Private Encroachments Threaten City Parks

Little by little, Inver Grove Heights is losing its parkland.

The culprit? Not commercial development, or environmentally destructive insects like the Emerald Ash Borer, but private property owners living around city parks who have inadvertently built decks, pools and other improvements on public land, city officials say.

The issue is a familiar one for the city, which began surveying some of its 25 parks in 2008 after city officials noticed an increasing number of private improvements that appeared to be built on public property. Completed in 2009, the survey found 25 potential encroachments — retaining walls, firepits, sheds and other objects — partially or completely installed on city land. In a Sept. 2009 report, City Attorney Timothy Kuntz equated the encroachments to trespassing.

During a work session last week, several Inver Grove Heights City Council members reiterated that the private encroachments must be removed, and directed city staff to begin a second round of park surveys and develop a draft of a policy that would require homeowners to remove the improvements.

Removing the encroachments is necessary, Parks and Recreation Director Eric Carlson said, because many of the improvements could easily become a liability issue for the city. The city also has a duty to all of its residents to protect and enforce its property lines, Carlson added.

But if the council approves a policy that requires homeowners to remove those encroachments, enforcing that policy is not going to be easy, he predicted.

“If we encroached on the private property by a foot, you’d hear about it,” Carlson said at the work session. “While it will be difficult [to remove the encroachments] — and rest assured, it will be difficult — it should be at the homeowners expense to remove the improvements.”

The city has looked at least one less-thorny solution to the problem, Carlson said. In 2009, a homeowner with an encroachment on Oakwood Park asked the city if he could purchase the property. City staff looked into it, and discovered that restrictions placed on the park property when it was deeded to the city prevented the city from selling it. More than half of the city parks have similar restrictions, Carlson said.

Mayor George Tourville is advocating for a case-by-case approach to the encroachments. Some improvements may have built on public property before the current homeowner moved in, Tourville pointed out, while other encroachments that might be mutually beneficial for both the city and the resident could remain in place, he said.

But some city staff and council members, like Councilor Rosemary Piekarski Krech, say the city needs to be consistent when it deals with homeowners and should require all property owners to remove all of the encroachments, no matter the cost or difficulty, Piekarski Krech said.

While she sympathizes with the homeowners who may have to pay thousands of dollars to remove improvements built on city property if the policy is enacted, Piekarski Krech said leaving any of those improvements on public property is a legal risk for the city.

“We’re liable for them. If you built your swimming pool on city property, and somebody drowns in it, it’s on the city of the Inver Grove Heights’ property, not your property,” Piekarski Krech said, noting the city could face a lawsuit in such a situation.

“The encroachments are easy to talk about, but hard to solve,” Carlson said.

WHAT’S NEXT?

City staff members are currently working on a draft of the encroachment policy. Of the 25 city parks, 14 have been surveyed, Carlson said. The city may hire a surveyor to survey the remainder of the parks, he said. If more potential encroachments are found through the surveys, the city will send notices to the responsible property owners.

Property owners who are notified that their improvement is encroaching on city property should hire their own surveyor to verify the city’s findings, Carlson said, especially if the encroachment is significant.

WHERE ARE THE ENCROACHMENTS?

So far, city surveys have found 25 potential encroachments on nine city parks. Of the 14 city parks surveyed, Arbor Pointe Park, Broadmoor Park, Ernster Park, Oakwood Park, River Heights Park, Seidl’s Park, Sky View Park, Sleepy Hollow Park and Southern Lakes Park all had potential encroachments on them.