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1. What is an easement?

An easement is a legal provision tied to a property that modifies the rights of the owner. Conventionally, most properties have a utility easement. These easements allow the city or a utility company to access the property for a specific purpose, such as repairing a power line. Other types of easements exist within the city; these include drainage and conservation easements.

Easements are marked on your property's plat of survey. Plats of survey are given to the property owner, Lending Institution and Title Company.

2. What is a right-of-way?

The right of way is the area of land that is maintained specifically for public use to travel across. Typically, the right of way includes the street, parkway and sidewalk. Usually it is of a width of 66 feet. Within a residential area, the right of way typically ends 1 foot behind the sidewalk.

3. My mortgage lender says I need flood insurance, how is this need determined?

Mortgage lenders often hire outside technical consultants to complete the floodplain determination portion of a mortgage or refinancing loan. The lender, as well as their consultant is required by law to use only the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) as the source of information for the determination. View more about flood insurance online.

4. What is the 100-year floodplain?

The 100-year floodplain, or base floodplain is that area adjacent to rivers, streams and lakes that has been determined to have a 1% statistical chance of being flooded in any given year. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) completes hydrologic and hydraulic studies of watercourses and water bodies to determine flood elevations relative to local topography. FEMA uses the term Flood Insurance Study (FIS) for these investigations. An individual FIS is completed for each municipality or county. The floodplain maps, called Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) are the companion documents to the FIS.

Learn more about understanding floodplains.