From a shared post:
While finding your deed is absolutely helpful, finding your neighborhood construction plan can also be helpful.
Your HOA’s management company should have your neighborhood construction plan. Go get it, and READ THE FINE PRINT. Share it with your neighborhood. Here’s part of why:
If your deed shows the easement for VEPCO (Dominion), and your construction plan shows wetlands or preserved areas, then you need to FIND OUT if your wetlands were discovered AFTER the easement. Wetlands should be on the construction plan. Find the original sale of the land in order to build the whole neighborhood. In Stafford, it typically starts with a farm selling its land to a builder. ALL of this is PUBLIC information at the courthouse.
Some of these easements go back decades ago, but in some cases, it wasn’t until they started the construction on building the houses in the 2000’s as to when they discovered and protected several areas.
Folks with VEPCO/ Dominion easements:
If you do have an easement, do you have a wetland? If you do have a wetland, does the VEPCO or Dominion easement cross the wetland or preserved area?
If your property has a wetland, this forces a whole permit process to protect the wetland before putting up utility towers and such. You should consider contacting the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to find more information on the wetlands:
Water permitting inquiries: wetlands@deq.virginia.gov
DEQ Customer Service: 1-804-698-4000
Folks without easements:
If you do NOT have an easement from VEPCO or Dominion, you need to go onto GEOVOICE located on the Dominion website and use the measuring tool to see if the power line and noise of it WILL impact your view and sound on your property. If so, YOU HAVE A LOT OF SKIN IN THE GAME, because you DID NOT agree to this easement, yet you and your property value will likely be impacted. There are many cases that have been settled. $$$$
Lastly, I encourage you to go onto the Dominion website and poke around. Many of the questions I’m seeing being asked are already answered there.
This does not and should not serve as legal advice. If you can hire a land lawyer, you should.
About the Author
Q1: Why does the Stafford GIS mapping software not show these easements along the proposed right-of-way?
https://gismapping.stafford.va.us/
You have to check the Easements box under Parcels to see easements.
Existing power lines have yellow dotted boundaries.
Q2: When were these Easements created?