Easements

This is being replaced by the Easement feature class.

The easements are a work very much in progress. If you are interested in a particular area, send a request to sprattgis@gmail.com and it will be prioritized. Otherwise, old easements are created/updated fairly randomly.

Features which don't have Date_edite attributed should be viewed with suspicion, especially their attributes. Often, there will be one easement attributed correctly and all the nearby easements will incorrectly share its attributes.

Fields

OBJECTID_1, Shape, Shape.area, Shape.len - system fields
OBJECTID, CODGIS_GIS, PERIMETER, EASE2_ EASE2_ID - unused clutter
BASEMAP_ - I think it's supposed to be the label used on the basemap for the easement, haven't been updating it though
Date_edite - date of last edit to the feature
TYPE, Type1, Type2, Type3 - Codes for the easement purposes such as Utility -> UTIL, Drainage -> DRAIN. To find all easements of a type you need to select against all 4 fields.
TYPE_OF_DO - Type of document that describes the easement, e.g. EASEMENT, PLAT, WARRANTY DEED. I had been using this for the consolidated/readable description, so there are a number of records using this field inconsistently.
TYPE_OF__1 - Where I'm putting consolidated/readable description now e.g. "Public Access, Firelane & Public Utility". Only 45 characters, which is sometimes a problem. If the layer is ever cleaned up, double that at least.
DOCNUM - City's code for the document, often looks like "A-123-4". I don't know how to actually use this number to find documents. I've been putting county clerk document numbers in this field, but those should really to in INSTRUME_1 instead.
MONTH_FILE, DATE_FILED, YEAR_FIL_1 - Date the document was filed.
VOLUMEA, PAGEA - For looking up the document. For documents with a cabinet/page, VOLUMEA will be 'Cab X'
GRANTOR, GRANTORA, GRANTEEA - The people giving up and receiving the easement rights. I don't know if there's a difference between the first two or if GRANTORA is just for holding an extra name or maybe "agent" name?
INSTRUME_1 - County clerk's document number, good for finding the document. You also need to know the year since this number starts over each year
NOTES - no clue. It only holds 10 characters so it's useless for making any kind of notes, such as about the accuracy of an easement

Types

Common

ABAND - Abandoned easements. It's arguable whether these should be included. I tend to delete easements that are no longer in effect, but there are a few of these in the layer.
ACCESS - Sometimes attributed as INGRESS and EGRESS depending on how the legal document labels it.
COMM - Communications. Not very common.
DETEN - Water Detention, usually used in conjunction with DRAIN
DME - Denton Municipal Electric
DRAIN - Water Drainage
DUE - Combination Drainage and Utility, because that combo is very common
ELEC - Many UTIL easements are probably for electricity, but some are explicit about it
FIRE - Firelane, typically is also an ACCESS easement
GAS - For gas lines
INGRESS - Always accompanied by EGRESS, considering changing these to ACCESS
NO - Couldn't verify with a document, but not deleted for whatever reason
PUE - Public Utility Easement, same as UTIL but "public". Should maybe be merged, but PUE and UTIL are the 1st and 2nd most common types, respectively.
ROW - Right of Way. These probably don't belong in the easement layer (there is a ROW layer)
SEWER - Sanitary Sewer
SIDEWK - Sidewalk
UTIL - Utilities
WATER - Water lines

Less Common

ENVIRO - environmental inspection, only a few, all to First State Bank
FENCE
FLOOD - Floodplain
GUY - Guy wires for poles/towers
HYDRNT - Fire hydrants, presumably
LAND - Landscape
LIGHT - Street Light (for power line leading to light)
MAINT - Too generic, probably have a more specific type if you can find the documentation
PED - Pedestrian
PIPE - Pipeline
SIGN
SLOPE
SWB - unknown
TREE - Tree preservation area
VIS - Visibility
WALL - Wall Maintenance

Rare

CONSRV - only 1, not sure what I could merge it with
GREEN - not sure about this one
LIFTST - No clue what it is; only 1
PARK - Parking, only 1
PLANE - Air traffic

Further Qualifiers

More specific descriptions are given in the TYPE_OF__1 field. e.g. a private drainage easement would have TYPE: "DRAIN" and TYPE_OF__1: "Private Drainage".

Finding documents

Go to http://216.60.44.147/TX/Denton/default.aspx and under Search Criteria at the top you probably want either Document search or Volume Search. Or you might do a date range search and select "EASEMENT" for type in an Advanced search.

Possible changes

Change PUEs (public utility) to just UTIL. "public", if stated, can go in the TYPE_OF__1 readable description field.