Some of my South DaCola foot soldiers have been digging around about Railroads and Federal easements. I guess since the 1800’s Railroads are considered a public utilities like electric transmission lines, and since they are, they don’t actually ‘own’ the land they are operating on, they have an easement from the Federal Government. That being said, when they remove the tracks from that easement land and are no longer using it, the land goes into reversion, in which the Federal Government gives the land to the adjacent property owners.
Like I said, just started digging into this a little, and don’t know all of the details, but if this is true, it means the land that BNSF is trying to sell to the city shouldn’t even be for sale, and some adjacent property owners are about to get a late Christmas gift.
What do you know?