Richmond Municipal Code Part 4 Easements

(a) In addition to any other method for the creation of an easement, an easement may be created by a recorded declaration and covenant of easement made by an owner of real property to the City, or granted by the City, in accordance with the procedures set forth in this chapter.

(b) Purpose. An easement may be created pursuant to this chapter for one or more of the following purposes: parking, ingress, egress, emergency access, light and air access, landscaping, open space purposes, or other purposes in accordance with law.

(c) Methods of Creation.

(1) Dedication.

(A) With City's consent, an irrevocable offer of dedication may be made of real property for any public purpose, including, but not limited to, streets, highways, paths, alleys, including access rights and abutter's rights, drainage, open space, public utility or other public easements, parks, or other public places.

(B) Dedication shall be executed, acknowledged, and recorded in the same manner as a conveyance of real property and in a form approved by the City Attorney.

(C) Such offer of dedication, when recorded in the office of the county recorder where the property is located, shall be irrevocable. Any offer must be accepted to be effective pursuant to section (B), above. Once the offer is recorded and irrevocable, it can be accepted by the City Council.

(D) Offer of dedication for street and highway purposes may be terminated and right to accept offer may be abandoned pursuant to the street vacation provisions below, in Part 5.

(E) The above procedure shall be alternative to any other procedure authorized by law.

(2) Ordinance.

(A) The City Council may adopt an ordinance pursuant to Government Code Section 65870, et seq., imposing a private covenant for a public easement as follows:

(1) Recording a covenant of easement made by an owner of real property to the City.

(2) At the time of the recording, all real property benefited or burdened by the covenant shall be in common ownership.

(3) Covenant shall be effective when recorded and shall act as an easement pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 801) of Title 2 of Part 2 of Division 2 of the California Civil Code, except that it shall not merge into any other interest in the real property. Section 1104 of the Civil Code shall be applicable to conveyance of the affected real property.

(4) A covenant of Easement so recorded shall describe the real property subject to the easement and the real property benefited thereby. The covenant of Easement shall also identify the approval, permit, or designation granted which relied upon or required the covenant.

(5) A covenant executed pursuant to this section shall be enforceable by the City. Covenants shall run with the land and shall be equitable servitudes. The City's interest may include the streets and highways and other interests abutting the burdened property.

(6) The creation or release of the interests may require review by the Planning Commission for conformity with the General Plan under California Government Code Section 65402.

(7) Ordinance shall provide a procedure for the release of the covenant. The procedure shall require a public hearing by the agency designated by the ordinance for that purpose. The hearing shall be held at the request of any person whether or not that person has title to the real property.

(8) Upon a determination that the restriction of the property is no longer necessary to achieve the City's land use goals, a release shall be recorded by the City in the county where the restricted property is located.

(9) The ordinance may provide for the imposition of fees to recover the reasonable costs of processing the release from those persons requesting the release pursuant to this section.

(Ord. No. 09-22 N.S., § 1, 6-28-2022)