Barstow Municipal Code Ch. 13.20 Inspections, Easements, and Rights of Entry

Footnotes:

--- (2) ---

Editor's note— Ord. No. 990-2022, § 4, adopted June 6, 2022, repealed the former Ch. 13.20, §§ 13.20.010, 13.20.020, and enacted a new Ch. 13.20 as set out herein. The former Ch. 13.20 pertained to inspections and derived from Code 1969, §§ 13.20.010, 13.20.020; Ord. No. 276, art. 6, §§ 1, 2, adopted in 1968; and Ord. No. 962-2019, § 5, adopted Nov. 4, 2019.

(a) It is the city's intent that all public utility facilities will be located within dedicated public streets, easements, reservations, or rights-of-way, unless specifically approved by the city for construction within other types of easements.

(b) The city shall have access to every public utility facility to respond to and resolve emergencies, perform inspections, operation and maintenance, rehabilitate, repair, and reconstruct public utility facilities located within dedicated public streets, easements, reservations, or rights-of-way.

(Ord. No. 990-2022, § 4, 6-6-2022)

(a) The city engineering services division and other duly authorized employees, contractors, and consultants of the city bearing proper credentials and identification shall be permitted to enter all properties for the purposes of inspection, observation, measurement, sampling, and testing in accordance with the provisions of chapters 13.08 through 13.24.

(b) The city engineering services division and other duly authorized employees, contractors, and consultants, bearing proper credentials and identification shall be permitted to enter all properties for the purposes of maintenance, rehabilitation, repair, and reconstruction of public utility facilities located within dedicated public streets, easements, reservations, or rights-of-way.

(Ord. No. 990-2022, § 4, 6-6-2022)

(a) All easements, dedications, or reservations shall be in a form acceptable to the city. All easements, dedications, or reservations revised or newly entered into after the effective date of the ordinance adding this section to the Barstow Municipal Code shall not be subject to outstanding obligations to relocate such public utility facilities or to any deeds of trust, except in instances where such is determined by the city to be in the best interests of the city or as otherwise required by law.

(b) The city shall not be responsible for the costs of removal of obstructions preventing reasonable access to public utility facilities within easements, reservations, or rights-of-way on private property, nor shall such removal, pruning or required modifications of landscaping or hardscaping provide a basis for compensation to the property owner, unless otherwise required by law.

(c) The city shall not be liable for any damage to any person's improvements placed upon said parcel due to the city's operations using reasonable care, unless otherwise required by law. The city accepts no responsibility for or liability to person or any other party for any damages arising out of the installation, use, maintenance, ownership, or operation of other public utility facilities or any other improvements within city's easement and right-of-way.

(d) The city shall have the right, but not the obligation to cut, trim, remove trees, brush, and/or remove other unauthorized obstructions which may impede or interfere with public utility facilities.

(Ord. No. 990-2022, § 4, 6-6-2022)

(a) Every public utility facility shall be constructed within the city's public street rights-of-way, within dedicated easements, or within exclusive easements granted to the city.

(b) Every applicant for a new or modified public utility facility shall grant to the city an easement for the purpose of installing, maintaining, repairing, and removing the city's service connection and for the purpose of reading the meter, in a form acceptable to the city's engineering services division and the city attorney.

(c) The property owner shall not allow any obstructions which may impede or interfere with the city's use of or access to said easement.

(d) Should any of the public utility facilities within said easement be required to be relocated or repaired as a result of changes in grade or other construction within the easement, the property owner or their successors and assigns shall bear the full cost of such relocation or repair, unless changes in grade or other construction are done with the prior written consent of the city.

(e) No buildings, structures, walls, fences, or trees, including the drip line, shall be placed upon, over, or under said parcel of land within the easement for the duration of this easement, except as shown on improvements plans approved by the city and except that said parcel may be improved and used for street, road or driveway purposes trail, path parking lot, non-vehicular public access, or shallow root landscaping purposes and for other utilities, insofar as such use does not interfere with the city's use of and access to the easement for the purposes for which it is granted.

(Ord. No. 990-2022, § 4, 6-6-2022)