Public right of way reserves land or rights for public use and can extend beyond the curb or over private property. Recorded plats, deeds and easements establish the boundaries. Permits and pipe-maintenance duties depend on those rights, the responsible agency and the actual utility arrangement.
What the codes say counts as right of way
Right of way is a legal category, not just "the road." Mesa's code gives one of the clearest definitions in the Valley. It calls right-of-way "an area of land which by deed, conveyance, agreement, easement, dedication, usage or process of law is reserved or dedicated to the City for public purposes including, but not limited to, street, highway, alley, public utility, pedestrian walkway, bikeway, or drainage."
Read that closely. A right of way can come from a deed, a plat, an agreement or long use. It covers utilities and drainage as well as pavement. And it is a wider strip than what you drive on.
The same section defines a separate thing, the public easement, as "an area of land over which the City of Mesa coordinates the locations of public or private improvements, underground or overhead." A public easement is often a strip on private property, along a lot line or behind a building. The recorded easement establishes its location, permitted uses and access rights.
So there are two kinds of shared ground to keep straight:
| Public right of way | Public utility easement | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it usually sits | Street, alley, sidewalk, parkway | A strip on your lot, often at the rear or side |
| Who owns the land | May be publicly owned or subject to public rights over private land | Often the property owner, subject to the recorded easement |
| What it is for | Travel, plus utilities and drainage | Utility lines and access to repair them |
| Who must approve digging | The agency that controls the road | The utility that holds the easement, and often the city |
Our page on utility easement vs right-of-way covers the difference in more depth.
Why your lot line is usually not at the curb
Most people assume their property runs to the edge of the pavement. Often it does not. The sidewalk, the landscaped strip and sometimes a few more feet behind the sidewalk can all be right of way. The Cornell Legal Information Institute describes right of way as "the right to pass over or through real property owned by someone else, usually based upon an easement," and a right of way may "specify the parameters of the easement." The specific parameters for your street are set by the recorded documents, not by what looks like a yard.
For a commercial owner this matters in three ways.
- Permits. Work on the public side needs a right-of-way permit. Work on private property may still need building or plumbing permits and utility or easement approvals. See whether commercial plumbing work in the street needs a right-of-way permit.
- Who fixes the pipe. The line between the building and the main crosses the boundary. Phoenix Water Services says "Issues on the city's side (from the street to the water meter) are the responsibility of the City and issues after the water meter are the responsibility of the homeowner," and that owners maintain the sewer line "from the house to the connection with the city sewer main in the street or alley." Every city draws these lines a little differently, so ask before you assume.
- Digging. Arizona's underground utility law applies to any excavation "in any public street, alley, right-of-way dedicated to the public use or public utility easement." The street side is always covered, and so are easements on your own lot.
How to find where your line actually is
Start with paper, not paint on the ground.
- 1Pull the recorded plat. The county describes a final plat as the document "recorded dividing the land into lots, tracts, and parcels for sale or lease." That recorded plat is the map that shows your lot lines and the dedicated streets and easements. A title company or a land surveyor can pull it for your parcel.
- 2Look at your title report or survey. If you bought or financed the property, a title commitment usually lists recorded easements, and an ALTA or boundary survey draws them on a map.
- 3Ask the city for its right-of-way information. Engineering or public works can tell you the street's dedicated width and where public utilities sit.
- 4Use a registered land surveyor for a firm answer. Online parcel maps are handy for a rough picture, but they are not a survey. If a fence, slab or trench is going near the line, pay to have the line marked.
- 5Ask for an Arizona 811 locate before any digging. It shows where utilities are, not where your line is, but it saves you from hitting one.
Mix-ups that cost commercial owners time
Three assumptions come up again and again, and each one changes who pays.
"The sidewalk is my property." Sometimes part of it is, and sometimes all of it is public. Only the recorded plat and your deed tell you. A sidewalk repair, a driveway apron or a pipe tie-in that looks like it sits on your frontage may be in the city's right of way and need the city's permit.
"The city fixes anything under the street." Not necessarily. Phoenix Water Services says the city, under City Code Section 28-5, "will ONLY repair broken service lines within the public right of way," and that owners keep the line from the building to the main. That wording is aimed at property owners in general, and commercial accounts can be treated differently, so ask before you assume. In Surprise, the code says single-family and duplex owners may get help with an off-property lateral, while "All other users shall be responsible for cleaning, unstopping, maintaining and repairing the building sewer, sewer lateral and sewer tap." If you own a shop, an office or an apartment building there, that includes the part under the street.
"An easement is the same as right of way." Their purposes and legal rights can differ and can overlap; ownership must be checked in the recorded documents. If your building sits on a utility easement, you may need the utility's permission even for work entirely on your own lot.
A quick way to sort out which mix-up applies to you: find the line on the plat, then find which strip the pipe or the problem sits in, then ask the office that controls that strip who owns the pipe. Three questions, in that order, settle most disputes before anyone digs.
What this means for a repair or new tap
First confirm the recorded boundaries, public rights, utility easements and ownership of the affected facilities.
Work on your lot may still affect a public right or utility easement and require additional approval. Street or alley work commonly involves right-of-way permits, traffic control and pavement restoration. Ask the agency and utility which approvals apply rather than deciding from the lot line alone. See who handles traffic control and who restores the pavement. If the pipe runs through a utility easement at the back of the lot, the utility's permission comes first.
HQ Plumbing & Air can assess the plumbing problem and discuss available repair options. Confirm the legal boundary with recorded documents or a survey before arranging work across it. We are licensed and insured, estimates are free, and you get the price up front before work starts.
This page explains general concepts and is not legal advice or a survey. Your recorded documents and a registered land surveyor decide where your line is, and each city sets its own permit rules.