Public and Private Control: Terms

Question 1

Board of Adjustment

Answer 1

The body to which one would appeal in order to obtain a variance to do something contrary to the current zoning law

Question 2

Buffer Zone

Answer 2

An area established by the zoning and planning commission to separate commercial and industrial areas from residential. Its purpose may be safety or economics

Question 3

Building Codes

Answer 3

Rules set by government to establish minimum standards of construction

Question 4

CC&R’s

Answer 4

Covenants, conditions, and restrictions. The abbreviation give to restrictions and requirements created in the Uniform Declaration of Restrictions for condominiums

Question 5

Condemnation Action

Answer 5

Process by which government exercises the power to transfer ownership of property from private to public use.

Question 6

Dominent Tenement

Answer 6

the name given to a property that encumbers a neighboring property with an easement

Question 7

Easement Appurtenant

Answer 7

An easement which attaches to the land and/or the deed, and passes from owner to owner with the deed.

Question 8

Easement by Implication

Answer 8

An unexpressed, but legally binding understanding regarding a right of way between the parties, created by their actions.

Question 9

Easement by Necessity

Answer 9

Created by a court of law in situations where justice and need, not convenience, dictate the appropriateness of the easement; such as the case of land locked property.

Question 10

Easement by Prescription

Answer 10

An easement created by adverse use. The use must be adverse, hostile, open, notorious and continuous. This type of easement can be prevented by giving permission to the user, or by ordering the user to discontinue the use before the statutory period passes. (It requires 20 years in Utah.)

Question 11

Easement in Gross

Answer 11

An Easement which is personal in nature and does not pass with the deed or the land. It runs with the persons who agreed to it for the term of their lives, or with the need for which it was created, such as a utility easement.

Question 12

Egress

Answer 12

Leaving a property by traveling across the servient tenement Property

Question 13

Eminent Domain

Answer 13

The right of the government to take title, at fair market value, to land owned by a private individual

Question 14

Encroachment

Answer 14

The unauthorized intrusion of a building, tree, or other improvements onto a neighbor’s property

Question 15

Encumbrance

Answer 15

Anything which burdens the title to real property so as to restrict, limit, or otherwise affect an owner’s rights

Question 16

Escheat

Answer 16

This occurs when someone dies without a will, having no heirs.

Question 17

Ingress

Answer 17

Entering by traveling across the servient tenement property

Question 18

Injunction

Answer 18

Legal action taken to enforce the restrictive covenants in the Uniform Declaration of Restrictions or to prevent a neighbor from encroaching.

Question 19

Inverse Comdemnation

Answer 19

The legal process by which a private individual sues to have the property taken by eminent domain

Question 20

Legal Non-conforming Use

Answer 20

the right of an individual to continue a use of land contrary to current zoning regulations because the use existed prior to the establishment of the current zoning category

Question 21

Merger

Answer 21

The joining of two contiguous properties so as to extinguish a lesser right. For instance, this process can terminate an easement on land locked property

Question 22

Party Wall

Answer 22

A common wall between two properties, usually involving a zero lot line.

Question 23

Police Power

Answer 23

The right of government, such as in zoning, to exercise control over private property without their consent and without compensation

Question 24

Servient Tenement

Answer 24

The name given to a property encumbered by an easement appurtenant, such as a landlocked situation

Question 25

Special Purpose Property

Answer 25

Property that doesn’t fit one of the standard zoning classifications (residential, commercial, agricultural, etc.) is put in this general category.

Question 26

Spot Zoning

Answer 26

The process involved when the zoning and planning commission changes the zoning of a single lot to be different from others surrounding it.

Question 27

Uniform Declaration of Restrictions

Answer 27

The document that is used when a sub-divider or developer records a group of restrictive covenants on all of the lots in a subdivision

Question 28

Urban Renewal

Answer 28

The procedure of condemning private property as a blighted area and having it torn down and rebuilt

Question 29

Variance

Answer 29

The right of an individual to do something that violates current zoning regulations because the zoning and planning commission or Board of Adjustment granted that right

Question 30

Zoning

Answer 30

A right of state governments to regulate the height, bulk and use of private property in order to protect the health, morals, welfare, and safety of the public; usually delegated to the local level