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Council denies Hardcastle request for recorded easement and free water hookups after lengthy dispute
Summary
After a prolonged exchange of legal arguments about prescriptive easements and whether an expanded 12-inch water line required compensation, Preston's council voted unanimously to deny the Hardcastle property owner's request for a recorded easement and free hookups; the council debated whether responsibility lay with a private developer or the city.
Attorney Adam McKenzie, representing the Hardcastle property interests, told the council that the city's installation of a new 12-inch line and a new line along 8th East had expanded use beyond an historic 6-inch prescriptive line and that his clients had suffered a loss of farm-planting opportunities. He said those changes merited discussion about compensation or hookups. McKenzie asked the council to consider either a written easement with compensation or alternatives such as two free hookups or monetary equivalents.
Multiple council members and staff pushed back on who bore responsibility and whether a prescriptive easement still applied. One council member argued the developer, not the city, expanded the line and that any compensation obligation should lie between the developer and the landowner. In the end the council moved to deny the Hardcastle attorney's requested recorded easement and the free hookups; the motion passed unanimously. The mayor and council recorded their concerns about future obligations and instructed staff and counsel to document the decision.
