JANE M. SHIELDS, ESQUIRE
EMAIL THE AUTHOR

As the weather warms, you may visit a local garden center and eye trees and shrubs for planting in just the right place — possibly in your front yard. Before you install new plants near a roadway, though, you should be aware of what your rights relative to those plants may be and what may happen to them as time passes.

The paved road in front of your home, if you have frontage on a public street, is located within a right-of-way that is probably either 33 or 50 feet wide. The pavement may be as little as 15 or 18 feet wide, leaving a strip of land 25 or more feet wide on (or next to) your property that is within the right-of-way. In this area, PennDOT (if it is a state road) or your township has the right to trim vegetation, and may remove anything it believes is interfering with the roadway. The utility companies, too, have the right to trim back vegetation that may interfere with their lines. There may also be underground utilities in the right-of-way in newer subdivisions. Some properties have pipeline and other underground utility rights-of-way across their land.

If you plant anything within a right-of-way, you should be prepared for it to be trimmed, removed, or destroyed. Also, if plants interfere with the vision of motorists on a road, which may occur at or near an intersection, you may be liable to anyone who is injured in an accident as a result of such interference.

Save yourself some upset and possible liability. Think before you plant anything in a right-of-way of a road in front of your home, or across your land. It may be removed without your consent, just as it is beginning to fill out and enhance the appearance of your property.

MacElree Harvey
17 West Miner Street
Post Office Box 660
West Chester, PA 19381-0660
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