalker]

A very good friend of mine owned land on the Plesanton ridge. He had owned it since the 60's, when it was cheap and nobody wanted it. In the 90's, the Park District received hundreds of millions of dollars to expand and buy up land for public use. They offered all the landowners a price, and some took it. Then they went after others who they could pressure into selling, and they acquired more land. After about a decade of this, my friend was the only landowner left, and he wanted a lot more then they where offering. Land down the road was selling for a hundred grand an acre. They where offering three grand. He spent years fighting them and won every court case. The put up gates, locked access, plowed up roads and stopped us numerous times with a helicopter to check our ID, licenses during deer season and the registration of what we where driving. Money was never an issue for them, they lost every case and paid my friends lawyer fees, plus as much as $50,000 in fees or penalties. I forget the actual name of what the extra money was from that he received. He made a bit of money winning these cases, enough to hire a private investigator who dumpster dived and discovered illegal payments to female employees to remain quite about sexual harassment. They went public with that and people resigned. More people came in and it went on until my friend applied for a building permit. Almost immediately, eminent domain was claimed against his land and he was kicked off of it. It took years to come up with a final payment of $30,000 an acre that they finally paid for his land. He was retired and loved the battle. He knew everyone involved personally and thought they were all idiots. Defeating them is what he lived for, and after it was all said and done, he only lived a few more years.

What I learned is that they don't care what it costs. They tell their Rangers what they want their Rangers to know so they will do whatever they are told, including breaking the law and violating easements and property rights. The Rangers move on and every new one is fed the same BS, does the same things, and goes away after the same complaint is filed against them.

The question is if it's worth it? How long can your brother hold out and how deep are his pockets? Imagine the worse neighbor possible, and them make them very stupid with unlimited funds and a total disregard for the law since they will never be accountable for violating it.

Eddie

 

[ultrarunner]

Eddie... you are spot on regarding to livestock person... it is Pleasanton Ridge...

The other is a little farther North and same park district.

It's amazing at how powerful they are with unlimited taxpayer resources.

I will send him a copy of your post...

Thanks Eddie... exactly what I wanted to know!